Conservation Management duties include, but are not limited to:
• Works independently and jointly with other OSBS staff on conservation projects that will primarily involve habitat restoration, groundcover harvesting, fire management, exotic invasive species control, and monitoring.
• Serves as a fire crew member in the Station’s wildland fire management program on controlled fires and wildfires for the purpose of natural resource enhancement, restoration, fuel reduction, research, and training.
• Participates in fire suppression activities that may require working non-normal work schedule (infrequent)
• Participates in off-site controlled burns with cooperators (ex, Fl Park Service, SJRWMD, etc.).
• Prepares management units for burning as directed by Land Manager.
• Attends to pre and post fire operational needs, including preparing fire breaks, burn unit fuel treatments.
• Maintains fire equipment and fire cache in ready status; maintain, clean and organize trucks, UTVs, ATVs and work areas.
• Participates in fire effects monitoring projects.
• Works alongside cooperators and contractors of OSBS when needed
• Works with other Conservation program staff in scouting, documenting, and controlling of exotic-invasive species on OSBS.
• Collects data on identified conservation projects and serves as a backup data collector on selected projects. Monitors natural communities for management needs and effects of management activities.
• Ensures proper implementation of restoration projects, forestry operations, and other activities through field supervision of contractors, volunteers, interns and direct participation.
News
New May-June 2021 SFE Fire Lines Newsletter Issue
The May – June 2021 issue of the Southern Fire Exchange Fire Lines newsletter is out! Click through to read a research brief on mesophication in eastern US forests, science and technology updates relevant to the Southeast, new video interviews, new wildland fire podcasts, upcoming events, and more! Do you have thoughts about our newsletter? Contact us!
Continue ReadingJob: Fire Management Program Assistant, Florida Park Service
The Florida Park Service is accepting applications for a Fire Management Program Assistant based out of Tallahassee’s central office at the Bureau of Natural and Cultural Resources. The majority of the work will be detail oriented administrative work, but there will be opportunities for participating in the fire program with boots on the ground. Duties will include, but are not limited to: tracking and purchasing for the fabrication, building and outfitting Type 5 Fire Engines, logistics for statewide trainings including Southern Area Engine Academy, and help in development and implementation of Collector/Survey 1,2,3 Apps for fire management.
Continue ReadingNew USFS Report: Research Improves Climate-Smart Management of America’s Forests and Grasslands
In response to the new administration’s focus on climate change, Forest Service R&D produced Research Improves Climate-smart Management of America’s Forests and Grasslands, a special report that highlights the agency’s contributions to climate science and land management.
Continue ReadingNWCG Week of Remembrance
Today is the eighth anniversary of a single shift on the Yarnell Hill Fire that took the lives of 19 firefighters. NWCG uses this solemn day to remember that instance and begin a week of reflection to honor all our sisters and brothers who have perished in the line of duty. Each day of the Week of Remembrance builds upon the previous day.
Continue ReadingAldo Leopold Wilderness Research Institute Research Scientist Position
The Aldo Leopold Wilderness Research Institute will soon be advertising for a research scientist position focused on diversity, equity, and inclusion in relation to stewardship of Federally designated wilderness.
With the holiday weekend approaching, and the desire to recruit broadly for this position, those interested are advised that the positions will likely to be open for applications on, or about, July 5th, 2021. The posting will be open for applications on USA Jobs for 10 days or until we receive 50 applications, whichever happens first.
About the Position:
The scientist is expected to develop meaningful and impactful lines of research, partnerships, and outreach related to investigating and improving the relevance of Federally designated wilderness to communities who have been historically underrepresented and/or under resourced.
Although there is flexibility in research topics (due to funding opportunities, the Institute’s broad and evolving wilderness science agenda, and an incumbent’s expertise), example areas where the scientist will provide leadership include: 1) understanding recreation experiences, preferences, barriers, and incentives for communities who have historically been underrepresented and/or under resourced with respect to Federally designated wilderness; 2) improving the delivery of government benefits and services, related to management of wilderness, to ensure that families of all backgrounds can access opportunity; 3) improving information on how the demographics of society are changing and how those changes will impact the way people value and use wilderness; (4) explorations of the “relevancy” of wilderness, which is either related to long-standing relevancy that has not been emphasized or new relevancy emerging due to a changing society; and 5) studying new methods to assess whether proposed and existing wilderness management laws and policies advance equity and inclusion.
To be clear, applicants DO NOT need a wilderness background. Applicants must have experience with scholarship, tools, and/or methods, which can be from a broad range of academic backgrounds, but this experience must be applicable to research about the engagement of underrepresented or under-resourced communities in relation to Federally designated wilderness. Once a member of the Institute, most of the scientist’s work, most of the time must support stewardship of the National Wilderness Preservation System (NWPS). But, the discipline of public lands management, and specifically wilderness stewardship, can be learned as part of on-the-job training.
