USDA Climate-Smart Horticulturist II - PT

Seeking a motivated, creative, and passionate Climate-Smart Horticulturist for our Botany Department at the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum!

Brief Summary of Position

The Arizona Alliance for Climate-Smart Foods is a grant-funded project promoting climate-smart food production practices to help Arizona farmers reduce water use and carbon emissions. Over the course of three years, the project will 1) identify promising desert-adapted crops and germplasm, 2) incentivize farmers to adopt these crops along with water-wise growing practices, and 3) develop and expand markets for the resulting climate-smart products and foods. The Arizona Alliance partners include the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum, the University of Arizona, Local First Arizona, and the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Sciences.

The Horticulturist performs various duties to support grant activities related to desert crops and wild crop relatives (e.g., agave, prickly pear, desert legumes). These include duties in the office, in the plant nursery, on Museum grounds, in the field or on farms, and at public events. The Horticulturist will assist with the identification and acquisition of desert crops and crop wild relative germplasm, care for project-related plants, landscapes, and gardens on-grounds, and participate in work, field trips, and public programming both on- and off-grounds.

_______________________

Note: Application review will begin immediately and will continue until the position is filled. Please understand that if offered a position, you will be required to successfully complete a pre-employment drug screen and provide the equivalent of a satisfactory 3-year Drivers History Record as a final condition of employment.

_______________________

Job Title: USDA Climate-Smart Horticulturist II
Department: Botany
Reports To: Curator of Botany
Compensation: $16.25 per hour - (This is a part-time grant-funded position for 16 hours a week) - Term: 1 year with possibility to extend up to 3 years.

Essential Duties and Responsibilities include the following. Other duties may be assigned.

• Work collaboratively with other project members and partner institutions.
• Work independently and efficiently on assigned projects.
• Read, analyze, and interpret common scientific and technical journals.
• Participate in public programming (events, workshops, etc.) on- and off-grounds.
• Participate in field trips and off-grounds work.
• Oversee volunteers.
• Planting, watering, weeding, pruning, fertilizing areas of responsibility.
• Collect, organize, and manage data from propagation and field trials (survival, growth, health, etc.).
• Succulent, cactus, shrub, and tree installation and pruning. Hazardous cactus removal.
• Propagation duties for desert crops and crop wild relatives.
• Keep accurate accession records of the botanical collection within assigned areas of responsibility.
• Apply pesticides as needed, guided by Integrated Pest Management concepts.
• Design, install, and troubleshoot irrigation systems.
• Use and maintain hand and power tools.
• Interpretation of botanical and horticultural subjects to the general public.
• Opportunity to be involved in teaching and writing.
• May participate in tours and traditional/social media requests

Supervisory Responsibilities
This job has no supervisory responsibilities.