SUMMER FIELD POSITIONS IN FIRE ECOLOGY (DOWNLOAD MS WORD VERSION OF ANNOUNCEMENT BELOW)
We
are hiring several summer field assistants to work primarily on the projects
described below
(Multiple
Openings)
Closing Date:
February 7th, 2003 or until filled
PAY RANGE:
$10-$13/hour DOE
HOUSING:
May be provided at research site(s)
LENGTH OF POSITIONS: Employment period is from
12 to 16 consecutive weeks, between May, 2003, and September, 2003 (may vary)
UC JOB CLASSIFICATION: Lab Assistant Series, Assistant I or II (University of California
Personnel Manual Title: #9603 or #9605)
MORE INFORMATION: http://www.cnr.berkeley.edu/stephens-lab/
TO APPLY: Please
send a resume and cover letter to the address below. In your cover letter, please note which project(s) you are
interested in working on. Specific
qualifications are described for each project and at the end of this
announcement. Mail or
e-mail applications to the address below.
Please include project number(s) you are interested in on the outside
of the envelope.
Scott Stephens
Attention: Project #
145 Mulford Hall #3114
Berkeley, CA 94720-3114
Or E-mail to Jason Moghaddas
QUALIFICATIONS-
ALL POSITIONS:
Work
experience or coursework including field exercises covering the following:
·
Vegetation measurement
techniques, including use of tree measurement tools.
·
Identification of common
Sierra Nevada or Coast Range plants (depending on project location).
·
Use of spreadsheet
applications; ability to use or learn to use handheld data recorders, GPS
units, and other electronic survey equipment
·
Operation of manual
transmission vehicles.
·
These positions are 90% +
field work. Field Research
Assistants may be exposed to hot dry weather, rough terrain, unpredictable
weather, insects, high elevations, & other environmental conditions; must
be capable of sustained physical work under these conditions.
·
Background in forestry,
natural resources management, forest ecology, or related field
·
Ability to work effectively
in both team and individual settings.
·
Outdoor savvy – familiarity
with navigation by map and compass, basic first aid training
Project & Job Descriptions:
Landscape
Scale Effects of Prescribed Natural Fire Programs in Three Wilderness Areas (Project
1)
Contact: Tadashi Moody, tmoody@nature.berkeley.edu
In
the early 1970’s, the National Park Service and the Forest Service
introduced the Prescribed Natural Fire (PNF) program in several wilderness
areas, in efforts to restore fire as a natural ecosystem process.
The Sugarloaf-Roaring River region of the Kings Canyon National Park,
and the Illilouette Creek Basin in Yosemite were among the first areas in
which naturally ignited fires
have been allowed to burn under prescribed conditions.
This project proposes to evaluate the effectiveness of this program on
a landscape scale using, ground based sampling of forest characteristics and
Geographic Information Systems (GIS) analyses.
The primary research questions are:
1) Are fires in these wilderness areas becoming limited in size and
effects? and 2) How have fuels, forest structure, composition, biodiveristy
and other characteristics in these areas been affected at different scales by
fires of varying frequency. And
3) How effective have WFU policies been in restoring pre-settlement fire
regimes to these wilderness areas.
Summer fieldwork will be aimed at sampling forest characteristics in
burned and unburned portions of the study areas.
Field staff will hike in to predetermined sites and install sampling
plots to measure fuels, stand overstory and and understory structure and
composition, biodiversity, and fire history.
Work will likely entail spending multiple nights out, and may require
long hikes with heavy (35+ lb.) backpacks.
If fires occur in the study areas during the season, field staff may be
transported to these fires to monitor fire characteristics.
Field work for 2003 will be primarily in Yosemite and Sequoia National
Parks. Laboratory work may
include field data entry, core sample preparation, and other duties as
assigned. Work schedule will be
composed of 80 hours of work every two weeks.
Because of the remote nature of the study sites, the work schedule will
likely be eight ten-hour workdays (in the field) followed by six days off.
· Good physical shape – able to hike long distances (8+ miles per day) sometimes with a heavy pack (35+ pounds).
