Lawrence Bellis GIS Water Quality Internship

Overview: Six Rivers Land Conservancy has secured one year of funding through Community Foundation of Greater Rochester to build a complete GIS-based inventory of Six Rivers' protected land portfolio, using the Water Quality Tool developed with HRC Engineering and, as it comes online, its companion carbon model. This is intended as the founding internship in an ongoing relationship between Six Rivers and Oakland University, not a one-off placement. 

Core Responsibilities: 

• Run every property in Six Rivers' protected land portfolio (as well as new properties as assigned) through the Water Quality Tool, creating reports for each property that identify nitrogen, phosphorus, BOD, and sediment prevention outputs and flood storage capacity. 
• Aggregate individual property results into watershed-level and organization-wide summary reports, as well as other combinations as assigned. 
• Build a reusable rollup template so staff can generate custom reports on demand — for example, all easements and preserves within a given township, county, or other boundary — without rebuilding the process from scratch.
• Apply the carbon model to the same portfolio inventory once HRC finalizes and signs off on the methodology. 
• Run the acquisition/prospect backlog through both models to support land protection prioritization decisions.
• Provide GIS and mapping support for the Sustainability Metrics Committee and sponsor-facing materials — outputs that sponsors can cite in their own sustainability or ESG reporting. 
• As time allows, support the sustainability sponsorship program more broadly, potentially including early groundwork for the facility footprint correlation concept (historical aerial imagery plus soils data) — scoped in only if capacity permits after the core portfolio inventory is on track. 
• Document methods and outputs clearly enough that a future intern or staff member can continue the work without starting over. 

Qualifications: 

• Coursework or demonstrated proficiency in GIS and use of ArcGIS Pro.
• Coursework in environmental science, natural resources, geography, planning, or a related field.
• Comfortable working independently against a defined scope, with periodic technical check-ins from HRC rather than daily supervision.
• Careful, methodical, and documentation-minded — this inventory is built to outlive the internship.
• Prior exposure to watershed, water quality, or land conservation work is a plus, not a requirement.

Duration, Structure, and Logistics

Funded for one academic year through Community Foundation of Greater Rochester.  Technical direction for the position will be provided by HRC Engineering. Organization supervision will be provided by Six Rivers Land Conservancy.

Compensation: $20/hr, anticpate 12 hrs/week for 30 weeks 

Weekly hours, semester structure, and for-credit/capstone eligibility are set by Oakland University's program parameters and are not finalized as of this draft — candidate is responsible for establishing any of these outcomes if desired.  

There is room to extend this internship, or add a second track, specifically targeted at the sustainability sponsorship pursuit — pending additional funding beyond this first year.