Invasive Plant Strike Team Members Midwest​/Mingo National Wildlife Refuge

Overview

Summary American Conservation Experience, a nonprofit Conservation Corps, in partnership with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS), is seeking three crew members to contribute to the traveling invasive plant strike team under the mentorship of FWS Staff.

For more information about ACE, please visit our website.

Start Date: Mid/Late March 2026 (flexible)

End Date: Late September 2026 (flexible, with a 26-week term commitment)

* a
26-week minimum commitment is required, approximately 1040 hours*

Location Details/

Description:

This position is based out of Mingo National Wildlife Refuge (Puxico, MO) but will be traveling with a team across various USFWS locations across the Midwest.

Examples of travel locations may include but are not limited to:
Clarence Cannon National Wildlife Refuge

Middle Mississippi River National Wildlife Refuge

Illinois River National Wildlife Refuge Complex

Big Muddy National Wildlife Refuge Complex

Port Louisa National Wildlife Refuge

Mingo National Wildlife Refuge consists of 21,592 acres of bottom land hardwood forest, cypress-tupelo swamp, marsh and upland forest ecosystems. The refuge is managed for wildlife habitat and people. The primary purpose of the refuge is to provide food and shelter for migratory waterfowl and to protect the bottom land hardwood forest.

Mingo National Wildlife Refuge provides a number of great opportunities to enjoy the outdoors. The mixture of bottom land forests, wetlands and swamps creates great waterways for canoeing and kayaking, and has miles of wildlife drives, a variety of hiking trails, and prime locations for hunting and fishing.

For more information, please visit the FWS website.

Position Overview: The mission of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) is working with others to conserve, protect, and enhance fish, wildlife, plants, and their habitats for the continuing benefit of the American people. This position will help FWS realize that mission at Mingo NWR and other wildlife refuges.

The Traveling Invasive Plant Strike Team Member will gain a variety of experiences from invasive plant/ and/or animal removal, GIS/GPS plot surveying, forestry practices and procedures to biological surveys, facilities maintenance and/or visitor services. Conducting vegetation surveys/inventories, shadowing biologists, foresters and natural resources managers, landscaping, sign and trail maintenance, community engagement, staffing a visitor center and assisting with educational programs are all examples of the types of experiences and duties the member may perform.

Primary duties will include:

• Ability or willingness to learn invasive plant and native plant species
• Willing to remove invasive plant species by hand and by herbicide application
• Conducting forest/plant inventories including GPS and GIS technology and the integrated application of forest management software
• Collecting ecological and timber-related forest metrics to develop timber-harvest prescriptions
• Marking timber, harvest planning, monitoring and evaluation.
• Support Timber Stand Improvement (TSI) work, such as treating midstory trees via hack and squirt.
• Compiles maps of forest and woodland areas
• Provides assistance in identifying needed forestry and biological improvement projects
• Uses instruments to take measurements.
• Assisting with performing biological projects/surveys as needed and assists in collecting inventory data.

Secondary duties may include:

• Providing forestry information for public materials and participates in informational and/or environmental education programs to individuals, local organizations and schools.
• Assisting refuge staff with general tasks around the duty station/office related to core position functions

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.

Schedule: Duties will primarily be carried out Monday - Friday, typically 5 days/week, with flexible scheduling between primary hours. Bi-weekly totals should not exceed 80 hours. A flexible work schedule may be required, which could involve work performed outside of normal work hours including on weekends and/or holidays. Time off may be granted and requests should be directed to ACE and the FWS for approval.

Living Allowance: The ACE Member is expected to contribute ~40 hours/week and will receive a living allowance of $769/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 to be combined with hours…