For the 2023 field season, GBI is recruiting two Vegetation Monitoring Crew Leads to work with agency staff, GBI staff, and technicians. Each Lead will coordinate and supervise a field crew (one Lead and three Technicians) to characterize vegetation using LHA protocols, on various sampling sites across northern Nevada. Monitoring projects are predominantly located in sagebrush ecosystems and focused on post-fire restoration, habitat improvement, and baseline condition of sage-grouse habitat. This opportunity differs from other GBI Ecological Monitoring positions as the primary monitoring goal is to conduct long-term vegetation monitoring, excluding soil indicators.

During the first month of training, the typical schedule is 5 days on (Monday-Friday) and 2 days off. During field work, car camping for 8 day “hitches” (Wednesday-Wednesday) in remote locations will be required, followed by 6 days off (Thursday-Tuesday). At the end of the field season, there are three weeks of office work, primarily focused on data QC.

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 species inventory, forb diversity, species abundance, sagebrush shape, foliar cover, canopy gap, and herbaceous and woody heights);
• Taking photo-points;
• Making qualitative treatment assessments; and
• Identifying plants to species using dichotomous keys.