2026 Internship Opportunities

This project will establish four 1-hectare permanent forest plots at The Watershed Institute (Hopewell, NJ) to monitor forest structure, carbon stocks, and their contribution to ecosystem carbon fluxes. These plots will form a long-term ecological monitoring network following GEOTrees protocol, enabling comparisons with similar plots worldwide. The data collected will serve as a foundation for future research on forest dynamics, biodiversity, and carbon cycling, and will directly support The Watershed Institute’s mission to advance environmental stewardship through science, conservation, and education.

This initiative also aims to provide a hands-on research experience for Princeton students interested in ecology, climate science, and environmental data collection.

Under the supervision of Dr. Matteo Detto, students will participate in the establishment of the forest plots. Their main tasks will include:

• Mapping and tagging all trees ≥10 cm in diameter using GPS and spatial survey methods.
• Measuring diameter at breast height (DBH), identifying species, and recording tree condition.
• Assisting with data entry, quality control, and preliminary data analysis.
• Contributing to field reports and summaries that will form the baseline for long-term forest monitoring.

By participating in this internship, students will:

• Gain field-based research experience in forest ecology, learning standard methods for forest inventory and long-term ecosystem monitoring.
• Develop technical skills in species identification, tree measurement, GPS mapping, and ecological data collection following international protocols (GEOTrees / ForestGEO)
• Understand the role of forests in the global carbon cycle, including how tree structure and species composition influence carbon storage and ecosystem function.
• Learn data management and analysis techniques, including quality control, data entry, and preliminary statistical summaries.
• Enhance scientific communication skills by contributing to written reports, data summaries, and discussions of ecological findings.
• Appreciate the importance of long-term ecological research and its applications for conservation, climate change science, and watershed management.

Prior Tree species identification and survey technique skills preferred but both are not required.

Summers in New Jersey can be hot. Minimal hiking, but spending much of the day in the forest.

Tape diameter, GPS unit, compass, notebook.

• If you like outdoor activities, this is the project for you.
• Students will meet with internship mentors in the spring, prior to the internship start date. Reading materials may also be suggest like identification06 of trees in the East Coast.
• Students are responsible for securing accommodations for the duration of their internship. On-campus summer housing is typically available the first week of June until the first week of August (details to become available in Spring 2026). If the internship falls outside of on-campus housing availability, students will need to secure alternate housing.