Inventory Support Associate

Lotic Ecological Monitoring (Stream & River Survey) with Southwest Conservation Corps and The Bureau of Land Management

Position Title: Crew Member

Position Type: Full-time, temporary

Location: Las Cruces BLM District Office in Las Cruces, New Mexico

Term Dates: April 1st-September 13, 2024 (25 weeks)

Weekly

Schedule:

Hitches are a mix of 8 days on/6 days off and 4 days on/3 days off, camping with a government or company vehicle most nights. Office days will occur regularly (~20%) throughout the season, with more near the end of the season.

Living Allowance: $600-$640/week DOE

Plus Housing Allowance: $140/week. Housing allowance may be lower if a member secures agency-subsidized housing.

Benefits:

• Ameri Corps Education Award of $3,447.50 (depending on term length and upon satisfactory completion of term)
• Paid attendance to Wilderness First Aid or Wilderness First Responder Recertification, or possible reimbursement
• $20/day food allowance while camping in the field with crew collecting data. Smaller allowance for day trips.
• Supplemental development opportunities and funds available throughout the term

Hiring Benefits: Public Land Corps Hiring Authority: a noncompetitive hiring status for consideration when applying to competitive service positions for a federal agency. Eligible to be used for two years upon completion of term. Must be under age 31 upon issue of certificate.

Southwest Conservation Corps's Mission

It is the mission of the Southwest Conservation Corps (SCC) to empower individuals to positively impact their lives, their communities, and the environment.

Bureau of Land Management's Mission

The Bureau of Land Management's mission is to sustain the health, diversity, and productivity of public lands for the use and enjoyment of present and future generations.

Program Overview:

The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and the National Aquatic Monitoring Center (NAMC) have developed the National Aquatic Monitoring Framework to fulfill the Lotic Assessment, Inventory, Monitoring (AIM) initiative. The NAMF is a standardized approach for how the BLM can meet multiple monitoring requirements in a consistent, quantitative, and credible manner.

To dive deeper into the AIM methodology, visit the following websites: disallowed to display external links here.

The crew consists of two individuals: one Crew Lead and one Crew Member. The crew undergoes extensive training for the first few weeks of the position. This training will include the technical aspects of the position, led by the BLM, and an orientation to the SCC culture led by SCC. The rest of the term will be routine sampling processes and data management.

The crew works together to sample wadable streams and rivers on BLM land using the NAMF and Lotic AIM methodology. While on site, they will collect water quality data, stream habitat data, and benthic macroinvertebrate samples, entering all appropriate data into Survey
123, a tablet-based data-recording program. All data will be georeferenced using a GPS unit and stored in an ArcGIS geodatabase. The crew is based out of the BLM Las Cruces District Office in southern New Mexico and will be under the direct mentorship and technical guidance of BLM staff personnel. Work will be completed in remote areas on BLM lands. They will also have direct remote administrative supervision and mentorship under Southwest Conservation Corps.

Unconventional work hours, including 10+ hour days and weekends, are expected. Using an agency vehicle, crews will drive to several different areas of a vast sample area covering the southern half of the state throughout a four- to eight-day work week (colloquially, “hitch”), camp overnight, hike several miles per day, and return to the office for equipment and data management.

The crew may also assist with other public land management projects involving fisheries, wildlife, range, forestry, and other departments.

Crew Member's Responsibilities:

The crew member actively contributes to data collection, management, and quality control. They assist with hitch preparation, planning, crew transportation using work vehicles, navigation to designated plots, equipment maintenance, and effective time…