Hiring 2023 interns to live and work for a summer in the backcountry

10 JANUARY 2023

For Immediate Release: Siskiyou Mountain Club hiring 2023 interns to live and work for a summer in the backcountry..”If we don’t do it, nobody else will…”

ASHLAND, OR. — Siskiyou Mountain Club is hiring Wilderness Corps interns who work a summer from their backpacks in some of the most remote and rugged wilderness areas the Pacific Northwest has to offer. Corps crews load their backpacks up with eight days of food and supplies and pack up to 20 miles into project sites where they work to restore historic trails fading from America’s great backcountry.

Start dates are June 2 and June 26 with terms of 8 to 11 weeks. Interns receive a $1,500 monthly educational stipend paid directly to the participant, a bonus at the end of their term, and the Club provides camping or motel rooms in Ashland, OR during the four off-trail days in between each eight-day work hitch. For the schedule, more information, and to apply, go to siskiyoumountainclub.org/wcc2023.

Interns participate in a 12-hour online course prior to arrival and during off-trail days participate in activities like whitewater rafting, visits to national and state parks, and skills training. 

Jason Makris, a senior at Rollins College in Florida, was a 2022 Corps intern and will be returning in 2023 as a staff member to help lead crews. He says one of his favorite memories is when his crew broke through the last impenetrable section of the 30-mile Illinois River National Recreation Trail that connects the rural Oregon communities of Agness and Selma. 

“That trail wouldn’t be open without us,” says Makris. “We weren’t sure we could do it but we pulled through.” Makris spent his summer hiking into remote wilderness where trails are most likely to be in shambles. “Being part of the corps program changed my view regarding service. I realized that if we don’t do it, nobody else will,” Makris reflects. “I can’t just sit on my hands.”

Over the last 10 years, some 55 interns have worked through the Club’s summer-long crash course in backcountry trail restoration, and each year a handful of them, like Makris, return in staff positions to help lead the next season’s crew. Wilderness Corps crews dispatch to the nonprofit’s most remote and ambitious trail assignments. 

Corps interns don’t need prior experience or a high-school diploma, says the Club’s executive director, Gabriel Howe. “They need drive and determination,” he says. “Anyone with the will and a baseline level of fitness can do it.”He does point out interns must be 18 or over by their start date.

Makris says he liked to “be able to immediately see the results of my work” and he has some advice for the 2023 interns who he will help train and mentor: “It’s definitely not going to be easy, but you get out what you put into it.” 

For high resolution images or quotes, see contact information on header. Other jobs are posted at siskiyoumountainclub.org/jobs/.

The Club’s Corps program is financed by private donations matched by grants and agreements administered by the USDA Forest Service which are funded by the Great American Outdoors Act and the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. 

We are an equal opportunity employer. All aspects of employment including the decision to hire, promote, discipline, or discharge, will be based on merit, competence, performance, and business needs. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, marital status, age, national origin, ancestry, physical or mental disability, medical​​​ condition, pregnancy, genetic information, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity or ​expression, veteran status, or any other status protected under federal, state, or local law. 

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