by Mt. Adams Institute | Jul 23, 2019 | VetsWork
United States Army to United States Forest Service thanks to the VetsWork program of the Mt. Adams Institute. My name is Keoni and I am serving on the Malheur National Forest at the Prairie City Ranger District as a recreation technician. One month down and my only...
by Mt. Adams Institute | Jul 23, 2019 | VetsWork
Since I started working for the Malheur National Forest through the VetsWork program, I have had many different experiences and have learned new skills. One day, we were called out to assess a bridge that had been flooded due to a large sinkhole, which formed during...
by Mt. Adams Institute | Jul 23, 2019 | VetsWork
My experiences thus far have been amazing. I have had the opportunity to be involved in a multifaceted overview of the Forest Service and what it has to offer. My daily job entails the collection and management of site reports, contract reports, and Forest...
by Mt. Adams Institute | Jul 23, 2019 | VetsWork
Hey everyone, I’m really excited to fill you in on the past two months of my AmeriCorps VetsWork internship. As you may have read in my bio, I am working in the Chattahoochee-Oconee National Forest in Northwest Georgia. It has been an incredible experience so far...
by Mt. Adams Institute | Jul 23, 2019 | VetsWork
Nestled in the Eastern slopes of the Allegheny Mountains, the Warm Springs/ James River Ranger District on the George Washington and Jefferson National Forests experiences spring in spectacular fashion. I arrived in Bath County in early March. On my first day, my...
by Mt. Adams Institute | Jul 23, 2019 | VetsWork
Hello, my name is Christina Passafaro and I am working on the Sumter National Forest in Mountain Rest, South Carolina as the volunteer coordinator. I’ll be doing this position for ten months through the VetsWork AmeriCorps program that Mt. Adams Institute...
by Mt. Adams Institute | Jul 23, 2019 | VetsWork
My first six weeks as an Off-Highway Vehicle (OHV) VetsWork intern have been AWESOME! I have been taught more new skills than I can think of. Here’s a short list of the top few I have enjoyed the most: bucking and basic chainsaw training, using a gas drill,...
by Mt. Adams Institute | Jul 23, 2019 | VetsWork
Getting warmed up and accustomed to the new work environment here in Crescent has been a very valuable learning lesson and a great step in the direction of feeling confident and cable in the Forest Service. In just the couple months that I have been in my new...
by Mt. Adams Institute | Jul 23, 2019 | VetsWork
I think that everyone in the lower 48 states has an idea of what Alaska is like or all about. First things that jump to my mind are moose, glaciers, vast expanse of forest and the odd off/on structure of daylight throughout the year. Basically anything outdoorsy or...
by Mt. Adams Institute | Jul 22, 2019 | VetsWork
I met Staff Sergeant Robert Paul in the cab of a dusty 998 model Humvee near Baghdad, Iraq in 2004. I had just joined up with a new forward operating civil affairs team as a driver and a gunner. It was March 3…it was 98 degrees; Ramadan had ended the month prior and...
by Mt. Adams Institute | Jan 14, 2019 | Field Notes, VetsWork
Mt. Adams Institute (MAI) is happy to announce Elamon White, VetsWork AmeriCorps alum, has been selected as The Corps Network’s 2019 Corpsmember of the Year! Each year, The Corps Network (TCN), a national association of service and conservation corps, selects a...
by Mt. Adams Institute | Nov 14, 2018 | VetsWork
My name is Matthew Blees. I grew up in a small town of rural Pennsylvania. I have always loved hiking, fishing and anything that would bring me outdoors. I’m retired from the United States Navy. I started college working towards a computer science degree, and was...
by Mt. Adams Institute | Nov 14, 2018 | VetsWork
Hey everyone, Brandon Mersich here with my last blog update on the Malheur National Forest AmeriCorps position. The end of the internship is almost here. The snow is starting to fly, and I am trying to finish all my projects before I take off. On the forest, I have...
by Mt. Adams Institute | Nov 14, 2018 | VetsWork
My experience as an intern working with Mt. Adams Institute has been excellent. The amount of exposure I got working in the Umatilla National Forest was kind of overwhelming…in a great way. There are so many career paths in the Forest Service. I never imagined how...
by Mt. Adams Institute | Nov 14, 2018 | VetsWork
“Since February I’ve been working hand in hand with Kraig Lindelin, who is the Trails and Wilderness Coordinator for the Central Coast Ranger District out of Waldport, OR. We’re rangers in the Siuslaw National Forest on Oregon’s Pacific coast, covering 126 miles of...
by Mt. Adams Institute | Nov 14, 2018 | VetsWork
Hello my name is Serena Sue Barto and I am currently serving a VetsWork: Environment internship as a Fire/Logistics Dispatcher at the Illinois Interagency Dispatch Center in Murphysboro, Illinois on the Shawnee National Forest. It all started one night when sleep...
by Mt. Adams Institute | Nov 12, 2018 | Land Stewards
I recently had a lengthy conversation with my Dad about the future; my plans for it, my goals and expectations. I told him I was planning on staying in the Methow Valley for the winter and was applying for 2019 seasonal positions with the U.S. Forest Service (USFS) in...
by Mt. Adams Institute | Oct 10, 2018 | Land Stewards
We are entering our final month of the Public Lands Stewards program and I am stunned at how quickly the time has gone. I remember my first few weeks, when I was still getting my footing and there was still snow on the ground. Now there is snow once again, but it is...
by Mt. Adams Institute | Oct 10, 2018 | Land Stewards
On one of our very first patrol trips, my partner Emma and I headed up to the Pyramid Mountain Trail. You access the trailhead via Shady Pass, a steep, gravel road that takes you from my home district, Entiat, up over the mountains and down the other side to the...
by Mt. Adams Institute | Oct 9, 2018 | Land Stewards
September cast a sharp visible distinction on the color wheel of the alpine basin where I’ve spent a good portion of my time as a Wilderness trails ranger intern for the Chelan Ranger District. Fields of bear grass in the meadows above Lyman Lake slim their bulbous...
by Mt. Adams Institute | Oct 2, 2018 | VetsWork
Floods are typically seen as a temporary event that can cause little to severe change in an environment. Some damage may only be temporary up to a couple days or weeks, while others last seasonally, and others cause much more invasive and permanent changes. As waters...
