With a tightening budget for our national parks and a $12 billion backlog for maintenance and other projects, student interns and volunteers of all ages and from 
all walks of life have stepped up to fill the void. Since the early 2000s, The Evergreen State College and the National Park Service have placed Evergreen students in important service learning positions at Mount Rainier each summer. Now called the Carolyn Dobbs Mount Rainier Internships after a long-time faculty member and stalwart proponent of federal lands, the interns receive a modest stipend, housing and academic credit for their 13-week stints.
Each spring, I work with park staff to recruit, hire and place the interns. For 2018, two worked as biological technicians on amphibian surveys and a long-term alpine lakes water quality study. A third joined the revegetation crew to help control invasive plants and install natives. Our fourth intern worked at the Paradise Wilderness Information Center, splitting time between issuing climbing permits and patrolling the backcountry. My role as faculty supervisor (although I’m retired) is to help recruit, select and on-board the interns, check on them occasionally during the summer, and oversee their end-of-summer evaluation process. My 2018 intern highlights included a nighttime western toad survey at Tipsoo 
Lake (those eyes shining back at you are crazy spooky!) and an all-day intern field trip in the park that allowed me to share some of my favorite geology and archaeology hot spots.