Wildlife Intern (BLM Tucson) – AmeriCorps

Wildlife Intern (BLM Tucson) – AmeriCorps (1 opening)

Conservation Legacy Program: Arizona Conservation Corps

Site Location: BLM Tucson Field Office, 3201 E. Universal Way, Tucson, AZ 85756

Term of Service:

• Start date to be determined. We will reach out to applicants when position timeline becomes clear.

• AmeriCorps Slot Classification: 1700 Hours 

Purpose:

This is an AmeriCorps position with Arizona Conservation Corps (AZCC), which is an AmeriCorps program of Conservation Legacy. The member selected for this position will be serving at BLM Tucson Field Office as an AmeriCorps member with Arizona Conservation Corps, and completing service projects for the Tucson Field Office. 

AZCC aims to continue the legacy of the Civilian Conservation Corps of the 1930's, and is focused on connecting youth, young adults, and recent era military veterans with communities and conservation service projects on public lands. AZCC operates programs across Arizona that engage individuals and strengthen communities through service and conservation. AZCC has program offices in Flagstaff and Tucson. 

Bureau of Land Management (BLM):

The Bureau of Land Management's mission is to sustain the health, diversity, and productivity of public lands for the use and enjoyment of present and future generations. Congress tasked the BLM with a mandate of managing public lands for a variety of uses such as energy development, livestock grazing, recreation, and timber harvesting while ensuring natural, cultural, and historic resources are maintained for present and future use.

The BLM Tucson Field Office (TFO) manages more than 600,000 acres of desert, mountains, and grasslands within five southeastern Arizona counties and shares the international border with Mexico. The field office is responsible for stewardship of eight National Landscape Conservation System units: San Pedro Riparian National Conservation Area (SPRNCA), Las Cienegas National Conservation Area (LCNA), Ironwood Forest National Monument, four wilderness areas, 63 miles of river suitable for Wild and Scenic River designation and the Gila River Canyons passage of the Arizona National Scenic Trail. The Tucson Field Office also oversees six properties listed on the National Register of Historic Places and seven Areas of Critical Environmental Concern. Public lands within the Tucson Field Office also provide excellent opportunities for outdoor recreation including world-renowned birding along the San Pedro River. The Tucson Field Office is a part of and shares office space with the BLM Gila District Office.

Both the LCNCA Resource Management Plan (RMP) and the SPRNCA RMP focus on maintaining or achieving healthy and resilient ecosystems. These are guiding documents that outline goals and objectives to guide management on public lands.

Fish and Wildlife management objectives from the LCNCA RMP include restoration and maintenance of the native diversity, natural distribution, and abundance of fish and wildlife species by:
• Allowing for a mosaic of habitats.
• Minimizing habitat fragmentation.
• Allowing for waters appropriate to ecosystem capacity.
• Minimizing restrictions to movement.
• Reestablishing, extending the range, or supplementing populations.
• Implementing recovery plans.
• Supporting research efforts.

General objectives from the SPRNCA RMP include:
• Restoration and maintenance of habitat of suitable quality and quantity to support identified priority fish and wildlife species.
• Ensuring that the natural diversity and abundance of native vegetation occurs as expected for landform and ecological sites.
• Maintaining or improving the ecological processes and function of habitats that support priority or special status plant species.
• Suppression, control, and/or elimination of invasive species and invasive/noxious weeds and to meet the objectives in recovery plans for federally listed species and implementation plans for wildlife habitat.
• Conservation, protection, and enhancement of wildlife and aquatic resources and desert washes while considering habitat connectivity and size.

Description of Duties:

The intern selected for this position would assist biologists with various tasks such as vegetation management/surveys and biological surveys on Las Cienega’s National Conservation Area (LCNCA), the San Pedro National Conservation Area (SPRNCA), and the Ironwood Forest National Monument (IFNM). The Wildlife Intern will be working closely with the Biological Intern.

Tasks may include the following but are not limited to:

-Wildlife surveys throughout lands managed by the Tucson Field Office, including threated and endangered species surveys.

-Conducting habitat assessments for wildlife species as needed on LCNCA, SPRNCA, IFNM

-Non-native invasive plant surveys and treatments in LCNCA, SPRNCA, IFNM

-Upland vegetation monitoring in LCNCA, SPRNCA, IFNM

-Maintaining wildlife cameras in LCNCA, SPRNCA, IFNM

-Monitoring and maintaining wildlife drinkers in SPRNCA, IFNM

-Fence mapping and removal in LCNCA, IFNM

-Data entry and compilation

-Will also be working on projects with other biologists in the office including the fisheries biologist, botanist, and the hydrologist.

-May also work with the park rangers and recreation specialists on projects.

