Botany Technician

Join to apply for the Botany Technician role at American Conservation Experience
.

4 days ago Be among the first 25 applicants.

Join to apply for the Botany Technician role at American Conservation Experience
.

Get AI-powered advice on this job and more exclusive features.

American Conservation Experience, a nonprofit Conservation Corps, in partnership with the U.S. Forest Service, is seeking Botany Technicians to contribute to botanical survey projects alongside Tahoe National Forest Staff.

Start Date: April 20, 2026 (04/20/26)

Estimated End Date: Fall 2026

• Start and end dates are flexible but a 16‑week minimum commitment is required.

Tahoe National Forest, Westzone (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.

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 this area, please visit the Tahoe National Forest website.

The Botany Technician position will take direction from Lead Botany Technicians and U.S. Forest Service Botanists in conducting botanical surveys, weed management, field data documentation, and data entry. All Technicians on the Botany crew will work both independently and as a team to coordinate work efforts, conduct botanical field surveys, summarize survey findings, manage field equipment, discuss technical problems encountered or anticipated during project work, and create a safe work culture.

This individual placement is meant to facilitate professional development and promotes exposure to land management agencies and networking with professionals. This could include gaining experience in different conservation fields and shadowing different work groups.

• Conduct floristic surveys and targeted surveys for rare and invasive plants within project areas, typically covering one to three thousand acres per person in a season.
• Collect survey and inventory data to determine species identity, population characteristics, environmental conditions and factors affecting the vigor and extent of the species and their habitat.
• Use botanical keys and field guides to identify plants encountered during surveys.
• Collect and maintain detailed documentation of field data.
• Compile and summarize data obtained from surveys, inventories, biological evaluations and monitoring, and produce reports that summarize findings, which are used in Forest Service Botanists’ analysis of projects occurring on Forest Service lands.
• Use computer systems and associated software for recording, organizing, storing, and summarizing data.
• Use GPS, aerial photographs, topographic maps, Geographic Information Systems (GIS), or compass in navigation.
• Perform physical labor and daily hiking, often to remote locations in rugged terrain, sometimes under adverse weather conditions.
• Enter data and track data entry using MS Word, MS Excel, ArcGIS, ArcGIS Online, and U.S. Forest Service databases.

• Assist with a full range of technical assignments related to seasonal invasive plant management activity on U.S. Forest Service lands.
• Assess invasive plant population parameters, including size, distribution, and phenology to inform decisions about appropriate control tactics and treatment prioritization.
• Perform manual invasive plant treatments such as hand‑pulling, using hand tools, and using power tools.
• May assist with herbicide application under the supervision of the U.S. Forest Service Botanist, a California certified pesticide applicator.

Work schedule will be Mon‑Thur 7:00 am – 5:30 pm during…