Food Forest Maintenance Internship

The Opportunity

Boston Food Forest Coalition is seeking a dedicated and passionate Food Forest Maintenance Intern to join our team in Boston, MA. This is a part-time, in-person internship position designed for individuals with a foundational understanding of permaculture and a commitment to ecological agriculture and community engagement.

The Intern will play a hands-on role in the care and maintenance of our food forests, applying permaculture techniques, managing pests ecologically, and maintaining on-site systems like irrigation and hardscape. This role offers the opportunity to facilitate volunteer workdays and contribute to the codification of food forest care practices, directly supporting our mission to build healthy, productive urban ecosystems.

The ideal candidate is passionate about ecological agriculture and has a foundational understanding of permaculture techniques, as demonstrated by at least 1 year of relevant experience. Our ideal intern is action-oriented, an excellent organizer, and a creative problem-solver with strong attention to detail and the capacity to manage their time effectively. A dedication to diversity, equity, and inclusion, along with an ability to engage and facilitate volunteer workdays, is essential to directly support our mission to build healthy, productive urban ecosystems.

The intern will be a crucial part of building and maintaining a community that is building climate resilience in Boston. This position provides a pathway to professional growth in community engagement, environmental stewardship, and administrative support within a dynamic, mission-driven organization.

Responsibilities

Food Forest Care

• Regularly conduct permaculture/agriculture techniques on food forests, including:
  • Pest management of trees & plants (ecological methods)
  • Replacement plantings
  • Building healthy guilds to support fruiting plants
  • On-site composting systems
• Conduct maintenance and repair of:
  • Path maintenance & edging
  • Hardscape structures
  • Irrigation and water capture systems
• Facilitate landscaping and maintenance-based food forest workdays with volunteers
• Generate steward learning resources by codifying food forest care practices into written and video formats

Diagnose, Measure, and Plan

• Support the annual update of plant map assessments and plant tags
• Support the development of the plant database

General Program Support

• Take notes at weekly site coordination meetings

Required Qualifications

• At least 1 year of experience (paid or volunteer) with demonstrated success in the field of permaculture, ecological agriculture, agroecology, and/or food forest maintenance.
• Demonstrated commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion.
• Action-oriented with strong creativity and problem-solving skills
• Excellent organizational skills and capacity to prioritize and manage time well, with strong attention to detail.
• Familiar with using web browsers and Google Suite tools (Gmail, Google Docs, Google Sheets), or similar, with a willingness to learn Google Suite.

Preferred Qualifications

• Horticulture teaching experience
• Experience using Airtable
• Experience using Canva
• Spanish language skills

Location & Schedule

• This is a Boston, Massachusetts-based position that requires daily travel between Boston neighborhoods.
• The position requires mostly in-person work, with significant time spent meeting with community members and managing on-site food forest maintenance, including evenings and weekends.
• We ask all staff to abide by the COVID-19 guidance set by the City of Boston.
• Hours: Wednesdays and Thursdays: 2 pm–7 pm, Fridays and Saturdays: 9 am–2 pm

Note: The weeknight hours for this intern position are flexible, with 2 pm–7 pm on Wednesdays and Thursdays as our ideal times. If your availability does not align with these weeknight hours, please share an explanation of your proposed availability in your application. The Friday and Saturday schedule is firm.