Botany Technician (Inyo NF, Bishop CA)

The Great Basin Institute, in cooperation with the USFS, is recruiting a Botany Crew Member to perform vegetation surveys and manage invasive plant species on the Inyo National Forest. This project will contribute to the Basin & Range Forestry program’s mission of assisting the USFS in their critical goal of improving forest resilience in the face of worsening climate conditions and increasing wildfire threats. The work you will do will directly enhance the quality of California’s forests, ensuring their continued vitality for generations to come.

The Botany Crew Member will support agency staff and crew members in conducting botanical surveys to establish distributional occurrences of targeted species and populations in designated project sites and access routes. Data gathered from these surveys will inform mitigation measures designed to protect targeted plant species, manage the prevalence of invasive species, and safeguard vegetation communities that provide habitat for wildlife. Invasive species treatments will focus on addressing risks to diverse ecosystems, watersheds and wildlife habitat across the forest.

A Temporary Special Assignment (TSA) employee is one who is hired for a specific temporary assignment external from the institute’s administrative operations with one of GBI’s partners for 52 weeks or greater or less than 52 weeks and may work full-time (30 or more hours per week) or part-time (less than 30 hours per week).

Essential Job Functions may include the following:

• Conduct botanical surveys to determine species identity, population characteristics, environmental conditions, and factors affecting the vigor and extent of species and their habitat
• Implement the forests Integrated Pest Management System (IPM) to treat invasive species, including survey, treatment and monitoring of invasive plant species. Treatment will be conducted using chemical and mechanical methods.
• Utilize GIS to plan, track and report botanical surveys and Invasive species management action

Requirements/Qualifications:

To perform this job successfully, employees must be able to satisfactorily carry out each essential duty. The requirements listed below are representative of the knowledge, skill, and/or ability required. Reasonable accommodation may be made to enable employees with disabilities to perform the essential functions.

Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities: 

• Familiarity and experience with Botanical survey and invasive species management approaches and techniques
• Ability or desire to learn to identify plants to species level
• Experience in collecting data accurately and completely and entering data correctly into a computer system
• Ability to use GPS units to record and locate points and to record field data
• Familiarity with use of ArcGIS to create, import, and export maps and data.
• Willingness to safely handle, mix, and transport herbicide, and maintaining application equipment
• Possess a clean, valid, state-issued driver’s license with the ability to safely operate and maintain a 4WD vehicle on and off paved roads
• Ability to work effectively in a team setting with USFS staff, GBI staff, interns, volunteers, academic, state, and federal partners
• Proficiency in navigation using GPS, topographic map and compass
• Ability to understand, implement and adhere to established data collection protocols
• Capacity to collect and maintain field data in an organized manner that is easily understood and accessible to other resource staff
• Organizational skills and ability to work cooperatively with crew lead
• Physically fit to work outdoors, including hiking up to 10 miles a day with a heavy pack, carry 25 pounds continuously and 50 pounds occasionally, repeated digging and pulling, and similar actions.