Forest Monitoring Crew Lead

The Great Basin Institute seeks two Forest Monitoring Crew Leads in Lakeview, OR, to supervise field crews in ecological monitoring. Responsibilities include vegetation and soil data collection, following established protocols, and ensuring safety. The role offers hands-on experience for natural resource professionals and requires extensive fieldwork in remote locations. The project runs from June to August 2025, focusing on monitoring forest health and fire risks.
Forest Monitoring Crew Lead (Lakeview, OR)
Great Basin Institute

The Great Basin Institute is an interdisciplinary field studies organization that promotes environmental research, education, and service throughout the west. The Institute’s mission is to advance applied science and ecological literacy through community engagement and agency partnerships, supporting national parks, forest, open spaces and public lands.

The Ecological Monitoring Program at GBI serves as an excellent professional development opportunity for natural resource professionals looking for experience in botanical, soil, and rangeland surveys. This program focuses on the collection of reliable and consistent quantitative data on the status, condition, and trend of natural resources on public and private lands.

GBI is partnering with Lake County Umbrella Watershed Council and Lake County Resources Initiative (LCRI) to monitor forested areas and locate sites at risk for high intensity or crown fire.

GBI’s Ecological Monitoring Program is dedicated to providing college graduates and emerging professionals with hands-on survey, inventory, monitoring, and reporting experience in natural resource management. Extensive training and technical field skills development provides employees a unique opportunity to obtain valuable experience in executing monitoring protocols that will increase their employment success.

Description:

GBI is recruiting two Crew Leads to work with GBI, Lake County and LCRI staff. Each Field Lead will coordinate a field crew (one Lead will supervise one Technician) to document fire effects, identify native and invasive flora, and appraise potential for future treatments (FIREMON). Crews will be employing FIREMON and other protocols including: Plot Description (PD), Tree Data (TD), Fuel Load (FL), Species Cover (SC), Cover/Frequency (CF), Line Intercept (LI), Density (DE), Point Intercept (PO), Rare Species (RS), and Composite Burn Index (BI).

Duties include following established field protocols to perform vegetation sampling and field data collection at new sampling plots. Data will be used by resource specialists and land managers to inform decisions regarding land management at various temporal and spatial scales. During field work, working in remote locations will typically be required.

Field work will include:
• Maintaining safety awareness and practices;
• Extensive 4×4 driving on unmaintained roads;
• Navigating off-trail to sampling sites;
• Establishing sampling plots and transects;
• Collecting vegetation data (including tree canopy data, tree characteristics, seedling/ sapling characteristics, fuels, and vegetation)
• Collecting soil data (including depth, moisture, and temperature)

Additional duties include:
• Regular communication with GBI support staff and agency staff
• Participation in GBI and agency trainings
• Entering data on paper datasheets and excel
• Identifying plants to species using dichotomous keys
• Employing extensive QA/QC data checks;
• Leadership:
• Supporting and managing a field crew
• Coordinating field logistics and scheduling;
• Report writing and completing administrative paperwork

Project Locations and Tentative Timeline:

The season will be approximately June 16th, 2025 to August 2025. Crews will be based out of Lakeview, Oregon, and will be sampling in Lakeview and Klamath Falls.

Compensation:

Breakdown:
• $24.00/ hour
• $150.00 bi-weekly housing stipend* (Pro-rated if less than 80 hours worked)
• $32.30/month cell phone stipend
• Affordable Care Act Compliant Health insurance including vision and dental provided at no cost to the employee starting the first day of the month following employment start date.
• Paid federal holidays
• Housing stipend is untaxed and can be used at the discretion of the applicant. Housing is not provided. Applicants must be able to provide their own lodging.

Qualifications:
• Leadership experience, including supervising field crews and managing projects simultaneously.
• Experience, education, or a combination in botany, range management, and or soils to meet the following:
• Bachelor’s degree in botany, biology, ecology, or rangeland ecology or other natural resources with coursework in plant or biological sciences or a minimum of 1 years of field data collection identifying plants;

Technical requirements:
• Experience conducting plant surveys using various monitoring protocols, including standard rangeland monitoring protocols, photo plots, and site observations;
• Experience with data entry and management;
• Experience with technical writing and/or producing written project summary reports;
• Ability to read, interpret and navigate using topographic maps;
• Experience safely operating 4WD trucks on paved and unpaved roads, often in remote areas on unimproved roads;
• Experience navigating and collecting coordinates with hand-held GPS units;
• Experience with Microsoft Office (Word, Excel, Access)

Additional requirements:
• Willingness and ability to work in a fast-paced, dynamic setting, and to consistently enact high performance standards and a strong work and team ethic in support of the goals and objectives of the project and the mission of GBI;
• Willingness to mentor and foster professional development for members of your crew;
• Valid, state-issued driver’s license and clean driving record;
• Familiarity with native and invasive plants of the sampling area and associated natural resource issues preferred;
• Ability to work productively as part of a team to accomplish mutual goals;
• Ability to work independently;
• Ability to communicate effectively with team members, agency staff, and a diverse public;
• Ability to accurately complete administrative tasks on time i.e. timesheet, paperwork, etc;
• Excellent organizational skills;
• Familiarity with best practices for field safety and Leave No Trace principles;
• Willingness to work irregular hours (e.g., early mornings, late nights); and
• Ability to work in harsh and rapidly changing environments, work in all types of weather conditions, traverse uneven terrain, carry upwards of 40 pounds in a backpack, and otherwise maintain good physical condition.