This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2016, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
The National Park Service has honored a southern Utah consortium with a 2016 Director's Partnership Award.
The award honored the Intergovernmental Internship Cooperative, a consortium of 19 federal and state land agencies, the Paiute Tribe, and Southern Utah University.
That group works with Cedar Breaks National Monument to place students from diverse and economic backgrounds into employment, internship and volunteer positions.
These jobs offer students experience in public lands jobs and provide them with friends and mentors, leadership and job skills, and pathways to college career fields and to their public lands.
"The hard work and passion of committed individuals joining forces led to the preservation of the country's first public lands and the establishment of the National Park Service in 1916," said National Park Service Director Jonathan B. Jarvis. "The long and storied tradition of citizen stewardship not only continues but grows stronger every year. The partners we recognize today demonstrate the amazing things we can accomplish together."