Last updated: February 25, 2025
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Scientists in Parks
Sixty-nine interns at 75 parks help address climate resilience with sound science

NPS
“We are a federal agency, but we can only do so much with our own employees,” says Kiersten Jarvis, who manages Scientists in Parks for the National Park Service (NPS). “With these internships, we are now increasing our capacity” by taking action on the ground to increase the parks’ resilience to climate change.
Furthermore, Jarvis says, the program cultivates “the next generation of park stewards” by mentoring the interns, whose skills range from entry level to advanced.

NPS / Melissa De Leon
De Leon and McKay have been live-trapping small mammals (think chipmunks, mice, squirrels), checking them for fleas, vaccinating them against the plague so they will not transmit it to pika, and releasing them.
De Leon is a Scientist in Parks (SIP) intern. SIP is a partnership among the NPS, Stewards Individual Placements, the Ecological Society of America, and the Geological Society of America.
“Without the Scientists in Parks Program, there would not be room or a spot for me to do the research that I care about,” says De Leon. “I've been doing small mammal work now for like, three years, and so this was just a great opportunity for me to do that next level of the disease work and potentially train crew members how to handle animals.”
McKay is a Mosaics in Science (MIS) intern. MIS is administered by the NPS Natural Resource Stewardship and Science Directorate through the Scientists in Parks Program and the NPS Youth Programs Division in partnership with Environment for the Americas. MIS provides youth people who are under-represented in natural resource science career fields with on-the-ground, science-based work experience.
“I grew up in Los Angeles, away from the ocean and many green spaces. Lassen is only the second national park I have been to,” says McKay. “I have learned a plethora of new field methodologies. The entire project is greatly out of my comfort zone. I have a degree in marine science and had no previous animal-handling experience. I am so grateful MIS and Lassen Volcanic National Park selected me, giving me the opportunity to explore an entirely new field.”
Scientists in Parks is one of five youth and young adult programs supported by the Inflation Reduction Act that help fortify NPS sites in the face of a changing climate. The other four are the Community Volunteer Ambassador Climate Cohort, the Landscape Stewardship Corps, the YMCA Partnership, and the Pacific Islands Conservation Corps.

NPS / Hannah Thomas