Cahaba River Society hosted ten interns in 2024. Environmental causes need various skills and expertise, and we have internships for people of all interests and abilities. This year, we were pleased to host undergraduate and graduate students from Auburn, Alabama, Sewanee, SUNY Binghamton, Richmond, UAB, Samford, and Miles College.

Interns are critical to the success of our programs. We provide students and young professionals opportunities to explore their interests in conservation and nonprofit work. Many former interns have gone on to important scientific work and nonprofit leadership roles.

Funding the Intern Program

The success of the intern program depends on significant funding. We pay our interns a fair wage unless they are involved in programs that make other provisions, and we incur substantial administrative costs managing and coordinating the intern program for their and Cahaba River Society’s benefit.

We were able to host this year’s interns with the support of Little Garden Club of Birmingham and other generous donors. Thank you for enabling Cahaba River Society to benefit from working with these talented individuals and providing opportunities for future environmental movement leaders.

Interns Help us Fulfill our Mission

Environmental Education

Interns work with Cahaba River Society Education Director La’Tanya Scott, leading school groups in CLEAN (Conservation Leadership through Educational Activities in Nature) stream walks and other outdoor education activities. The interns help us meet demand during the peak season and gain valuable experience leading students through hands-on environmental education programs.

Environmental Stewardship, Restoration, and Recreation

Cahaba River Society’s interns are instrumental in helping us host school groups on stewardship projects and plan and run volunteer mobilization projects and recreation trips. They also used their expertise to help us build recreational maps, clean GIS databases, scout areas for future cleanups, and explore creeks, trails, and river stretches to find new recreational trip routes and places of interest.

Library Organization and Archiving

After 30 years of working in the same space, you accumulate numerous items, including everything from sentimental treasures to garbage we can’t even identify. In 2024, we initiated a project to organize our archives and storage. This project was a success thanks to the efforts of Haley Rice, a Library Sciences major at the University of Alabama. Her expertise in archiving and long-term document storage were incredibly helpful.

Community Action

Interns were invaluable in enabling community action initiatives and helping us engage with communities throughout the watershed. One intern created a list of stormwater contacts in the municipalities on and near the Cahaba River, documenting their stormwater websites and contact information. This information enables us to communicate and coordinate with municipalities when needs arises.

Science and Research

Sparrow Womack, from the University of the South in Sewanee, wrote a white paper on the effects of rising temperatures on game fish in the Cahaba River. Her work documents information that is useful to recreational anglers and improves our understanding of the river ecosystem.

Communications

Dorris Belle, a student at UAB, worked with Cahaba River Society’s communications team to design and post on social media to keep our members and community up to date on important issues affecting the river.

Collaboration with Universities

In addition to our intern program, we partner with student groups on various projects. A group from UAB is researching best management practices for riverside development and comparing them with current active policies and restrictions in municipalities throughout the upper Cahaba River watershed. These groups expand our capabilities by providing background research on topics relevant to our work. Other student groups have joined us for service projects removing invasive species, implementing erosion control, working on trails, and other reforestation efforts.