About the Institute:
The Aldo Leopold Wilderness Research Institute, part of U.S. Forest Service Rocky Mountain Research Station (RMRS), is an interagency, national research facility located on campus at the University of Montana. The Leopold Institute is the only federal research group in the United States dedicated to development and dissemination of knowledge needed to steward the 111-million acre, U.S. National Wilderness Preservation System. We have a long a long history of conducting and sharing science in support of the NWPS, as well as collaborating with academic, NGO, tribal, community, and other partners within the U.S. and internationally. In addition to being administered by the RMRS, the Institute’s work is responsive to an Interagency Wilderness Policy Council. This collaboration, defined by an interagency agreement among the Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management, Fish and Wildlife Service, National Park Service, and U.S. Geological Survey, and facilitated through an Interagency Wilderness Steering Committee, helps to ensure the Institute’s work is relevant to wilderness managers.
It’s a great time to join the team. Wilderness and wilderness conservation remain important, at home and globally; and in many ways, are more important than ever. Wilderness is essential to climate change mitigation, fresh water supplies, habitat connectivity, food and economic security, and spiritual and physical health, to name only a few benefits. We have significant stewardship challenges in front of us and endless opportunities to conduct science and develop partnerships that make a difference to all people. We are in the process of building our next, ten-year, science strategic plan…and, you can help to shape this plan. We are a passionate and collegial group dedicated to stewarding wilderness in the U.S. and internationally, and we welcome you to join our team.
More information about the Leopold Institute can be found here: https://leopold.wilderness.net/
Continue ReadingEmerging Field of Science Could Explain How Wildfires Carry Microbes
When wildfires rage across the landscape, whether on grasslands or in forests, the massive plumes of smoke that rise into the air and travel for miles can carry more than a thousand different types of microbes with them.
Yet until University of Idaho associate professor Leda Kobziar came along, there was essentially no research on what bacteria and fungi might be carried in that smoke, how far those microbes might travel, or how they might impact soil ecology both where the fire started and where the microbes land.
Continue ReadingNotice of Upcoming JFSP Funding Opportunity Announcements
The interagency Joint Fire Science Program (JFSP) intends to request proposals through one or more formal Funding Opportunity Announcements (FOA) beginning approximately July 2021 and remaining open approximately 60 days. The intent of this announcement is to provide an early alert to investigators interested in the topics listed below so that they can begin considering responsive ideas with potential partners and collaborators.
Investigators should recognize that final decisions regarding topic selection will not be made until July and that final topic selection may differ from that posted here. One or more topics could be dropped or added, and the specific focus of individual topics may be altered. Investigators should recognize this uncertainty and not invest substantial time or resources working on proposals until the FOAs and their associated topics are formally posted.
Topics and funding opportunities are as follows:
Primary FOA
A. Social and ecological recovery of communities impacted by wildfire JFSP is interested in proposals that will inform the development or improvement of strategies, tools, and resources used for post-fire community recovery, such that they facilitate recovery efforts that increase the resilience of social-ecological systems to future wildfires.
B. Collaborative development of ecosystem mapping products for fire and fuels management
JFSP is looking for proposals to develop, using a collaborative framework, prototype mapping protocols and products that capture current ecosystem condition, desired condition, and departure from desired condition at spatial and temporal resolutions relevant to fire and fuels management decisions.
GRIN FOA – Graduate Research Innovation (GRIN) Award
The JFSP will continue awarding the Graduate Research Innovation (GRIN) program for current master and doctoral students in the field of wildland fire and related physical, biological, and social sciences. Proposals must be directly related to the mission and goals of JFSP to be considered, and they must address management- or policy-related questions related to one or more of the following general topic areas: fuels management and fire behavior, emissions and air quality, fire effects and post-fire recovery, relative impacts of prescribed fire versus wildfire, or human dimensions of fire.
Regional Fire Science Exchange FOA
The JFSP is looking to solicit proposals to lead and execute a particular regional fire science exchange for a period of one to three years. This solicitation is seeking individual proposals (i.e., each proposal must be specific to one region) for the following six regions of the FSEN: Southern, Southern Rockies, Southwest, Appalachians, Great Plains and North Atlantic.
Prescribed Fire Effects on Soil Fertility
USDA Forest Service researcher John Butnor examined how dormant-season prescribed fire affects forest soil fertility in the months after a burn in a recent paper. While others have studied soil a year or more after a prescribed burn. Butnor’s research compares soil chemistry before burning and 1, 3, 6, and 12 months after.
Read the CompassLive article and research paper here.
Continue ReadingSouthern Blue Ridge TREX Registration Opens
Now Accepting Applications!!
Southern Blue Ridge TREX is happening October 25, 2021 – November 5, 2021 in the South Carolina mountains. Join for 14 days of prescribed fire training, fire ecology talks and field trips. Visit www.sbrtrex.com for more information. Questions? email [email protected], [email protected], [email protected]
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