08 MARCH 2022 | ASHLAND, OR. — A year ago at this time, Tiffani Ayres was wrapping up courses at Ashland High School, and weighing her options for the summer. She applied for an internship in our Wilderness Corps, bidding to be on a trail crew for the summer.
She had zero backpacking experience and hadn’t worked on the trail for an hour of her life. But Ayres came across as motivated. “And though,” says the Club’s executive director. “She came across as being independent and eager.”
Ayres went on to work through the summer of 2021, her boots landing everywhere from California’s Siskiyou Wilderness Area to Oregon’s Rogue-Umpqua Divide. But at the end of the year, she expressed a desire to see more.
“There’s just so much out there to explore,” Ayres said then. “There’s no area too small to explore.”
As a Corps intern, Ayres and her crew mates were getting an educational stipend and a place to camp with laundry and showers for their days off. But after serving her term, Ayres was hungry for more so we hired her onto our staff at $16 an hour. That was for just a few weeks.
Now Ayres will be back as soon as she’s done with spring term at University of Oregon, where she’s a freshman. And this year she’ll have new ground to explore. Ayres and her team will be dispatched to California’s Marble Mountain Wilderness on a project in the Bridge Creek and Johnson Hunting Ground vicinity.
➣ Read more and apply for an internship on the Club’s 2022 Wilderness Corps.
During her first interviews, Ms. Ayres said she didn’t know where she saw herself in a year. But almost a year has gone by, and she’s now on the frontlines of our field program.
Her story illustrates what Howe calls the “scaffolding we’ve created into our workforce.” He says the organization continues to grow. “We have a need to grow our permanent workforce,” he says. “Interning is a great way to get your foot into the door of this industry, whether it’s with us or another group.”
The crew has a higher staff-to-intern ratio than he sometimes sees, Howe adds. “We put a lot of investment into our interns to help them build the skills it takes to succeed.” Ayres is no exception.
She had the opportunity to work underneath crew leaders with multiple years of experience. Now she’s on the path to become one. Crews work eight days at a time from remote project sites that they backpack into. On days off, they participate in group activities with field professionals and go on outdoor adventures. Start dates are May 1, June 5, and June 29.
“This can become an ideal summer job for students,” says Howe, “and for a handful of people, it becomes a career.”
➣ Read more and apply for an internship on the Club’s 2022 Wilderness Corps.
