Lead Botanist (Seeds of Success) – El Centro, CA

Position Overview 

The lead botanist will lead a seed collection crew in the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) El Centro Field Office. Crew will work four 10-hour days in remote areas to find and collect native seed, while generally camping out for 3-consecutive nights due to the large area covered and long travel distances.

Duration: March 18th – August 15th, 22 weeks.

Responsibilities 

The primary responsibility of the lead botanist will be to provide oversight and implement all aspects of the Seeds of Success (SOS) program. SOS is a national native seed collection program with a mission to collect wildland native seed for research, development, germplasm conservation, and ecosystem restoration.

This position will work across land administered by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) to collect seed for habitat restoration. The BLM is the nation’s largest land management agency largely overseeing lands in the West. The goal of the BLM is to conserve land while managing multiple uses such as recreation (e.g. hiking, biking, kayaking), and economic development (e.g. grazing, mining). Collaboration with both State Office staff at the BLM, as well as field-based staff at the field office will occur through weekly meetings and coordination throughout the season.

This position will be employed by the Chicago Botanic Garden through a contract with the BLM. The Garden was a founding partner of the SOS initiative in 2002, and has been active in the program since. Over the last 25 years, the primary goal of the Garden Plant Science and Conservation Department has been to improve plant conservation outcomes through: basic and applied scientific research, collegiate education, and supporting practitioners. To this end, the garden has 27 conservation scientists, over 40 students, and over 100 practitioners in 2024. Direct management and support for crews will come from the Garden Conservation Training team. A two-day training in the SOS protocol will be provided virtually by the SOS Headquarters team, and the Garden will provide an in-person onboarding and training on field safety, logistics, and field botany.

The lead botanist will work with a senior botanist, who serves as a resource and co-manager for several crews in the area and will help coordinate assistance and troubleshoot with the lead. The lead botanist will work with the senior botanist to develop scouting and collection hitch plans and will provide daily team leadership and oversight for a natural resources specialist position. Early season duties include learning how to identify target species and identifying potential collection locations through geospatial analysis. However, as the season progresses, the team will spend a larger proportion of their time in the field. Field work will include navigating in remote field settings, collecting voucher specimens for herbaria, mapping plant populations, and collecting seed. Seed collection will continue through late summer as conditions permit. Occasional indoor work throughout the field season includes plant identification, seed cleaning and packing, preparation of herbarium specimens, data entry and management, uploading and manipulating GPS data, and some report writing.

The crew will be provided a 4WD work vehicle and supplies for field work, field safety, and seed collection. The crew will be provided a tablet, laptop, and MiFi hotspot for planning scouting and collection trips, editing and updating geospatial data through the SOS ESRI applications, creating maps, updating additional external reporting requirements, conducting data QA/QC, and report writing.  

Responsibilities and Duties:

• Use preprocessed geospatial and temporal data to develop scouting plants for target species in your designated BLM Field Office
• Draft and communicate weekly hitch plans to the Garden and BLM staff. Use inReach satellite device to check in/check out each field day. Understand and enact field safety procedures when needed.
• Provide oversight, organization, and guidance to safely manage a single crew member.
• Successfully navigate to prospective sites, many of which are in remote areas, using road maps/apps/GIS and 4WD vehicles and hiking.
• Accurately record presence or absence of target species at scouting sites.
• On a weekly basis, coordinate with senior botanist to convey project success and challenges.
• Assess and monitor phenology of populations to determine optimal seed collection timing
• Collect 15+ batches (80,000+) of seed, which may take from a few hours to a few days per collection depending on species and population.
• Collect 15+ batches (30,000+) of seed, taking from a few hours to days – Collect leaf tissue from a dozen plants at 15 populations for genetic research.
• Collect required site level data for each seed collection including: descriptions of ecological habitat and photos, and voucher specimens for a herbaria.
• Update and maintain all required population and geospatial data on an Ecoregional Tool through ArcGIS Online Field Maps and Survey123. Sync data at the end of each field trip.
• Maintain running Field Report spreadsheet with road and trail mileage, as well as number of sites scouted and assessed.
• Properly dry, store, and process seed, including shipping to seed cleaning facilities.
• Ensure QC of both digitally collected scouting and collection data, as well as herbarium specimen data.

Requirements and Qualifications:

• Bachelor’s degree in relevant field (botany, ecology, biology, forestry, environmental science, rangeland management, etc.)
• One season of field experience in natural resources management, or research
• Experience identifying plants using dichotomous keys, or a thorough education in plant systematics
• Coursework, or practical experience, using GIS software such as ESRI products (e.g. ArcMap, ArcPro)
• Experience collecting scientific data in field settings
• Experience in electronic data capture (e.g. Survey123, Collector)
• Experience working on teams
• Valid driver’s license on first day of position.
• Experience camping, or car camping
• Organized, self-starter, able to learn quickly and adapt to changes and challenges

Location 

This posting is for our team working out of El Centro, CA If you are interested in our 4 other Southwest positions (Bishop CA, Cedar City UT, Las Vegas NV, St. George AZ) please let us know in your application materials.

Physical Demands 

This position is primarily fieldwork based. Field work will include long periods of driving and long periods of walking on rough, uneven ground; bending, crouching, and stooping to collect seeds. Field work often occurs in remote locations, where cellular connection is unavailable or inconsistent. Field conditions can be extreme with hot summer conditions and cold nights in the spring.