New Hampshire NRCS Welcomes 5 New Student Conservation Association Interns

November 1, 2008

NRCS will receive support across the state from recent college graduates participating in the Student Conservation Association's (SCA) internship program. With previous interns' work proving a success, the program has expanded to include Soil Conservationist Aides, a Technology intern, and a combined Easement Monitoring and Assistant RC&D Coordinator position.

Past intern Rebecca Kibler has accepted than offer to continue her work as a Programs Assistant for another 12 months. Chris Powles, previously interning as an Assistant RC&D Coordinator, has taken the Technology position, shifting his focus to ecosystem restoration and invasive species mapping.

A new addition to New Hampshire NRCS, Heather Foley will be serving 12 months as a Soil Conservation Aide at the Epping Service Center.
 

As an NRCS SCA intern, Heather is expanding her knowledge to include agricultural concerns by learning how to develop conservation plans, giving conservation technical assistance to landowners, dealing with matters concerning current contracts, and drawing designs for various practices.

Originally from Taunton, MA, Heather is a 2008 graduate from the University of New Hampshire’s (UNH) Environmental Conservation Studies program. Throughout college, Heather had many environmentally-related jobs and internships, including a laboratory technician with a forest ecosystems research group at UNH and an intern with the Environmental Protection Agency’s Office of Air and Radiation in Washington, DC.

Ian Rodgers recently accepted an internship through SCA in the NRCS state office in Durham, New Hampshire. Ian will be working with the program staff as an easement monitoring specialist as well as with the two New Hampshire RC&D councils as an assistant RC&D coordinator. He worked in the Concord field office as a Soil Conservationist Aid during the summers of 2005 and 2006, and was then hired for a WAE appointment. He moved to Montana for the summer of 2008 to work in Glacier National Park.

Ian was born and raised in Rochester, NH and graduated from Spaulding High School in 2003. He attended the University of New Hampshire and graduated in 2008 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Zoology, with a minor focus in Spanish.
 

As a Soil Conservationist Aid with NH NRCS, Robert Park is working on a wide variety of tasks in the Concord field office. Some of these include site visits to landowners with active projects, taking GPS points and photographs track progress, helping the survey crew, and working on the Web Soil Survey to develop soil maps for contracts.

Robert Park is a Korean American who was born in New York City where he lived until moving to New City, New York for high school. Robert attended State University of New York, Cobleskill where he studied for a Bachelors of Science in Plant Science. Robert has many hobbies including cooking, paintball and hiking because he enjoys the outdoors.
 

Working out of the Walpole field office, Conor Bidelspach is taking a large role in the small office helping with conservation planning, taking GPS points, researching to make recommendations for conservation practices, following-up with landowners regarding contract modifications, planning site visits, assisting with surveying, creating a working county profile for resource issues Cheshire and Sullivan counties, as well as helping the
office to organize and clean up files.

Conor received his Bachelors degree in Environmental Science from Oregon State University in the spring of 2008. Through his coursework he grew an interest in ecology and ecosystem restoration. Conor focused his studies on upland prairies, which are among the most endangered ecosystems in Oregon as well as throughout much of the rest of the country because of land conversion for agriculture. Working with NRCS is giving Conor experience with the field of agriculture, while staying connected with his passion for conserving natural environments.
 

As Soil Conservationist Aide, Kelly Rines is working out of the Woodsville and Lancaster field offices. Kelly will be working on conservation plans, mapping, surveying, and assisting with site visits to landowners with current NRCS contracts.

Kelly grew up in Gorham, NH and now resides in nearby Randolph, NH. She attended the University of Maine-Farmington and earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Geography in May 2008.
 

SCA is based in Charlestown, New Hampshire and provides opportunities for students to gain hands-on education and work experience with natural resource agencies throughout the United States.

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