JOINT BASE LEWIS-McCHORD, Wash. – Army spouse and nature-lover Abbey Barker worked in finance for 10 years before finding her perfect job at Joint Base Lewis-McChord, where she surveys amphibians, bald eagles and bats, talks about trees and observes pine cones.
She’s an intern with JBLM’s Fish and Wildlife Internship Program, Operation Wildlife, which is “the largest environmental volunteer program on any military base in the world,” said Dennis Buckingham, JBLM wildlife biologist and Directorate of Public Works Environmental Division volunteer coordinator.
It’s “just a really cool thing to help protect species and manage habitat with service members and spouses and college students from 14 different colleges,” he said.
Barker heartily agrees.
“This internship is frickin’ phenomenal,” she said, donning waders and rubber boots in a JBLM training area, preparing to count frogs in muddy water.
A former volunteer at animal shelters and wildlife rehabilitation centers, Barker desperately wanted to join JBLM’s program upon discovering it. Soon, she was no longer assisting with mortgages.
“I was like, ‘I’m going to jump the boat and I’m going to give it my best shot. If there’s a better time, I don’t know any better time than now.’ And so, I left my very nice-paying job and came here. And it has been the best decision I think I’ve ever made,” she said.
The internship program “opened up my eyes to how many options there are out there,” she said, explaining that people within the fish and wildlife sector can work in areas including botany, forestry, game management and wildlife conservation.
And the internship program itself is well-rounded, she said.
“Specifically, participants help with a variety of land management projects such as oak woodland restoration, timber cruising, prescribed fire, and species monitoring. These natural resources management tasks – including surveying fledgling successes, funnel trapping amphibians, and releasing captively reared butterflies – directly benefit JBLM’s training mission while helping to maintain its extremely rare and imperiled species and their habitat,” according to an article by Buckingham in 2019 for “Natural Selections,” a publication of the Department of Defense Natural Resources Program.
Between the JBLM internship program’s inception in 2014 and 2024, volunteers served for 115,360 hours, with a total labor equivalency of $4,646,700 in 2024 dollars, according to Buckingham. He estimated that about 25 military spouses have been part of the program.
Some of the volunteers were service members transitioning out of the military. Between 2014 and 2024, 218 service members were interns. Of that number, 63 went on to college, including 31 for environmental science/studies. More than 45 have environmental jobs, nine work in veterans’ therapy/support and 11 work on JBLM, according to Buckingham.
Kayla Hodges, a former Army captain who transitioned out of the military at JBLM, interned with the program from June to September of 2020.
“It was the best transition experience I could’ve possibly had,” she said. “It was like my first glimpse into the outside world and what was actually possible” outside of the Army.
Now a master’s degree student of environmental management in Hawaii, Hodges called the internship “a springboard to conservation work.” Through the JBLM program she was able to collect data, meet people from other institutions with shared interests and connect with a broader group of professionals.
“All of that was immensely valuable for me,” she said, adding that another benefit was spending “every day all day outside in Washington State in the summer,” which helped her mentally decompress and take a break from Army life.
Hodges wasn’t the first or last service member to notice mental health benefits from the program.
In his 2019 article, Buckingham wrote: “Another benefit of the program is its ability to provide ecotherapy to combat veterans. Research shows that outdoor recreation and employment are effective in addressing the symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder. Although not directly or outwardly visible, this benefit is crucial in helping our combat veterans heal and succeed after transitioning to civilian life.”
For those considering the internship, “don’t give it a second thought. Do it,” Hodges said. “It was the best possible transition internship ever for me – a great fit. And I think for a lot of people it would be a great fit.”
Barker also readily endorses the program.
“I have never been happier in my entire life,” she said. “My husband can see it. He has mentioned it multiple times. That’s why he is probably my biggest supporter in all of this. Because he can see the difference at home of, how being out here and doing this, it truly does bring you joy.”
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