Botany Survey Technician Intern - Payson, Az

Title: Botany Survey TechnicianIntern (2 openings)

Start/End Date: April 15, 2024 - October 11, 2024 (anticipated)

Stipend: $450 per week living stipend + $200 housing stipend +Education Award.

Term: 26 weeks, Full-Time (40 hours per week)

Reports To: Kenda Svoboda (North Zone Botanist, Tonto National Forest)

Location: Payson, AZ

Status: 900-hour AmeriCorps Service Term

Benefits: AmeriCorps Education Award $3,247.50; Public Lands Corps Certificate*; both with successful completion of the internship.The Corps Network health insurance provided by Cigna, AmeriCorps childcare assistance.

*To be eligible for a Public Lands Corps certificate, interns must be between the ages of 18-30, inclusive, at the time the individual begins the term of service.

Summary:

Arizona Conservation Corps (AZCC):

Arizona Conservation Corps, a program of Conservation Legacy, aims to continue the legacy of the Civilian Conservation Corps of the 1930's. AZCC is focused on connecting youth, young adults, and recent era military veterans with conservation service work 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. 

Tonto National Forest Botany Program:

The Tonto National Forest is one of the most floristically diverse forests in the Southwestern Region - in large part due to the forest's position across three distinct ecological sections; the Sonoran Desert, Tonto Transition, and the White Mountain-San Francisco Peak-Mogollon Rim. There are a diversity of ecosystems including Sonoran Desert, Arizona chaparral, Semi-desert grasslands, Pinyon Juniper woodlands and grasslands, Madrean oak woodlands, ponderosa pine forests, and mixed conifer forests. The forest also harbors many endemics, rare plant species, and unique plant communities.

The botany program on the Tonto NF manages our national forest native plant heritage including federally listed and sensitive plant species and their unique habitats - especially those identified as special interest areas such as Research Natural areas or Botanical areas. Botanists provide support to all other forest programs including recreation, range, engineering, wildlife, aquatics, minerals, special uses, invasive species work, forest products, timber, and fuels management projects. Botanists are actively involved and lead in habitat restoration efforts, endangered species recovery efforts, rare plant surveys and monitoring, vegetation sampling, and riparian monitoring.

Position Summary:

The selected individuals will support the Four Forest Restoration Initiative (4FRI) on the Tonto by accomplishing required at-risk native and invasive plant surveys. This entry level position will receive developmental experience in rare plant surveying and monitoring and mentorship from the more experienced Botany Survey Technician Lead and the Forest Botanist. The Botany Survey Technicians will work closely with the Botany Survey Technician Leadand report to the North Zone Botanist at the Payson Ranger District office in Payson, AZ. This position is mostly field-going but may include some office work such as setting up field equipment, compiling survey and monitoring forms, data entry, or other routine project tasks. This position will entail a significant amount of camping throughout the term, typically requiring 3 nights of camping in the field per week.

Crew members are required to drive an AZCC vehicle to several different areas of the Tonto National Forest and can hike up to several miles per day, off trail, carrying equipment (25%) throughout a "hitch". Hitches are typically 10-hour days, 4 days on/3 days off.  The crew usually camps multiple nights with loaned camping gear and share camp meals and chores. Crews are responsible for their own housing, transportation, and food between camping trips. Embrace of an unconventional schedule and a level of flexibility are necessary to be successful.

Crew members return to the Forest Service office in Payson at the end of each hitch for equipment and data management, unknown plant identification, and any required prep work for the next week. 

Essential Responsibilities and Functions:

• Work as a unit alongside the Botany Survey Technician Lead to accomplish plant surveys and monitoring for selected treatment areas and sensitive plant species (established by the forest botanist).
• Record data for all rare species found at each survey site.
• Record data for other special status plants species at survey sites.
• Follow established Forest Service survey, monitoring, and data collection protocols.
• Cross-programmatic assistance, such as working on stream restorations, invasives removal and recreation projects.
• Perform closeout work at the end of the field season including downloading data from tablets, complete all data entry for TESP and invasive species data, correct or update any errors, and upload data into FS database.