Employment Opportunities
Seasonal Seed Crew positions are now open!
We are hiring a Seed Collection Crew Lead and up to two Seed Collection Crew Members. Our seed collection crew works to collect seed from native
plants from a variety of habitats around the Coos River watershed. These
seeds are used for the revegetation of ecological restoration projects.
Crew members can expect to work outdoors daily, sometimes in rough or wet
terrain, on project sites within a 50-mile radius of Coos Bay.
Employment dates: June 15 – August 27, 2026 for Crew Members; Crew Lead will go to October 1, 2026, with the possibility of extension.
Deadline to apply: Tuesday, June 2, 2026, by 5 PM
To Apply: Submit cover letter (include start date availability), résumé, and contact information for three references to admin@cooswatershed.org. Review of applications will begin as they are received. Please include in the subject line of the email the position that you are applying for: “Seed Collection Crew Lead.”
Summer youth crew positions are now open!
Are you between the age of 16-24?
Want to spend the summer working outside and getting paid for meaningful work?
Apply for the 2026 Summer Youth Crew!
This is a great way to explore the field of natural resources, make a difference in your community, and get some solid work experience.
Employment dates: June 15-August 20
Deadline to apply: May 26 by 5pm
Apply here: https://forms.gle/mUEPdf8kfRhFdqgi7 (if you’d like a hard copy, reach out to admin@cooswatershed.org, or stop by the CoosWA office at 381 N 2nd St, Coos Bay).
Seeking Summer Salmon Interns!
Help us with our summer salmon monitoring efforts!
Interns will seine pools in the Willanch and Palouse Basins to collect, count, measure, and microchip fish.
Season lasts from early-mid June to Late August. Some sites require hiking 1.5 miles over difficult terrain carrying 20-30 lbs of gear.
Academic credit and $1,500 stipend available.
Applicant must have reliable vehicle for transport.
For more
info, click on the Academic Credit and Work Experience links below, or reach
out to ahansen@cooswatershed.org.
Internship dates: mid-June to late August
Deadline to apply: May 22
Choose a path
We offer two pathways here for our interns. Our Academic Credit Opportunity offers college students a chance to turn their work experience into academic credit for their hours worked on the LCM project. Internship hours take place within a school academic term. Our Work Experience Opportunity is for any growing professional looking to gain experience in this field of study, and the dates have more flexibility. Read more about each pathway above!
Questions? Email ahansen@cooswatershed.org.
Why complete an internship with CoosWA?
The Coos Watershed Association is a dynamic watershed council working to improve habitat in the Coos basin for Coho salmon. A crucial part in working to recover this species is the Life Cycle Monitoring (LCM) program that collects data on the Coho population in the Coos watershed. The long-time LCM program has largely been successful through the sustained support of interns. In addition to being a vital component of the LCM program, internships offer applicable work experience and references for beginning a career in the natural resource field.
Background info on the Coho Life Cycle Monitoring Program
We have three seasons for internship opportunities, which target different stages of Coho life histories in our freshwater system. The seasons and application dates are below, and applications are reviewed on a rolling basis as they are received.
**When funding is available, we offer $1,500 stipends to our interns.
Summer Season (June-September): As the days lengthen and streams warm, the CoosWA monitoring program pivots to seining: the process of wading through cool creeks on hot days to catch, measure and microchip parr and smolt salmon spending their first summer in the Coos Basin! Applications must be submitted by the second week of May.
Fall/Winter (November-February): When the rain starts and the adult salmon make their return to Coos rivers, our team surveys over 6 miles of spawning grounds to count spawners and redds, and collect biological samples from fish. Applications must be submitted by the second week of October.
Spring Season (March-May): As the streams begin to drop and smolts begin to migrate out to the ocean, we deploy our smolt traps to catch (or re-capture), measure, and microchip fish to track their movements out of the system. Applications must be in by the first week of February.