Required BLM trainings include: defensive driving course and UTV operation course

Possible trainings (if available) may include: Vegetation and soils monitoring training, CPR/First Aid, Chiricahua leopard frog survey training, yellow-billed cuckoo survey training

Essential Responsibilities and Functions:

• Participate in threatened and endangered (T&E) species surveys.
• Assist wildlife biologist with T&E and other wildlife species surveys as scheduled to be a second set of eyes and ears and to be exposed to the survey process for various species.

• Maintain records during surveys.
• Monitor and maintain wildlife cameras across the TFO lands after being shown where they are located by the wildlife biologist and provided a map of locations (Intern will be trained on this duty by the wildlife biologist).

• Intern will be responsible for checking wildlife cameras monthly which includes changing the SD cards and batteries, adjusting the direction of the camera as needed.

• Intern will go through photos, label photos and maintain a spreadsheet of wildlife viewed.
• Intern will suggest if a camera location is no longer a good location and suggest new locations to be monitored.

• Participate in Buffelgrass Surveys, which require intern to navigate to survey area, identify and locate buffelgrass infestations, map and collect data on tablet, and QC data to ensure required fields are collected.
• Survey trainings for T&E species are not provided by BLM. However, if they are available from USFWS or the state, the intern is welcome to attend.

Qualifications:

• United States citizen, United States national, or a lawful permanent resident alien
• At least 18 years of age.
• Has received a high school diploma or equivalency certificate; or has not dropped out of elementary or secondary school to enroll as an AmeriCorps participant and agrees to obtain a high school diploma or its equivalent prior to using the AmeriCorps Education Award.
• Agrees to provide information to establish eligibility and to complete a National Service Criminal History Check.
• Experience working outdoors.
• Ability to learn new tasks efficiently.

• Background (experience and/or education) in wildlife biology, natural resources, biology, botany, ecology, or related field.
• Valid driver’s license, with personal transportation to the office.
• Ability to hike up to ten miles on uneven terrain carrying field equipment.
• Field navigation skills.
• Experience using Microsoft Word and Excel.
• Ability to commit to the full term of the internship.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Interest and passion for wildlife conservation.
• Field experience.
• Survey experience (not required).

Physical Requirements:

Conservation Legacy is committed to the full inclusion of all qualified individuals and will ensure that persons with disabilities are provided reasonable accommodations to perform essential functions. Some positions may require periodic overnight travel, non-traditional hours, ability to move across varied terrain up to ten miles carrying equipment, use program-specific tools and a range of technology on an infrequent or frequent basis. Potential environmental/human risk involved with this position include weather (high/low temperatures), overnight camping, hiking off-trail on rough terrain, and driving agency vehicles on rough roads. Exerting up to 50 pounds of force occasionally to lift, carry, push, pull, or otherwise move objects. Ability to safely drive an organizational vehicle may also be required for some positions. If you need assistance and/or a reasonable accommodation due to a disability during application or recruiting process, please send a request to the hiring manager.

Time Requirements:

• This position is expected to serve Monday – Friday, 40 hours per week, but exact service schedules may vary. A half hour lunch break will not be counted towards AmeriCorps service.
• Member may be required to participate in national, state, or local service projects or events as part of their service term.

Orientation and Training:

• Member will receive an Arizona Conservation Corps Individual Placement Program New Member Orientation at start of service that includes training on AmeriCorps prohibited and unallowable activities.

Benefits:

• Segal AmeriCorps Education Award of $7,395.00 with successful completion of position.
• Living Allowance of $500 per week.

• Additional Benefit of $200 per week.

• Public Lands Corps Certificate*
• Healthcare Coverage provided by The Corps Network and Cigna.
• Childcare Coverage.
• Qualifies for Student Loan forbearance and Interest Payment reimbursement through AmeriCorps.

*To be eligible for a Public Lands Corps certificate, members must be between the ages of 18-30, or up to 35 if a military veteran, inclusive, at the time the individual begins the term of service and must complete 640 service hours or more to qualify.

Evaluation and Reporting:

As an AmeriCorps member, performance will be evaluated on whether the member has completed the required number of hours, the member has satisfactorily completed assignments, and if the member has met other performance criteria that were clearly communicated at the beginning of the term of service. Reporting requirements include, but are not limited to, bi-weekly timesheets and accomplishment tracking.

Supervisor Name and Contact Information:

This position reports to multiple biologists with the Bureau of Land Management’s Tucson Field Office.

With questions, please email Hannah Pierce, Wildlife Biologist, at hpierce@blm.gov

To Apply:  

Please submit a resume and cover letter along with the online application by clicking the APPLY link on this page.

If you have questions, contact AZCC’s Individual Placement Coordinator Preston Sands at psands@conservationlegacy.org. 

We are an equal opportunity employer, and all qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, pregnancy, age, national origin, disability status, genetic information, protected veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by law. 

We also consider qualified applicants regardless of criminal histories, consistent with legal requirements. If you need assistance and/or reasonable accommodations due to a disability during the application or recruiting process, please send a request to the hiring manager. 

Salary : $200 - $500