Forest Monitoring Technician; Lakeview

Position: Forest Monitoring Technician (Lakeview, OR)
Location: Lakeview

The Great Basin Institute is an interdisciplinary field studies organization that promotes environmental research, education, and service throughout the west. The Institute’s mission is to advance applied science and ecological literacy through community engagement and agency partnerships, supporting national parks, forest, open spaces and public lands.

The Ecological Monitoring Program at GBI serves as an excellent professional development opportunity for natural resource professionals looking for experience in botanical, soil, and rangeland surveys. This program focuses on the collection of reliable and consistent quantitative data on the status, condition, and trend of natural resources on public and private lands.

GBI is partnering with Lake County Umbrella Watershed Council, Lake County Resources Initiative (LCRI), and the United States Forest Service (USFS) to monitor forested areas and locate sites at risk for high intensity or crown fire.

GBI’s Ecological Monitoring Program is dedicated to providing college graduates and emerging professionals with hands-on survey, inventory, monitoring, and reporting experience in natural resource management. Extensive training and technical field skills development provides employees a unique opportunity to obtain valuable experience in executing monitoring protocols that will increase their employment success.

Description:

GBI is recruiting three Technicians to work with GBI, Lakeview County, LCRI, and USFS staff. Each Technician will work as a part of a field crew (one Lead will supervise one Technician) to document fire effects, assess ecosystem damage, and appraise potential for future treatments. Crews will be employing FIREMON and other protocols including:
Plot Description (PD), Tree Data (TD), Fuel Load (FL), Species Cover (SC), Cover/Frequency (CF), Line Intercept (LI), Density (DE), Point Intercept (PO), Rare Species (RS), and Composite Burn Index (BI). Crews may also be required to conduct Aspen and Invasive monitoring protocols.

Duties include following established field protocols to perform vegetation sampling and field data collection at new sampling plots. Data will be used by resource specialists and land managers to inform decisions regarding land management at various temporal and spatial scales. During field work, working in remote locations will typically be required. Occasional field camping may also be required.

Field work will include:

Maintaining safety awareness and practices;

Extensive 4x4 driving on unmaintained roads;

Navigating off-trail to sampling sites;

Establishing sampling plots and transects;

Collecting vegetation data (including tree canopy data, tree characteristics, seedling/ sapling characteristics, fuels, and vegetation)
Collecting soil data (including depth, moisture, and temperature)
Additional duties include:

Regular communication with GBI support staff and agency staff

Participation in GBI and agency trainings

Entering data on paper datasheets and excel

Identifying plants to species using dichotomous keys Employing extensive QA/QC data checks;

Project Location and Tentative Timeline:

The season will be approximately June 15th, 2026 to late August 2026. Crews will be based out of Lakeview, Oregon, and will be sampling in Lakeview and Klamath Falls. Please note that dates are subject to change depending on project needs.

Compensation and Benefits:

Wage:$19.00/ hour Benefits:$150.00 bi-weekly housing stipend* (Pro-rated if less than 80 hours worked)
Affordable Care Act Compliant Health insurance including vision and dental provided at no cost to the employee starting the first day of the month following employment start date.$25,000 Basic Life & AD&D insurance at no cost;

Access to Pro Deals Housing stipend can be used at the discretion of the applicant. Housing is not provided. Applicants must be able to provide their own lodging.

Technical requirements:

Experience conducting plant surveys using various monitoring protocols, including forest inventory and monitoring protocols, photo plots, and site observations;

Experience with data entry and management;

Experience with technical writing and/or producing written project summary…