Harvest Inspector Trainee - Tahoe National Forest

Harvest Inspector Trainee - Tahoe National Forest, Yuba River Ranger District

American Conservation Experience, a nonprofit Conservation Corps, in partnership with the US Forest Service, is seeking 1 Harvest Inspector Trainee to contribute to timber resource management projects alongside Tahoe National Forest Staff.

For more information about ACE, please visit our website.

Start Date: May 18, 2025
* flexible start date*

Estimated End Date: Fall 2026

* a 16-week minimum commitment is required *

Location Details/

Description:

Yuba River Ranger District (Nevada City, California)

The Tahoe National Forest is located in the northern Sierra Nevada (east of Sacramento) and extends from the foothills across the Sierra crest to the California state line. It includes over 850,000 acres of public land interspersed with 350,000 acres of private land in a checkerboard ownership pattern. Rivers, snow‑capped peaks and dense forests offer outstanding recreation year‑round. A complex set of ecosystems are found as the terrain ascends from 1,500 feet along the western boundary to over 9,000 feet along the crest.

The forest provides a variety of resources and opportunities and is managed by the Forest Service.

The Yuba River Ranger District offices are located in Camptonville, CA and Nevada City, CA. Many employees live in the Nevada City/Grass Valley area (population 20,000) located 25 miles south of Camptonville. Nevada City is a vibrant town alongside Grass Valley, CA with excellent access to trails, ski resorts, and world‑class rafting and swimming holes. The Sacramento metro area is within an hour's drive for urban amenities.

For more information about the Yuba River Ranger District, please visit the Tahoe National Forest website.

The ACE Member will work independently or as a part of a small crew performing a variety of harvest inspector (HI) or timber sale preparation (TSP) duties that include— but are not limited to— timber harvest contract inspection (80%), timber marking (5%), timber cruising (5%), and sale layout (5%) of both ground and aerial systems as part of the forest health partnership.

Office work, meetings, and training (5%).

Field work often requires moderate to strenuous physical exertion, including walking, bending, and climbing under adverse conditions for long periods of time. Potential risk of falls due to uneven terrain, risk of insect bites, contact with poisonous plants, etc. Duties will be conducted during conditions such as rain, snow, wind, dust, extreme heat and cold. Hardhat, gloves, and other safety equipment are provided.

This individual placement is designed to foster professional growth by providing practical experience in land management principles and techniques. The internship will offer opportunities to develop key skills, including learning methods and criteria for inspecting timber harvesting contracts, conducting project layout and timber cruising, and stand exams, developing record keeping and organization skills for data/information corresponding to assigned projects while working independently or with district sale administration and timber staff.

Furthermore, this placement facilitates valuable networking opportunities with professionals in land management agencies, including shadowing Forest Service and partner (SPI and NFF) work groups to gain exposure to various conservation fields such as fuels reduction, hydrology, forestry, wildlife management, range and botanical management, and environmental education. Planning, decisions, and judgments made in this position affect long‑term timber management activities, other resources, and the forest health agreement/contract.

Accuracy of the work affects the quality of residual resource values such as timber stands, visual quality, water quality, and all resources related to timber harvest.

• General understanding of how timber sale operations function.
• Reading and understanding of timber sale contracts.
• Actively engaging with logging contractors and operators.
• Communicating with district sale admin staff and reporting on the ground information through daily reports.
• Identifying work that…