Primary Duties

• Prepare for and teach the Upham Woods summer activities using center class guidelines and overall format. Make adjustments to activity content, length, focus, etc. as needed based upon audience, clientele needs, environmental concerns, etc.

• Facilitate an overall positive clientele experience. This includes providing program support for summer camp programming created by county groups. Lead programming and provide logistical support for statewide open enrollment summer camps.

• Lifeguard water activities in the Wisconsin River offered only during summer camp programming including swimming in the designated swimming beach, water Olympics, and beach activities on Blackhawk Island. Lifeguard training available.

• Lifeguard canoeing and kayaking programs on the Wisconsin River.

• Provide leadership and instruction to summer youth counselors attending camp.

• Provide leadership and instruction of off and onsite outpost adventure-type activities offered only in the summer. This includes but is not limited to: swimming, paddling, hiking, archery, team-building programs, outpost adventure camping, field games. Provide care and food for the science center animals.

• Maintain summer outpost program equipment, including inventory tracking and cleaning of equipment (i.e. tents, cooking gear, sleeping pads, stoves, etc.).

• Maintain equipment and projects associated with digital technologies.

• Organize and report observations of summer camp group activities such as all camp games, field games, arts and crafts, outpost programs,

• Provide assistance to the other departments for the safe and effective operation of the center

• Provide emergency support to groups while onsite, as needed

• Responsibility for a programmatic, facility, or activity specialization area. Specialization areas in the summer include but are not limited to: waterfront activities, archery, program animals, team-building challenge course, technology, marketing and social media, and facility improvement

The Upham Woods summer naturalists are the primary programmatic personnel for Upham Woods in the summer season. In that regard, this position is responsible for teaching the summer camp and recreational activities for user groups, interacting with UW extension colleagues and adult volunteers, caring for programmatic, outpost and recreational, equipment which includes the science center animals.

Additionally the summer counselor naturalists may sometimes be called upon to lead off and onsite adventure-type programs. All of the above is to be done with a focus on customer service and effective educational methods in a safe environment.

Since 1941, Upham Woods has been a place where people gather to explore and experience the natural world.

The activities at Upham Woods are designed to encourage youth leaders to address environmental issues with the goal being the development of caring and responsible stewards of the natural world and its inhabitants.

The center sits on a prime location on the Wisconsin River, two miles north of the Wisconsin Dells, offering an excellent “river classroom” to study the both the natural and cultural history of Wisconsin. The center rests on 310 total acres of forested land, including a 210-acre island called “Blackhawk Island.” This island has been designated a state natural area and offers a beautiful example of a mature mixed forest featuring flora not commonly found in the area. The island also has tremendous sand stone caves formed during the ice age.

The facility consists of 14 buildings including a fully equipped nature center and a raptor enclosure housing educational birds of prey. The center supplies lodging for 200 people, meals, and environmental education year-round for youth and youth leaders, including environmental lesson plans, summer camp programming, leadership workshops and other conferences. Upham Woods employs naturalists that live on-site all year long.