Internship

Freshwater Stewardship Education Intern

Watersheds Canada


  Posted: April 27, 2021

  Location: Perth and surrounding areas, ON

  Internship Program: ImpAct

  Salary Range: $10,000 - $20,000

  Hours per Week: 35

  Start Date: July 10, 2023

  End Date: October 27, 2023

Job Description

The intern will join the Watersheds Canada team to lead the development and implementation of climate change mitigation and sustainable shoreline planning projects that will accelerate our impact to serve freshwater groups, nature organizations, individuals, and youth, and meet our mission to protect Canada's freshwater. The Intern is responsible for the planning and delivery of projects and education resources to build capacity of municipalities, families, waterfront and community groups, and individuals to take action to protect and enhance their local freshwater and shoreline areas.

Through this position, the Intern will deliver technology-based projects including the Freshwater Stewardship Community and Planning for our Shorelands Program, and outreach programs including Nature Discovery Programming. The Intern will be responsible for developing and delivering technology- and science-grounded outreach projects for the general public to utilize to prevent and eliminate possible degradation of the terrestrial and aquatic environment in their community and on their properties.

This role focuses on protecting the environment and advancing nature-based processes to have positive environmental outcomes for Canada’s freshwater. The Intern will be crucial in providing resources and tools to stakeholders like shoreline property owners and municipalities and giving them concrete steps to take action for their freshwater in the wake of climate change impacts and increased degradation of freshwater areas. The Intern will implement environmental protection and sustainable shoreline planning projects that will accelerate Watersheds Canada’s impact to serve freshwater groups, nature organizations, individuals, and youth. This position will include extensive scientific research, content creation, outreach events, and preparing reports and infographics.

Duties and Responsibilities

The successful applicant will contribute to the stewardship and outreach work at Watersheds Canada by raising awareness of water stewardship principles and the importance of nature-based climate change solutions to protect the health of Canada’s lakes, rivers, wetlands, and shorelines. This includes a focus on programs that are equitable in creation and delivery, and ensuring that economic growth and shoreland development is done in a sustainable manner with nature in mind.

The Intern’s duties and responsibilities include:
• Ensure the conservation, restoration, and sustainable use of terrestrial and inland freshwater ecosystems and their services by writing compelling original educational content including blog posts, lesson plan creation, activity sheets, design work for reporting and infographics, press releases, newsletters, fact sheets, social media posts, and more.
• Assist with maintenance of social media and websites and preparing analytic reports.
• Perform media and fundraising research, identifying new media opportunities.
• Use NationBuilder to engage with existing contacts and add data as required.
• Keep all lists up to date and work with staff to create content to engage individuals, businesses and foundations for financial support and project partnerships, including reports, letters of intent, and more.
• Use strong scientific research skills to conduct literature reviews.
• Help organize and deliver online workshops and presentations on our programs.
• Represent the project, the proponent, and partners at online and in-person environmental events.
• Promote our program and engage new stakeholders in shoreline education projects.
• Facilitate community knowledge sharing and create science-supported documents to integrate ecosystem and biodiversity values into local municipality planning.
• Improve education and individual knowledge capacity on nature-based solutions to reduce freshwater health impacts and increase adaptation to climate change impacts.
• Conduct research into sustainable development practices based on earth sciences (water resources, geology, and the interaction between land and water).
• Perform other duties assigned.

Knowledge and Skills

Watersheds Canada recognizes that all candidates may not have all of these knowledge and skills. We encourage applicants who possess many of the following to still submit their application for consideration.
• Excellent English written and oral communication. French bilingualism is an asset.
• A demonstrated knowledge and passion of Canadian freshwater issues and protection.
• Previous field work/lab experience/research/non-profit experience an asset.
• A knowledge of the UN Sustainable Development Goals.
• Comfortable with public speaking and engagement of the public.
• Comfortable disseminating complex scientific principles into understandable terms.
• Experience with Wordpress, various social media platforms, Canva, Google Suite, Adobe, Microsoft Office, and Zoom.
• Proven multi-tasking skills in a fast-paced environment, completing projects within time constraints and with changing deadlines.
• Ability to work both independently and in a team environment.
• Proven high level of motivation and initiative.
• Original content creation experience, such as lesson plans, handouts, video series, and social media posts.
• High attention to detail for data entry and generating reports.
• Ability to work independently. A self-motivator.
• Valid driver’s license and access to a vehicle an asset.

Education Required

BSc in environmental science, communications, policy, or a related field

Certification Required

Valid G license, clean driving record

  How to Apply

To apply, send your resume to info@watersheds.ca.

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All current staff members of Intervale have gotten their start through this internship program. If it were not for this program, Intervale would not have been able to provide employment to young people from rural communities of Newfoundland and Labrador.

Kathleen Blanchard
Intervale Associates Inc.


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