Visitor Information Services Assistant

Summary: American Conservation Experience, a nonprofit Conservation Corps, in partnership with Eldorado National Forest, is seeking two VIS Assistants to contribute to projects alongside Forest Service Staff.

This opportunity is intended for a candidate with a well-developed working background in conservation, natural resources management, wilderness management, recreation management, or a similar field. The VIS Assistants should possess a passion for public land management and a professional interest in advancing their career towards natural resource management, policy, and/or wilderness.

Start Date: Mid May 2026

End Date: 22 weeks after start date

Location: Eldorado National Forest, Placerville, CA & Pollock Pines, CA

The Eldorado National Forest is located in the central Sierra Nevada region within California and encompasses a total of 798,279 acres, which includes 193,027 acres of private ownership. The Eldorado National Forest is bordered on the north by the Tahoe National Forest, on the east by the Lake Tahoe Basin Management Unit and the Humboldt-Toiyabe, and to the south by the Stanislaus National Forest.

The Eldorado is within 3 - 4 hours of the San Francisco Bay Area and about 1 - 1 1/2 hours from Sacramento. It ranges in elevation from 1,000 feet in the foothills to more than 10,000 feet above sea level along the Sierra crest. The mountainous topography is broken by the steep canyons of the Mokelumne, Cosumnes, American, and Rubicon rivers.

Plateaus of generally moderate relief are located between these steep canyons.

The forest is also home to 297 lakes and reservoirs (including both public and private acreage), which total 11,994 surface acres. 11 large reservoirs account for 9,000 acres. The rest are mostly small, high mountain lakes. Both the rivers and lakes provide excellent fishing opportunities. The Eldorado National Forest provides diverse recreational opportunities to the public. The Forest offers every visitor the chance to enjoy nature and be outdoors.

In addition to two popular wilderness areas (Desolation Wilderness and Mokelumne Wilderness), the forest offers more than 70-day use and overnight developed recreation facilities across the forest for the individual, families and groups.

• Providing excellent customer service by enthusiastically answering questions, greeting and assisting visitors
• Work closely with recreation staff, seasonal and other permanent staff to provide current and accurate information with a welcoming environment for visitors
• Inform visitors of rules and regulations, safety risks and recreational opportunities
• Evaluate public inquiries in order to provide the most useful and appropriate information or to suggest other options or redirect caller to the appropriate District staff
• Assist with tracking visitor use
• Respond to radio traffic in support of District personnel
• Administrative work including computer programs, paperwork, filing, answering multi-line phones, cleaning and organization at the Visitor Information desk
• Perform other duties as assigned
• Serves as Collection Officer to sell forest timber permits, and other items, such as maps and passes, in accordance with Forest Service manual and handbook requirements

This is an office based position with a typical 5 days a week schedule. Weekends may be required in the summer season (June through September)

Living Allowance: The ACE Member is expected to contribute ~40 hours/week and will receive a living allowance of $720/week to offset the costs of food and incidental expenses, dispersed bi-weekly.

Housing: Not provided:
Housing is the responsibility of the member and not provided by ACE or the Forest Service. A housing stipend of $100/wk may be available to help offset the cost of housing

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…