USDA-FS Living Maps of Wildlife Habitats Fellowship

*Applications will be reviewed on a rolling-basis.

USDA Forest Service Office/Lab and Location: A fellowship opportunity is available with the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) Forest Service (FS) within the Rocky Mountain Research Station (RMRS) located in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

At the heart of the USDA Forest Service's mission is their purpose. Everything they do is intended to help sustain forests and grasslands for present and future generations. Why? Because their stewardship work supports nature in sustaining life. This is the purpose that drives the agency’s mission and motivates their work across the agency. It’s been there from the agency’s very beginning, and it still drives them. To advance the mission and serve their purpose, the USDA Forest Service balances the short and long-term needs of people and nature by: working in collaboration with communities and our partners; providing access to resources and experiences that promote economic, ecological, and social vitality; connecting people to the land and one another; and delivering world-class science, technology and land management.

Research Project: The National Forest System (NFS) has an enormous responsibility to guide the conservation of forest resources and habitat across the lands they steward. Yet landscapes are constantly changing, and the pace of those changes is accelerating. Fires, floods, insect outbreaks, drought, and human activities are occurring on scales previously unseen in our lifetimes. In the face of these rapid changes, NFS needs to be able to evaluate the impacts of management and disturbances on habitat of sensitive wildlife to ensure management occurs in an adaptive framework. Simply put: NFS needs real-time, ‘living maps’ of wildlife habitat. NFS often must rely on habitat maps based on dated vegetation information that does not reflect current conditions, which challenges effective adaptive management. Our team has the expertise to develop ‘living maps’ of wildlife habitat across the United States to inform activities at project, district, forest, and national levels.

To address this problem multiple NFS regions and Research and Development (R&D) stations are collaborating to develop dynamic habitat maps (or ‘living maps’) for wildlife species of management concern.

During this appointment, the ORISE post-graduate research fellow will update the database management, model development, and science communication of RMRS Living Maps project.  Under the supervision of scientists at RMRS, the research fellow will work to pilot test and subsequently refine and finalize a dynamic habitat model for one of the following species of management concern: Canada lynx, American marten, or Pinyon Jay. This research will build off of previous Forest Service habitat modeling research (Jones et al. 2023; Shirk et al. 2023) to design and implement automated habitat monitoring systems for the Mexican spotted owl and Pacific fisher. 

Learning Objectives: Under the guidance of a mentor, the intern will collaboratively learn to:

• Identify a candidate species of interest
• Develop a cleaned database of species location data,
• Develop a dynamic species distribution model using the Google Earth Engine platform, and e) publish results in peer reviewed journal article(s).

These dynamic habitat maps, implemented to meet local needs, can provide the data needed to inform Wildfire Crisis Strategy planning with consistent and defensible data for these at-risk species.

Mentor: The mentor for this opportunity is Gavin Jones (gavin.jones@usda.gov). If you have questions about the nature of the research, please contact the mentor.

Anticipated Appointment Start Date: September 2024.  Start date is flexible and will depend on a variety of factors.

Appointment Length: The appointment will initially be for one year but may be extended upon recommendation of USDA Forest Service and is contingent on the availability of funds.

Level of Participation: The appointment is full time.

Participant Stipend: The participant will receive a monthly stipend commensurate with educational level and experience. 

Citizenship Requirements: This opportunity is available to U.S. citizens only.

ORISE Information: This program, administered by ORAU through its contract with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) to manage the Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education (ORISE), was established through an interagency agreement between DOE and USDA Forest Service. Participants do not become employees of USDA, USDA Forest Service, DOE or the program administrator, and there are no employment-related benefits. Proof of health insurance is required for participation in this program. Health insurance can be obtained through ORISE.

Questions: Please visit our Program Website. After reading, if you have additional questions about the application process please email ORISE.USFS.RMRS@orau.org and include the reference code for this opportunity.

Qualifications

The qualified candidate should be currently pursuing or have received a doctoral degree in the one of the relevant fields. Degree must have been received within the past five years, or currently pursuing.

Eligibility Requirements

• Citizenship: U.S. Citizen Only
• Degree: Doctoral Degree received within the last 60 months or currently pursuing.