Arborist Fellow – Yosemite National Park

Arborist Fellow – Yosemite National Park

American Conservation Experience, a nonprofit Conservation Corps, in partnership with Yosemite National Park, is seeking Two Members to contribute to arborist projects alongside park Staff. For more information about ACE, please visit our website.

Start Date:

Early February 2026. Estimated End Date:
May 2026. A 12-week minimum commitment is required. Location Details/

Description:

The ACE members will be based in El Portal, CA in the Yosemite Division of Resource, Management, and Science building. A touchdown office space will be provided in the Cultural Resources Program branch of History, Architecture, and Landscapes. Work will primarily take place in Yosemite Valley, with other work locations in Wawona, Foresta, and El Portal. Yosemite National Park, California, known worldwide for its spectacular natural beauty is the backdrop for this position.

Sitting astride the Sierra Nevada Mountains, the park covers 1,182 square miles of varied wilderness ecosystems, from river valleys to alpine meadows to lofty 13,000-foot-high peaks. Yosemite Valley is located 208 miles from San Francisco, 81 miles from Merced, and 94 miles from Fresno. Shopping, medical, postal and laundry services are available in the park and in El Portal. Elevation at the Valley floor is approximately 4,000 feet and 2,200 feet in El Portal.

For more information about Yosemite National Park please visit the NPS website.

The ACE EPIC members will assist Yosemite National Park staff in the stabilization of up to seven historic orchards and other culturally significant flora throughout the park. Through the work, the members will perform the techniques of arboriculture to preserve trees as old as 170 years. Tasks will include pruning, apple picking, clearing dead and diseased trees, removing encroaching vegetation and application of herbicide on trees recently cut.

Other projects the ACE members may be tasked with are the dating of potentially historic trees and removal of non-historic fruit trees. In addition to working with Yosemite’s History, Architecture, and Landscapes branch, the ACE members will also work with teams from Vegetation and Ecological Restoration, Wildlife, and Forestry. The members will also work with Horticulturists and Landscape Architects from other NPS offices.

Other specific tasks may include:

• Perform tasks related to orchard management dealing with horticulture and related landscape, vegetation, wildlife, and soil management considerations.
• Serve as an Arborist responsible for the identification, treatment, preservation, and maintenance of historic orchard landscapes and other culturally significant flora in the park.
• Work with park staff to determine equipment and material requirements.
• Conduct tree and plant inventories, identify tree varieties, assess plant health, gather data to determine threatened/endangered or rare status, and document location and range. Collect, prepare and document representative plant specimens for grafting and documentation.

These individual placements are meant to facilitate professional development and promote exposure to land management agencies and networking with professionals. This could include gaining experience in different conservation fields and shadowing different work groups.

Schedule:

Flexible schedule based on season and workload. 40 hours (8 to 10 hours a day) to be completed within the timeframe of Mon-Fri, 7:30am – 4:30pm (or Mon-Thurs, 7-6pm) PST. Schedule can be adjusted during times of extreme heat or cold and based on daylight hours.

Living Allowance:
The ACE Member is expected to contribute ~40 hours/week and will receive a living allowance of $900/week to offset the costs of food and incidental expenses, dispersed bi-weekly. Public Land Corps Hiring Authority:
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…