CMC students intern with USDA Forest Service

During the fall 2021 semester, the third cohort of seven interns selected for Colorado Mountain College’s program with the USDA Forest Service began their two-year paid internships with the Rocky Mountain Land Management Internship program. Student interns from CMC Steamboat Springs, Leadville and Spring Valley at Glenwood Springs are now conducting research on the Medicine Bow-Routt National Forests and the White River National Forest with college faculty and Forest Service staff. Among other tasks, the group employs standard forest inventory methods to assess tree and stand health.

Ben Suddendorf, CMC visual media photographer joined a group of CMC interns, faculty and Forest Service staff late last fall on the Medicine Bow-Routt National Forests near Steamboat Springs as they took tree core samples, measured trees to determine their carbon storage and other factors and classified soil samples among other readings.

Featured CMC faculty, students, alumni and Forest Service staff:

• Erica Dickerman, Forest Service mountain sports ranger and intern program co-lead with Roger Poirier, recreation staff officer for the White River National Forest
• Allison Lawrence, B.A., sustainability studies, CMC Steamboat Springs, and CMC/Forest Service intern graduate, and current Forest Service staff
• Kayla Martinez, CMC Steamboat sustainability studies student and CMC/Forest Service intern
• Rachel Santi, CMC Steamboat sustainability studies student and CMC/Forest Service intern
• Nathan Stewart, CMC Steamboat sustainability studies associate professor and program director of the Rocky Mountain Land Management Internship program