Traditional Trades Advancement Program (TTAP) – Landscape Stewardship Corps – Marsh-Billings-Rockefeller National Historical Park

INTERNSHIP POSITION DETAILS: American Conservation Experience, a nonprofit dedicated to providing rewarding environmental service opportunities, seeks young adults interested in exploring the Traditional Trades in partnership with the National Park Service. Learn and advance your horticulture skills to become the next leaders in managing historic landscapes in our National Parks!

The Traditional Trades Advancement Program-Landscape Stewardship Corps intern will work alongside professional horticulturists and arborists at Marsh Billings Rockefeller National Historical Park to care for historic landscapes in Woodstock, VT, learning about plant and cultural landscape maintenance skills. No background or previous experience in horticulture or historic preservation is necessary. A 26-week commitment is required.

For more information about the National Park Service’s Traditional Trades Advancement Program (TTAP) – Landscape Stewardship Corps please visit: https://www.nps.gov/orgs/1098/learning-services.htm

For more information the American Conservation Experience please visit:  www.usaconservation.org

LOCATION: Nestled among the rolling hills of eastern-central Vermont, the Marsh Billings Rockefeller National Historical Park tells the story of conservation in the United States and the evolving nature of land stewardship in America. The park is named for George Perkins Marsh, one of the nation’s first global environmental thinkers, who grew up on the property, and for Frederick Billings, an early conservationist who established a progressive dairy farm and professionally managed forest on the former Marsh farm. Laurance and Mary Rockefeller  continued this conservation ethic here and in other national parks around the country. Over twenty miles of carriage roads and trails link historic buildings, gardens, meadows, the oldest scientifically managed forest in the country, and even well-preserved nuclear fallout shelters. The Stewardship Institute, dedicated to exploring new avenues of conservation leadership and practice within the National Park Service, is also in the park. 

Marsh-Billings-Rockefeller National Historical Park is in the historic New England village of Woodstock, Vermont (population 3000) about twenty minutes from the larger communities of White River Junction, VT (14 miles) and Hanover, NH (20 miles), the home of Dartmouth College. Saint-Gaudens National Historical Park is located twenty miles away in Cornish, New Hampshire. For more information about this park, visit www.nps.gov/mabi .  

POSITION RESPONSIBILITIES: Working in conjunction with a dynamic, skilled, and motivated team of gardeners and arborists from both Marsh Billings Rockefeller and Saint-Gaudens National Historical Park, the Intern will experience the full range of behind-the-scenes preservation and maintenance activities necessary in managing a nationally significant historic landscape. 

• Monday-Friday, 7:00 am to 3:30 pm work schedule; 1 week a month working at Saint-Gaudens National Historical Park
• Flower garden maintenance including planting, watering, dead heading, weeding, fertilizing, flower arranging, assisting with bedding plant selection and layout
• Hedge, shrub, turf, and tree care including pruning, mulching, fertilizing, watering, and pest management
• Waterfall and lily pond garden care
• Small engine maintenance
• Assist gardener with diagnosis of plant nutrition and pest control needs
• Carriage Road and trail maintenance
• Historic apple tree pruning, with potential to learn fruit tree grafting skills
• Heritage tree care

BENEFITS:

• A weekly stipend of $720
• Free housing at the park
• $1,000 in professional development funds for training, networking, and/or conferences
• Training historic cultural landscape management and maintenance including plant care, pruning, vegetation identification, and other topics
• Week-long in-person training for full Landscape Stewardship Corps at NPS site with travel/meal expenses covered
• Professional networking opportunities
• Public Land Corps Hiring Authority

POSITION REQUIREMENTS: TTAP-Landscape Stewardship Corps requires candidates to:

• Learn and work as part of a team in positive and productive ways
• Strictly adhere to NPS and ACE equipment training, certification, and safety protocols
• Have a strong interest in history, horticulture and/or the environment and working outdoors
• Participate in NPS’s Landscape Stewardship Corps’ week-long in-person training (June 2024)
• Be a U.S. citizen or lawful permanent resident
• Be 18-30 years old at time of service (veterans up to 35 years old)
• Have a High School Diploma/GED
• Pass fingerprint-based FBI, state criminal, and a national sex offender check
• Be able to provide proof of a driver’s license and complete an MVR check
• Local candidates are encouraged to apply, but being local is not required
• To learn more about eligibility requirements, please visit our website https://www.usaconservation.org/epic/#eligibility-requirements.

WORK ENVIRONMENT: Caring for historic cultural landscapes in National Parks will require working outdoors for extended periods of time in possibly rough terrain, or in periods of heat or cold.  Insects may bite and wildlife is not always predictable. There is poison ivy. Certain landscape tools require manual dexterity, and interns should be able to lift up to 50 pounds.  National Parks are public spaces and positive visitor interaction is expected.