Into the Woods

In an alternate universe where the iconic Smokey Bear completed his civil engineering degree, this could have been the memorable subject line of his department-wide email to other facility managers.

But in this universe, Smokey Bear is focused on wildfires, and preventing master planning delays was the goal of a team of highly specialized interns working in the U.S. Department of Agriculture Forest Service Southern Region last summer. Unlike other internships, these interns were not assigned a cubicle, but an entire national forest.

In 2022, the Forest Service’s Southern Region partnered with the Student Conservation Association (SCA), a national nonprofit organization, to establish a seasonal internship program to collect facility data that will help inform future master planning decisions. For more than 65 years, the SCA has fielded teams to address pressing conservation needs such as trail maintenance, habitat restoration, research projects and wildfire prevention. This unique internship offers a look behind the scenes at the essential but often invisible work that FMs, architects and engineers do daily to maintain the built environments and enhance the visitor experience on public lands.

The Forest Service is a major federal land management agency dedicated to sustaining the health, diversity and productivity of forests and grasslands to meet the needs of present and future generations. Guided by a motto of “caring for the land and serving people,” the Forest Service may not be the first organization to come to mind in a conversation about FM. Rather than maintaining one large building or complex campus of buildings, the Forest Service facilities portfolio spans more than 193 million acres from coast to coast and beyond, including a national forest in Puerto Rico.

The Forest Service manages more than 39,000 buildings, totaling more than 29 million square feet. These facilities vary in complexity, size, staffing level and purpose, ranging from simple vault toilets at trailheads, to historic cabins, to modern and energy-efficient administrative and research facilities. Some buildings can be accessed by commuter train; others require a hike into the forest. It is no small job managing such a diverse portfolio, but the agency staff at all levels are dedicated to ensuring that their facilities are safe and accessible for the millions of visitors they receive each year.

The Southern Region of the Forest Service has a long history of successfully mobilizing SCA teams to accomplish work in its national forests. Past projects have focused on more traditional conservation topics such as trail maintenance, forest management and wildfire prevention. This year the Region sought to broaden its relationship with the SCA by establishing an internship rooted in its facilities program. Two of the main driving forces behind this program were the Region’s Facilities Program Manager, David Culp, and Facilities Operations Specialist, Wesley McCall. Collecting field data to satisfy reporting requirements necessitates a lot of staff time, travel and resources. Culp and McCall identified the need for a targeted approach to gathering data that would allow facilities staff to focus on higher level projects.

The Southern Region alone manages more than 4,000 buildings totaling more than 3.5 million square feet, spread across 13 states and Puerto Rico. The dispersed nature of the Region’s facilities portfolio required a program design centered around highly mobile teams that travel from site to site, taking measurements, counts and photographs. This process is an essential facilities portfolio management activity that helps identify region-wide needs, support for national project submittals and guide future funding requests.

The program identified three main goals:

• To perform physical building condition assessments using established procedures, identifying deferred maintenance, taking photographs, calculating quantities of work and recording data in the Forest Service database;
• To collect or verify site data and map coordinates using the ArcGIS tools Survey123 and FieldMaps for facility master planning purposes;
• To create networking and professional development opportunities for the interns.

In its pilot year, a group of eight interns worked in teams of two collecting data for 10 weeks across three states in the Southern Region, including Virginia (George Washington and Jefferson National Forest), Kentucky (Daniel Boone National Forest) and Arkansas (Ozark-St. Francis and Ouachita National Forests).

Before arriving at their respective national forest for the summer, the interns attended two weeks of intensive training delivered by the SCA and Regional Forest Service staff on site at Land Between the Lakes National Recreation Area in Kentucky. Topics included first aid and CPR certification, risk management, outdoor living skills, building condition assessment training, inspection safety, and Forest Service data preparation, collection and entry procedures. The training was designed to teach the interns in a classroom setting, then have them apply what they learned at facilities on site with the support of Forest Service staff. Staff provided the interns with the supplies they would need for the summer, including a complete tool kit, camping equipment, first aid kits, Apple iPads, laptops and an all-wheel-drive vehicle. After training, the interns packed their gear and set out for a season of data collection.

For the next 10 weeks, the interns worked closely with Forest Service staff at the district, forest and regional levels to plan routes, gain access to facilities, ask questions and discuss progress. When they arrived at each site, the interns divided up their responsibilities to work efficiently.

One intern would use their iPad to take photographs, verify GPS coordinates and answer facilities master planning questions in FieldMaps. The other intern would start the building condition assessment, working from the exterior to the interior, capturing maintenance items that needed to be repaired or replaced, taking measurements and calculating the quantity of work.

The interns would later enter this information into the asset tracking system, which helped determine the overall condition of a building based on the amount of work needed. The total cost of deferred maintenance on a building and other site information captured by the interns can inform important master planning decisions. This information could include whether the building is still meeting the needs of the intended users, whether it is no longer needed, or whether the deferred maintenance exceeds its current value and needs to be replaced. Once these decisions are made, the agency can request funding to address the needs at each national forest.

At the end of the season, the interns gathered at the Cherokee National Forest in Cleveland, Tennessee, to return supplies and debrief with the program leadership team. With 2022 being the pilot year, the interns provided extensive feedback on the skills they developed during the summer and how the experience impacted their personal and professional growth.

“Most of the summer was spent out in the forest on our own and that contributed a lot to having a sense of independence. We were able to pick our routes and decide where to start the day and the order of assessments in the area. For me it helped develop confidence in planning and problem solving when limited resources are available.”

- 2022 Ouachita National Forest Intern

 

During the program closeout, a Forest Service recruiter led a virtual career session to discuss future opportunities with the agency and the different paths to federal employment. The interns enjoyed one last team activity together to celebrate their accomplishments: rafting on the Ocoee River.

It is challenging to measure the interns’ experiences this summer. For some, it was their first time in the eastern U.S., their first time working with a federal agency or just their first time seeing the spectacular views from a national forest. When asked to reflect on personal highlights from the season, one intern recalled a memorable moment driving up a mountain to reach the Sugarloaf Tower.

“The drive up was beautiful, it had fields full of flowers and the view at the top of the mountain was phenomenal.”

- 2022 Ozark-St. Francis National Forest Intern

Snapshots such as this one help to tell the story of this team. Working in a national forest meant that driving along a meandering river, hiking or taking a lunch break at a scenic overlook were common occurrences. Between building condition assessments and data entry, there were moments of exploration and reflection that made this internship unique.

Although it may be impossible to attach numbers to experiences, it is slightly easier to estimate the financial impact of this program. The team of eight interns contributed a combined 3,172 hours of service over 12 weeks and gathered data on 1,274 buildings across four national forests. The cumulative deferred maintenance identified by the interns was more than US$70 million – a huge feat. The SCA interns exceeded expectations in their ability to quickly learn Forest Service procedures and software to gather accurate data and complete more assessments than anticipated.

Using modern technology to accomplish what was once done by hand on paper has helped make the process more efficient. The interns gained valuable experience with ArcGIS and got a deep dive into how the Forest Service manages its facilities. Their field experience traveling through an entire national forest created many opportunities for professional networking with local Forest Service staff. One intern who worked at the George Washington and Jefferson National Forest plans to work with the Forest Service Southern Research Station on a wildland fire project in the future because of connections made this summer.

FM internship opportunities to work on public lands can be rare. Partnerships like this between government agencies and nonprofit organizations can provide valuable experiences and connections for young facilities and conservation professionals as they begin their careers. Sometimes a foot in the level, accessible, well-painted, well-sealed and well-secured door is all that is needed.