Forestry Crew Lead - Sequoia NF (Western Divide District)

The Great Basin Institute, in cooperation with the USFS, is recruiting Forestry Crew Leads to perform timber sale-preparation, vegetation management and restoration projects within the Sierra Nevada mountain range (see location details below). Selected Leads will serve USFS Region 5’s vegetation management and fuels reduction efforts, supporting initiatives for healthy, productive, and resilient forest landscapes and resources. Projects will vary across Forests and Districts and include but are not limited to fuels reduction initiatives in post-fire landscapes and in and around sensitive habitats for threatened and endangered species, and watersheds. 

Forestry Crew Lead will perform a wide variety of activities to support all stages of project work. Leads will be responsible for crew safety and oversight, including coordination of daily tasks and affiliated project and crew needs, providing or assisting in training, communicate daily/weekly with agency staff to plan and assess crew accomplishments, and communicate with GBI staff as needed. Crew size will range between 2-6 people. Forestry duties may include timber sale unit boundary delineation and layout (GPSing, flagging, painting), tree species ID, green and salvage timber marking and cruising, timber and biomass plot cruising, collection of stand examination data, and general silviculture data collection. Duties may also include the identification of various resource concerns including hydrology, heritage, wildlife, and recreation. All procedures will be performed in compliance with complex silvicultural prescriptions based on forest and treatment type and land management goals. Data will be gathered using standard instruments, direct measurements, general observations, and on-site inspections. Project-specific training will be provided on tree-species identification, GPS data collection, tree marking, hydrology, entomology/pathology, heritage, fire/fuels, and other elements. Prior experience in basic GIS skills, GPS data collection, tree-species identification, timber marking and cruising, identifying hydrologic concerns, recognizing forest entomology/pathology issues, identifying heritage sites, and experience with fire/fuels assessments or related field tasks is highly preferred.

This physically demanding work, often in remote project locations, will provide Forestry Crew Leads with rewarding exposure to some of California's lesser-known forested landscapes. This work requires extensive hiking in steep terrain at high altitudes (5,000 to 9,000 ft.) with heavy packs on a daily basis, possibly during extreme or inclement weather conditions such as heat, smoke, high winds, snow or rain. Positions often require operating 4-wheel drive vehicles in off-road conditions including, mud, snow and high clearance roads. Work schedules, generally four 10-hour days with three days off each week, are subject to change depending on weather and project needs.