Bumble Bee Conservationist - ONSITE - Minnesota-Wisconsin Ecological Field Services Office (Bloomington, MN)

Location: Bloomington,Minnesota,United States

Start Date: June 29th,  2026 (earlier start date may be available)
End Date: October 18, 2026 (16 weeks from start date)
Compensation: $680 per week;  housing support; assistance with travel costs to site.
Application Due: ASAP or until May 20th, 2026

Environment for the Americas Internship Programs seek to engage young professionals from all backgrounds in natural resource and conservation careers. You must:

• Be a U.S. citizen or legal resident.

• Be between the ages of 18-30 (35 if a veteran)

• Be willing to undergo a background check

• Have a valid driver’s license

* A personal vehicle is optional for this position. 

Position Description: 

In partnership with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the position includes a variety of field and office work opportunities to provide the intern with a diverse breadth of experience that could be applied to future conservation and outreach positions.The intern will focus primarily on bumble bee conservation including bumble bee surveys and monitoring in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area, rare bumble bee literature reviews, and development of outreach products that highlight bumble bee conservation projects. The intern could also participate in bat monitoring locally and at one of the largest known little brown bat maternity colonies (part of the Green Bay National Wildlife Refuge).

The intern will participate in at-risk bumble bee summertime field monitoring and compile data in standardized format. Prior to field work, the intern will participate in a Midwest bumble bee identification course. The intern will also analyze the 2026 “Backyard Bumble Bee Count (BYBBC)” data and will maintain the web interface to encourage public participation in collaborative bumble bee conservation.  Additionally, the intern will populate outreach newsletter(s) developed by a previous intern, to facilitate delivering conservation success stories pertaining to rusty patched bumble bee (RPBB) recovery, including communicating our progress towards answering key science questions and highlighting important conservation and research needs. The intern will also participate in authorship of a scientific paper (in process) highlighting a poorly understood life history aspect of the federally endangered RPBB and assist with an ongoing species status assessment of two other bumble bees under FWS review.  Through this experience, the intern will gain insights into several aspects of endangered species assessments and recovery implementation. 

Work Products:

• Outreach newsletters to facilitate conservation storytelling to diverse audiences. In coordination with the national species recovery lead, prepares the several editions of the newsletter (e.g., retrospective editions).

• Standardized dataset resulting from summer bumble bee field surveys.

• Written report of Back Yard Bumble Bee results, including data analysis to share with public participants.

• Co-author rusty patched bumble bee nest paper (in process). 
  
  

Qualifications:

Relevant majors: Applicants must have a degree in Biology, Ecology, Zoology, Environmental Science, or other similar graduate school or undergraduate school majors. Prefer graduate students or those with a completed undergraduate degree. Current upperclassmen undergraduate students with relevant experience will also be considered. 

• Experience with collecting biological data in the field, data analysis, and familiarity with scientific literature review.  Applicants should be able to use word processing and spreadsheet software (i.e., Word, Excel), and ideally, Arc GIS. 
  
  

This position accrues 640 hours towards PLC.

Public Land Corps Non-Competitive Hiring Authority (PLC)

The Public Land Corps Non-Competitive Hiring Authority is a special hiring authority available to qualifying interns. The intern must be between the ages of 18 and 30 years old, inclusive, or a veteran up to age 35 and complete 640 hours of work on an appropriate conservation project to be eligible for this hiring authority. Upon successful completion of the PLC project(s), the intern is eligible for two years to be hired non-competitively into a federal seasonal, term, or permanent position. The applicant must apply to a PLC-eligible position advertised on USAJobs.gov and selected off a non-competitive certificate of eligibility. For more information, see DOI Personnel Bulletins 11-02 , 12-13, and 17-03.

EEO Statement

Environment for the Americas provides equal employment opportunities to all employees and applicants for employment and prohibits discrimination and harassment of any type without regard to race, color, religion, age, sex, national origin, disability status, genetics, protected veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, or any other characteristic protected by federal, state or local laws.This policy applies to all terms and conditions of employment, including recruiting, hiring, placement, promotion, termination, layoff, recall, transfer, leaves of absence, compensation and training.