Archaeology Technician - Tahoe National Forest, American River Ranger District

Archaeology Technician - Tahoe National Forest, American River Ranger District Summary

American Conservation Experience, a nonprofit Conservation Corps, in partnership with the US Forest Service, is seeking one archaeology technician to contribute to the Heritage program alongside Tahoe National Forest Staff.

For more information about ACE, please visit our website.

May 4th, 2026 (05/04/2026)

October 1st, 2026 (10/01/2026)

* a 16-week minimum commitment is required *

American River Ranger District (Foresthill, 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 American River Ranger District is located in Foresthill, California. Foresthill is a beautiful mountain community, located 17 miles east of Auburn and Interstate 80. Foresthill is surrounded on the south and west by the Auburn State Recreation Area, on the north by BLM lands, and on the east by National Forest. The American River Ranger District is distinguished with a portion of Granite Chief Wilderness, the North Fork American Wild River and Placer County Big Trees (northernmost grove of Giant Sequoias).

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

The Archaeology Tech will support Forest Service initiatives by providing technical support to the heritage resource staff. Crew members are responsible for a variety of tasks, including participating in cultural resource inventory surveys, collecting and editing GIS data, adapting pedestrian survey strategies, preparing data for reports and completing site records, conducting data entry into the NRM heritage database, and completing additional tasks as determined by Forest Service staff.

The purpose of the position is to serve as a field crew member for archaeological surveys. The crew member will assist the crew lead in ensuring work is accomplished within established standards and procedures. The survey team will execute surveys in support of multiple Forest Service priority projects.

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.

• Performs on-the-ground pedestrian surveys to locate and document surface historic and prehistoric cultural resources
• Prepare data to be included in cultural resource inventory reports and prepare site forms. Enter site and inventory information into the NRM cultural resource database, and onto GIS maps.
• Monitor cultural resource sites to ensure approved standard protection measures are implemented and adequate and document changes in site condition over time.
• Conduct inventories of Forest cultural resources in areas of proposed Forest Service projects. Researchers will reference materials such as State and National Register files, historic documents, archeological reports, maps and aerial photos
• Ensures that archeology work assignments are carried out in a safe and timely manner according to established standards and procedures
• Review work in progress to see that standards for pre-field research, survey design, site recording, graphics, and final report are being met
• Assists other members or FS staff on methods of cultural resource inventory

Work schedule will be Mon-Thur 7:00am
-5:30pm Pacific Time, reporting to the Tahoe National Forest's American River District Office in Foresthill daily. Schedule adjustments will be limited and granted upon approval of the District Archaeologist.

The ACE Member is expected to contribute ~40 hours/week and will receive a living allowance of $920/week to offset the costs of food and incidental expenses, dispersed bi-weekly.

Members serving under this agreement may be eligible for a federal hiring authority upon completion of their term of service and 640 hours of service. If the duration of a PLC-eligible term is not long enough for Members to accrue 640 hours of service (~16 weeks), the total hours served at the completion of the term may be eligible to be combined with hours accrued from another PLC-eligible term to meet the 640 hours requirement.

PLC projects also include specific eligibility requirements such as age (You must be…