Craters of Moon National Monument and Preserve - Wildlife Internship

Craters of the Moon National Monument & Preserve is currently recruiting one AmeriCorps member that will support the Natural Resource Management Program. The selected member will assist with management of natural resources at Craters of the Moon National Park, Minidoka National Historic Site, City of Rocks National Reserve, and Hagerman Fossil Beds National Monument. The work will be field oriented with the majority assisting the vegetation and wildlife programs.

The geologic landscape, wildlife, and vegetation at these three southern Idaho parks are unique resources that visitors come to enjoy every year. The resource management team deals with a variety of tasks from wildlife to vegetation monitoring. The member will get the opportunity to assist these tasks as well as others the entire programs deal with as well as other facets of resource management in the NPS.

The vegetation team focuses on forest health, invasive plant management, and restoration efforts. The wildlife team focuses on bat surveys, pronghorn migration, and breeding bird surveys. Member will assist on these projects along with any other tasks that come up.

The primary duties of this position are to assist the wildlife program with cave habitat assessments which will include ground-truthing potential caves, inventory of surface and interior contents (biological, geological, water, and cultural resources), documenting, photography and mapping of cave interior to (National Speleological Society standards). Individual will NOT want to suffer from any claustrophobia and will need to be ok with primitive back-country camping for up to 4 days at a stretch. Individual will need to be proficient at navigating and orienteering with use of GPS units and/or tablets. Work will involve long hikes over rough (lava) terrain carrying up to 40 lbs. This project will include an office component consisting of digitizing/ scanning paper cave documents and uploading to the NPS Integrated Resource Management Applications (IRMA) website.

Individual will also assist with a study on Pronghorn migration through CRMO by checking/ maintaining/ and downloading remote cameras.

The individual will also be tasked with running a modest bat acoustic monitoring program for NABat (North American Bat Monitoring) as well as a few detectors at cave entrances for a CRMO maternity colony study. Work includes deployment, weekly detector/battery maintenance, data retrieval and analysis with Sonobat software (auto-classification only - bat call identification skills helpful but not necessary).

Other duties will likely include nightjar surveys, sage grouse lek counts, milkweed (Monarch butterfly habitat) surveys, vegetation management (invasive weed treatments, seed collection, fire rehab etc.), wildlife-friendly fence construction and maintenance.

General Resource Management (20%)

o Assist other resource programs and other divisions as needed such as the cultural resources, education staff, and interpretation staff.

o Preparing information on resource activities to co-workers and the public.

Vegetation Management (20%)

o Survey, identify, map exotic vegetation

o Treat exotic vegetation through hand-pulling, cutting, or herbicide application

o Document treatments and update files and GIS layers

o Maintain equipment

o If interested, will be able to study and test for the Idaho Pesticide Applicator's License

o Survey, identify, map native vegetation

o Hazard tree surveys

o Tussock moth monitoring

o Document and update files

o Spread native seed mixes in disturbed areas

o Seed collection

o Plant seedlings in disturbed areas

o Preparing information (print and/or oral) for sharing with public about invasives at CRMO

o Enter data

o Document resource findings/activities

Wildlife Management (60%)

o Assist with wildlife surveys (bat and breeding bird).

o Monitor pronghorn migration through use of game cameras.

o Bumble bee surveys

o Pika territory occupancy surveys

o Dragonfly larvae collection

o Nightjar surveys

o Ground truth potential cave reports

o Documenting on resource findings/activities.

o Preparing information (print and/or oral) for sharing with public about wildlife at CRMO

o Enter data

o Document resource findings/activities

Approximately 10-15 nights will be spent camping.

*Percentages describe the estimated amount of time expected on each task.

Duties are performed within Craters of the Moon National Park - Arco, Idaho. Members is responsible for their own food. Housing may be available at CRMO in shared housing units but is not guaranteed.

Terms of Employment:

One AmeriCorps member will complete a term of service (length dependent on commitment of hours), starting May through September 2023. The member must complete a minimum of 920 service hours by the end of their term. The member will receive a 30-minute lunch each day and this lunch break does not count towards AmeriCorps member service hours. Training will not exceed 20% of total member service hours.

A total living allowance of $12,880 dispersed on a monthly basis and an $3,247.50 education award upon completion of the 920 hours of service. The living allowance and education award are taxable. Service eligibility is contingent upon the results of a criminal and driving background check.

Please submit a cover letter, resume, and contact information for three professional references and completely fill out the application form found at https://nwyouthcorps.workbrightats.com/jobsearch/?job_board_classification=Internships

Please select "Craters of the Moon National Monument and Preserve -Wildlife Internship" when applying.

If you have questions about the position, please reach Northwest Youth Corps Internship Program Officer Liv Kelley at livk@nwyouthcorps.org

All job offers are contingent upon the completion of a satisfactory background check (criminal history and driving history). NYC recommends that all participants be fully vaccinated for COVID-19.