·
A positive attitude –
ability to work well with others in remote settings, sometimes in
uncomfortable conditions (inclement weather) far from facilities.
·
A passion for the outdoors
– you will be spending your days and nights in the forest and under the
stars.
·
Basic First Aid, First
Responder, or Wilderness First Responder training
·
“Basic 32” wildland
firefighter training or equivalent within last 3 years (desired, not a
requirement)
·
Chainsaw experience (may be
necessary for fire history sampling)
Contact:
Jennifer Potts (jpotts@nature.berkeley.edu)
This
project examines the effects of prescribed fire & mastication on chaparral
vegetation and bird species composition in Northern California Coast Range
Chaparral.
Specifically, this study investigates the impacts of fall, winter, and spring fire and
mastication treatments on 1) shrubs, 2) herbaceous plants and 3) bird
abundance. In the past, this
ecosystem has been lightly studied, and the goal of this research is to
provide land managers and policy makers with information about fuel reduction
methods and seasonality. This
project is funded by the Joint Fire Sciences Program and is currently in its
second year, with study sites located at the University of California Hopland
Research & Extension Center and the BLM Cow Mountain Recreation Area in
Mendocino County.
Three field technicians are needed to assist a UC Berkeley graduate student in post-treatment shrub and herbaceous plant surveys. Field tasks will include but are not limited to: 1) Detailed herbaceous and shrub species inventories, 2) Pre-treatment shrub cover and height measurements, and 3) herbivory exclosure installation. Most field work will be conducted in burned or masticated chaparral, but some intact chaparral work will also be involved. Technicians are needed for 2 or 3 months of work (320-480 hours) – start dates are flexible, but mid to late May is preferred. The weekly work schedule will likely be four 10-hour days.
·
This job can be physically
demanding and will require the ability to work on steep slopes in hot sun and
dense brush for long periods, occasionally carrying 50 pounds for short
distances in these conditions.
·
Potential exposure to poison
oak, ticks, bees, rattlesnakes and other chaparral “surprises”.
· Applicants with strong botany interest and ability to identify plants using keys are encouraged to apply.
·
Technicians will stay in a
bunkhouse or other shared living facility during the workweek.
Contact:
Leda Kobziar (lkobziar@nature.berkeley.edu)
The
forests of the Granite Project Area, in the Groveland District of the Stanislaus
National Forest, suffered high mortality from a wildfire in 1973.
Following the burn, the area of approximately 17,000 acres of
mixed-conifer second growth forest was replanted predominately with ponderosa
and Jeffrey pine. Potential fire
danger in these stands is increasing yearly, as only a minimal degree of fuels
reduction has been administered over the last 28 years.
Congressional legislation was passed in 2001 to allow the Forest Service
together with UC Berkeley to use prescribed fire and silvicultural methods to
treat nearly 13,000 acres of the Granite Area for fuels reduction and
enhancement and maintenance of ecological processes.
The Project is to serve as an example for other plantation forests
throughout the Inland West, and will address key ecological effects as well the
change in both potential and actual fire behavior using FARSITE modeling.
Botanical species diversity and seed banks, tree growth rates, the
capacity for soil carbon sequestration, and the occurrence of fire scars on
trees within burn zones will also be explored in relation to the treatments.
This
summer’s work will include a significant amount of fieldwork sampling for the
treatment effects described above, and may include prescribed burning.
Much of the pre-treatment data was collected last summer, so we’ll
focus on soil carbon sequestration sampling, additional seed bank sampling and
botany. Depending on the timetable
of the Forest Service, we may be able to take post-treatment data.
This would also include fuels analysis and forest tree characteristics.
The Forest Service provides super (hot water, kitchen) accommodations at Cherry
Lake, near Yosemite National Park. The
area is quite beautiful and the forests are very accessible. The work involves hiking, use of all forestry equipment, and
carrying some heavy equipment. Employment
will likely total a month-and-a-half of 5-day workweeks, or “four-tens”.
