Civil Engineering student spends summer working with Forest Service in rural Plains, Montana

Post-baccalaureate student Matthew Dang is spending his summer in the tiny towns of Plains, Montana, located in the far western part of Montana, near the Idaho border, working as a silviculture technician for the U.S. Service.

Dang is a Civil Engineering student from Fort Worth, Texas, with an expected graduation date of 2026.

“I work with silviculture, meaning that I work with growing trees to restore and revitalize the forest,” Dang said. “My work involves tree planting, inspections, and surveys.”

The work dovetails nicely with Dang’s background as he works toward entering a different field.

“I have a prior degree in Environmental Biology at another university and decided to take a career change into pursuing engineering,” Dang said. “I picked Civil Engineering because I would like to build infrastructure projects to help the environment and the public. I kind of regretted not doing engineering in the first place, so this is my way to absolve this.”

Dang hopes to land an engineering internship with the U.S. Forest Service in the future.

“If you like being out in the great outdoors, have an adventurous zeal, and relish serving the public and helping the environment, I would definitely recommend other students to work with the Forest Service,” Dang said.