Job Announcement: Field Crew Leader Salary: Salary will be $2200 - 2500/month, depending on experience + free field housing Start Date: 11 February 2019 End Date: 15-25 August 2019 (crew leaders are expected to stay until their site finishes field work) Last Date to Apply: November 30, 2018
Description: Field Crew leaders are needed for an extensive research project in southern Idaho to examine the effects of spring cattle grazing on sage-grouse nesting behavior, demographic traits, and habitat characteristics. Duties include: trapping and banding sage-grouse at night in remote locations, attaching radio collars to female sage-grouse, using telemetry to track radio-marked sage-grouse to locate nests, monitoring nests, conducting brood surveys, conducting general avian point counts, measuring vegetation characteristics and rangeland condition, plant identification, fence installation, mapping percent grass utilization by hiking continuously for the entire day over large areas, conducting insect sampling, and data entry/management. Tasks will vary weekly depending on project needs. Crew leaders will be responsible for overseeing all field activities at one study site, including supervising 2-5 field technicians, writing and submitting weekly updates and summaries, ensuring data quality, dealing with problems that arise at their field site, and coordinating field logistics. Crew leaders should expect to implement a significant amount of insect and vegetation sampling; a crew leader may primarily conduct vegetation sampling for several consecutive weeks during which identifying range plants is required. Crew leaders will be expected to identify a set of common grasses and forbs to species prior to starting employment. Crew leaders will be assigned to one of 5 study sites in southern Idaho: Big Butte near Atomic City, ID; Jim Sage Mountains near Almo, ID; Browns Bench near Rogerson, ID; Sheep Creek near Grasmere, ID; and the Pahsimeroi Valley near May, ID. Southern Idaho offers boundless outdoor recreation opportunities. All sites have nearby access to excellent hiking, birding, fishing, rafting, mountain biking opportunities, and much more! Additionally, technicians will be part of a large research team with 3 professors, 2 graduate students, 20+ technicians, 5 crew leaders, a research scientist, and 2 state biologists working across 5 study sites. This highly collaborative project will involve working closely with personnel from Idaho Department of Fish and Game, the Bureau of Land Management, U.S. Geological Survey, the University of Idaho, local ranchers, and other stakeholders. Qualifications: Minimum qualifications include an undergraduate degree in wildlife or a related field (e.g., Biology, Zoology, Rangeland Ecology, etc.). Applicants must have excellent interpersonal skills, a strong work ethic, a valid driver’s license, willingness to travel, and willingness to live and conduct field research under rigorous and remote conditions during variable weather conditions (snow and rain early in the field season; heat at the end of the field season). Applicants with previous experience performing one or more of these duties described above will be given preference. Those with experience supervising and leading field crews will be given highest preference. A background in ranching/farming, living in remote areas, and experience with 4WD vehicles is beneficial. To apply, please send the following materials in a single .pdf or .docx document (via email attachment) to Andrew Meyers (grsg.id...@gmail.com): (1) Cover letter explaining relevant experience, (2) resume, and (3) contact info for >3 references. Please write “Crew Leader” in the subject line. Applications will be reviewed as they are received, so some applicants may be selected before 30 November.
