Ecology Assistant

Position Details

Come work in the mountains, forests, and cultural landscapes of beautiful northern New Mexico! Stewards Individual Placement Program in partnership with the USGS New Mexico Landscapes Field Station is seeking interns who will participate in a variety of ecological research and long-term ecological monitoring projects in Bandelier National Monument and surrounding landscapes in northern New Mexico. Interns will be particularly involved in fieldwork involving forest health and mortality monitoring, long-term vegetation monitoring transects, and other landscape change research. Other tasks include tree-ring research involving the collection, processing, analysis, and reporting on centuries-long tree-ring fire histories in the Southwest. All these ecological research and monitoring activities involve field data collection, with subsequent data entry, QA/QC, and descriptive analyses in the office.  See our website for more information on the New Mexico Landscapes Field Station & our Internship Program: New Mexico Landscapes Field Station: Internship Program tendersglobal.net U.S. Geological Survey

Position Responsibilities

• Re-survey forests and vegetation from multiple long-term monitoring locations
• Produce dated tree-ring samples collected from local forests using dendrochronological techniques.
• Collaboration on fire history reports, which involve data acquisition, organization, and analysis, for submission to forest and land managers.
• Interns are encouraged to design a personal project as time allows, utilizing field station data, and of benefit to Bandelier and the USGS New Mexico Landscapes Field Station.

Minimum Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in environmental science, natural science, geography, or related degree
• Plant ID skills/experience
• Previous field work experience
• Ability to hike up to 15 miles across rugged terrain to remote study locations, often off-trail, sometimes through brush and downed logs
• Ability to carry up to 40 lbs a minimum of 3 miles
• Positive attitude, works well with others and enjoys being outdoors (hiking, camping, long days outside, physical exertion)
• Attention to detail with database management and important wood samples

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience with maps, compass, GPS devices, ArcMap, Google Earth, and digital cartography
• R or Python programming language experience a plus

Benefits

• Living Allowance: $550/week (pre-tax)
• Free shared housing in Bandelier National Monument
• Eligible for an AmeriCorps education award upon successful completion of the program.