Zola Carlyle inched her way into the cool South Santiam River and enjoyed a brief swim before beginning to search for macroinvertebrates. It was just another “work day” for her.
Carlyle, a Class of 2024 Sweet Home graduate, has been spending her summer exploring a variety of career paths during an internship opportunity through South Santiam Watershed Council and United States Forest Service Sweet Home Ranger District.
While the day on the river was more of a fun, snorkeling day than actual work, Carlyle and other members of the SSWC took the opportunity to search for species living in the waters.
This is the second year SSWC and the Forest Service have offered an internship program for high school students, providing an opportunity for those interested in exploring natural resource careers. The aim of the program is to provide valuable resume-building experiences before students pursue post-secondary or trade school education.
Carlye plans to attend Linn-Benton Community College this year to earn an associate degree in biology before transferring to Oregon State University for a degree in marine biology. Applying for the internship, she said, seemed like a natural path to pursue.
“I love swimming a lot, and I love water and fish,” she said.
The eight-week program runs late June through mid-August. Forest Service employees work with the SSWC Watershed Education Coordinator to create a summer schedule with each week focused on a different career path in natural resources. Working alongside Forest Service staff, the interns gain exposure to various fields, including archaeology, botany, silviculture, engineering, timber management, aquatics and recreation.
“For botany we did a lot of weed work,” Carlyle said. “We did a lot of going out and surveying places for invasive species and mapping them and pulling them. Lots of hiking through the woods.”
Among a variety of tasks she participated in, Carlyle learned sales layout through the timber department, and for the recreation department she helped check signage throughout the campsites and trail heads. The work gave a small taste of several fields in natural resources.
“I’m mostly like a pair of hands to be put to use, and they’re telling me all the stuff I need to know about it,” she explained. “I’ll ask questions about their jobs.”
She particularly enjoyed the botany division.
“I like plant ID,” she said. “I love being able to tell what a plant is by looking at it. I like doing that with anything, really; like animals, plants, rocks.”
The SSWC hires two to three interns per year and alerts area high schools when applications are being accepted.
“It’s been really fun,” Carlyle said. “It’s been really cool getting to meet everyone that’s an expert in their field.”