Cedar Island Piping Plover Technician Assistant

State Role Title: Natural Resource Spec II

Hiring Range: Hourly wage is $17.23

Pay Band: 3

Agency: Dept of Wildlife Resources

Location: Accomack County Territory

Agency Website: www.dwr.virginia.gov

Recruitment Type: General Public - G

Job Duties

Piping plover (PIPL) productivity in Virginia has been declining since 2016 and a clear cause has not been identified. Impeded access to foraging habitat has been identified as a contributing factor to low productivity on some islands. Cedar Sandbar is an area located on the north end of Cedar Island, one of Virginia's barrier islands, that is owned by the Commonwealth of Virginia. It has a series of backside mudflats where PIPL broods were previously known to forage successfully. In the last 5 years, vegetation has increasingly impeded PIPL brood access to these productive foraging flats forcing the adults to bring just-hatched chicks to the ocean intertidal to feed where they are susceptible to avian predation. Moreover, depending on the nest location, getting to the ocean intertidal entails traversing a wide beach and going through seabird nesting areas that support predatory gulls and terns. To reestablish brood access to the backside flats, vegetation-free corridors were created between the nesting beach and the foraging flats. This position will help monitor the use of corridors and backside mudflats by PIPL parental adults and broods and assess brood survival.

This wage position will assist the PIPL lead technician with the monitoring of PIPL breeding productivity and corridor use on Cedar Sandbar. The successful incumbent will also help maintain corridor and mudflat cameras and retrieve and review camera footage throughout the season. The successful candidate may also be tasked with helping collect prey samples from the backside flats. Nest monitoring efforts will include searching all suitable habitat on Cedar Sandbar for scrapes and nests and recording their locations. Each nest or brood will be monitored three times per week until the nest hatches or fails, or the brood fledges or disappears. Nest status and brood status and location will be recorded during each visit. Lastly, the successful candidate will help retrieve and review camera footage as soon nests begin to hatch.

Minimum Qualifications

Additional Considerations

• Experience making and recording detailed observations of avian behavior are preferred.
• Experience towing, launching and operating small motorboats in coastal inshore waters is a plus.
• Experience entering field data in Field Maps or a similar application and a proficiency with game cameras is also a plus.

Special Instructions

You will be provided a confirmation of receipt when your application and/or résumé is submitted successfully. Please refer to “Your Application” in your account to check the status of your application for this position.

Contact Information

Name: Deanna Wade

Phone: (804) 367-1000

Email: careers@dwr.virginia.gov

In support of the Commonwealth’s commitment to inclusion, we are encouraging individuals with disabilities to apply through the Commonwealth Alternative Hiring Process. To be considered for this opportunity, applicants will need to provide their AHP Letter (formerly COD) provided by the Department for Aging & Rehabilitative Services (DARS), or the Department for the Blind & Vision Impaired (DBVI). Service-Connected Veterans are encouraged to answer Veteran status questions and submit their disability documentation, if applicable, to DARS/DBVI to get their AHP Letter. Requesting an AHP Letter can be found at AHP Letter or by calling DARS at 800-552-5019.

Note: Applicants who received a Certificate of Disability from DARS or DBVI dated between April 1, 2022- February 29, 2024, can still use that COD as applicable documentation for the Alternative Hiring Process.