(Maps
and more at: http://www.r5.fs.fed.us/stanislaus/groveland/granite/index.htm)
For decades, land managers have altered forest structure through
prescribed fire and fire surrogate treatments like thinning.
Although these practices are common, the current state of scientific
knowledge regarding their short and long-term ecological effects is limited.
In addition, efficacy of treatments for reducing fire hazard is not well
known across different vegetation types. The Fire and Fire Surrogate Study will
quantify changes in several response variables caused by these different
treatments.
The Fire and Fire Surrogate Study is a national research project
implemented on forested land located in 9 states.
The primary objective of the study is to quantify the initial effects
(first five years) of fire and fire surrogate treatments on a number of core
response variables within the general groupings of (a)
vegetation, (b) fuel and fire
behavior, (c) soils and forest floor
characteristics (including relation to local hydrology), (d) wildlife, (e)
entomology, (f) pathology, and (g)
treatment costs and utilization as they vary across geographically isolated
sites. Each response variable will be measured prior to treatment
and for 4 years after the treatments are implemented.
Research
assistants will have the opportunity to work directly on the Fire and Fire
Surrogate Study, a multi-disciplinary research project consisting of 12 sites
nationwide. Assistants will be
based at Blodgett Forest Research Station, located adjacent to the El Dorado
National Forest near Georgetown, CA. For
more information about the study, go to Fire and Fire Surrogate Study Web-site (http://ffs.psw.fs.fed.us/
or http://www.cnr.berkeley.edu/fire-surrogate-study).
Research assistants will be responsible for the collection of field data
for core variables of the Fire and Fire Surrogate Study.
Primary data collection duties will focus on vegetation and fuels
inventories and fire effects monitoring. Secondary
data collection duties may include data collection for soils, entomology, and
pathology components of the study. Other
duties may be assigned.
High severity
wildfires are common in pine forests of the western United States.
Many have suggested this is primarily due to changes in stand structures
and composition from past logging and systematic fire suppression of the last
century. There is currently debate on appropriate target conditions for fire
hazard reduction and forest restoration. This is due to the lack of unmanaged
forests that could serve as references in the western US.
The objectives of this project are to compare climate, fire history, and
stand structures of coniferous forests of the Sierra San Pedro Martir with
similar forests of the Sierra Nevada. This
information could be used to help develop target stand conditions for reducing
the fire hazard in large portions of California and Nevada mixed conifer
forests.
The position has a field component and a laboratory component.
The field work will include, but is not limited to:
1) reconnaissance to identify desired forest stand type and structure for
study site, 2) use of chainsaw to cut fire scars, 3) inventory forest stands, 4)
using surveying equipment to produce a stem map.
The laboratory work will include, but is not limited to: 1) field data
entry, 2) fire scar sample preparation, 3) cross-dating fire scars. Work schedule will be composed of 40 hours of work per week.
The work schedule will consist of both five eight-hour days of work per
week, and four ten-hour days of work per week.
·
Proficient with a use of a
chainsaw
·
Desire to learn
dendrochronology techniques and applications
·
Interest in possible continued
part-time work during fall, 2003 & spring 2002
Contact:
Travis Freed (tfreed@nature.berkeley.edu)
Coastal
Oak woodlands are currently being affected by an introduced pathogen, Phytophthora
ramorum, otherwise known as Sudden Oak Death Syndrome (SODS).
The resulting change in forest structure and the addition of fuel to the
forest floor is altering how fire may behave in these systems.
The extent and direction of the change in fire hazard is the focus of
this project. To address this
question we will be using remotely sensed images and data gathered in the field
to develop fire behavior model using Farsite.
This
summer we will be repeating the measurements that were done last summer.
This will involve measuring forest stand characteristics and fuel levels.
There may be some data entry and/or lab work involving GIS and image
analysis. The work involves
hiking, use of all forestry equipment, and carrying some heavy equipment.
Employment will likely total a month-and-a-half of 5-day workweeks, but
this is flexible.
(Maps
and more info on SODS at: http://kellylab.berkeley.edu/SODmonitoring)