See Below
JOB OPENING: Biological Technician-Seasonal Position
LOCATION: Yakima Training Center, Yakima, WA.
(Applicants should already reside locally or be willing to relocate to the area at their own expense)
DURATION: March 2013-late October/early November 2013
SALARY: DOE
Stell Environmental Enterprises, Inc. is a rapidly-growing, fast-paced, entrepreneurial small business that provides environmental compliance audits and assessment, permitting, investigation, planning, and engineering services nationwide to federal and state clients. To successfully perform duties the position below, candidates must be organized, detail oriented, with excellent interpersonal skills in order to provide strong focus and high quality customer service. Positions require effective communication skills and ability to complete all delegated tasks within a specified timeline as required by customer.
JOB DESCRIPTION:
A biological technician is being recruited to work for Stell Environmental Enterprises, Inc. to perform tasks supporting the Wildlife Program at the Yakima Training Center for the US Army. The position is field based with a small office component. Field work will begin in March and tentatively run into late October/early November with a 5-8hr day work schedule, switching to a 4-10hr day work schedule in May. Fluctuating work schedules (including working at night) and extremely early start times occur frequently throughout the field season. The candidates will be exposed to an array of shrub-steppe obligate flora and fauna along with proper survey methodology. The seasonal work varies annually depending on customer needs and priorities, but typically includes: sage-grouse lek counts, surveys, and radio-tracking, raptor surveys, sagebrush restoration monitoring, habitat restoration projects, rare-plant surveys, West-Nile virus monitoring, stream temperature monitoring, aquatic macroinvertebrate sampling and noxious weed surveys.
JOB DUTIES INCLUDE BUT ARE NOT LIMITED TO:
Sage-Grouse surveys
- Work alone to document male sage-grouse on leks.
- Search new areas for undiscovered leks.
- Assist in sage-grouse captures and subsequent radio-tracking.
Raptor surveys
- Work alone to locate and map known and new raptor nests, identify species, and check for occupancy and nest status.
- Conduct burrowing owl broadcast calling surveys to locate new nests and assist in captures to attach geolocators and band burrowing owls.
Sagebrush restoration monitoring
- Work with a team to measure vegetation characteristics and species composition in established planted or seeded monitoring areas.
Habitat restoration
- Work with a team to plant native species or install erosion controls to restore riparian and upland areas.
Noxious weed surveys
- Identify, locate, and map noxious weed infestations and determine the size infestation.
West-Nile virus monitoring
- Deploy light-traps at established sampling locations to capture mosquitoes. Retrieve traps, sort and identify catch, and process for mailing to lab for virus testing.
Stream temperature monitoring
- Locate stream temperature loggers and retrieve data. Move and reinstall loggers when necessary.
Aquatic macroinvertebrate sampling
- Obtain, sort, and preserve kick-net samples of macroinvertebrates at defined locations.
QUALIFICATIONS:
Required:
- An associate’s degree or higher in wildlife management, wildlife biology, wildlife ecology, botany, or another related natural resource field and a minimum 6 months field experience conducting wildlife or vegetative surveys/monitoring, research or management related to natural resources.
- Candidate must be a U.S. Citizen, have a current driver’s license, and be able to pass a background security investigation.
- Must be able to drive a manual transmission on unimproved roads.
- Must have experience with orientation and be able to use a GPS and compass to find locations on a map.
Preferred:
- Knowledge, experience, and/or fluency with biological monitoring, wildlife habitat requirements, standard field methods for vegetative and avian surveys.
- Previous experience conducting sage-grouse surveys, captures, and radio-tracking.
- Experience in identifying raptor species.
- Experience in identifying native plants; knowledge of local shrub-steppe and riparian species is preferable.
COMPETENCIES:
The candidate must be prepared to work alone or as part of a team in a variety of conditions, including rain and extreme heat or cold. The candidate must be able to adapt to changing work schedules. Experience using GPS devices is required. Candidates should be enthusiastic and willing to learn new field techniques and identification skills to improve their skill set. Applicants should be able to carry a heavy pack with survey and safety equipment on long hikes often on uneven terrain. The ability to record legible and complete field notes and perform occasional data entry in standard excel spreadsheet format is required
All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to their race, color, religion, sex, or national origin.
**Please submit a cover letter and resume in PDF or WORD format to Kevin White at: