BANGOR — Bethany Moore, a 2011 graduate of Jay High School, has joined the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) in Franklin County as a summer intern.

Moore got the internship when NRCS offered a position to a senior on the winning State Envirothon Team. Jay High School was this year’s winning team, and Moore, a senior, jumped at the opportunity to be a summer intern with NRCS.

She has participated on Jay High School’s Envirothon Team for the past four years. The major objective of Envirothon, an effective educational tool capable of supplementing environmental education inside and outside the classroom, is to provide opportunities for high school students or organized groups of high school-aged students to acquire and increase their outdoor skills and scientific knowledge about Maine’s natural resources so that they can make informed, educated decisions about the environment. Maine’s Envirothon is hosted by the Maine Association of Conservation District’s Education Committee.

Moore is serving as a soil conservation aide in NRCS’ Farmington office, working with local staff on such activities as surveying pastures and testing soils for conservation practices, as well as working with the regional engineering and soils staffs.

“I really enjoyed being on the Jay High School Envirothon Team coached by Rob Taylor … I really learned a lot,” said Moore. “I am excited that I can now actually see how things work when applying different conservation practices through this internship.”

Moore will attend Boston University in the fall, majoring in engineering with a minor in environmental science.

This is the second year that NRCS has hired a summer intern through the Envirothon Program. Last year Kristina Johnson was hired in the Lewiston office as an intern, and she has returned for a second year this summer.

She was a senior on the Mt. Ararat Envirothon Team in 2010. She will be a sophomore at Cornell University in the fall and is majoring in environmental engineering.

“It’s really great to be back,” said Johnson. “This year I’m able to do more things independently, which is great for me and for NRCS. I really appreciate this opportunity.”

NRCS, in existence since 1935, is the lead conservation agency that helps farmers conserve, maintain and improve natural resources through science-based conservation efforts, technical assistance and incentive-based programs.