[ECOLOG-L] PhD grad assistantship, Human Dimensions of Natural Resource Management
GRADUATE ASSISTANTSHIP, HUMAN DIMENSIONS OF NATURAL RESOURCE MANAGEMENT – Ph.D. in Environmental Systems at University of California, Merced Seeking a PhD student who is eager to work in an interdisciplinary setting on research related to climate change planning and recreational visitor use management in parks and public lands of the Sierra Nevada. Keywords: Sierra Nevada, wildland urban-interface, parks and protected areas management, complex systems, political ecology, land use planning Possible research tasks that the graduate student may assist on include a combination of the following: 1] geovisualization of future climate change scenarios given trade-offs between different land use management practices (e.g. adaptation, restoration, passive) through image alteration, cartographic editing techniques, and other comparative methods (experience with Photoshop a plus); 2] carrying out surveys about the changing landscape of the wildland-urban interface, specifically related to the social and economic impact from climate induced disturbances like wildfire, tree mortality, and variable snow pack and hydrological conditions on tourism dependent communities that rely on climatic certainty; 3] assessing environmental education curriculum and developing natural resource communication materials for use in National Park youth outreach, including historically underrepresented populations; 4] conducting literature reviews on coupled socio-ecological systems, wildland-urban interface land use planning and policy at various scales, cognitive processes and biases associated with complex environmental change, and protected areas management; 5] analysis of archival material (e.g. photos, text, maps) from parks, forests, and other agencies to better understand changing environmental conditions, socioeconomic factors, and shifting management priorities; 6] collection and analysis of geographic information systems (GIS) data layers to model changes in infrastructure and development, along with provisioning of environmental services and benefits in the Sierra Nevada. The successful candidate will have a strong background in geography or a closely aligned field such as environmental studies or planning, proficiency with geographic information systems analysis and other interdisciplinary social science methods, and experience working with stakeholders from a diverse set of backgrounds and perspectives. A Master’s degree or professional equivalent is strongly preferred. Additionally, preference will be given to those who have experience with public lands and natural resource agencies, professionally, academically, recreationally, or otherwise. The doctoral training will be anchored in the Environmental Systems graduate program (http://es.ucmerced.edu) and cross over with opportunities and resources in the Management of Complex Systems department (http://mist.ucmerced.edu). The assistantship provides a 9-month stipend, in-state tuition waiver (residency must be acquired in 1-year), and health insurance through a combination of research assistantships and teaching assistantships. Normative time for a Ph.D. is approximately 5 years, and students must be willing to independently seek out and apply for fellowships to support individual research opportunities during the summer months and later years of the program. The Ph.D. student will work under the direct supervision of Dr. Jeffrey Jenkins as part of a research group. The application deadline for Fall 2018 is January 15th, 2018. Interested students are encouraged to get in contact at their earliest opportunity (jeff.jenk...@ucmerced.edu) with cover letter of interest highlighting relevant experience, C.V., GRE status/scores, and transcript information (if available) before applying. For background about the University of California’s growing Merced campus please see the 2020 Plan (http://merced2020.ucmerced.edu), for further details about graduate study please see the Graduate Division website (http://graduatedivision.ucmerced.edu), and for information about ongoing faculty research throughout the region please see the Sierra Nevada Research Institute (http://snri.ucmerced.edu).
[ECOLOG-L] ESA Annual Meeting 2017 - Southwest Chapter Student Travel Award
The Southwest Chapter of the Ecological Society of America is offering travel awards ($400) available for students to support travel to the Annual ESA Meeting. Students wishing to apply for an award should send application materials to Anne Kelly (akel...@ucmerced.edu), Chair of the Southwestern Chapter by June 9th, 2017. Successful applicants will be notified of their award by June 29, 2017. Awardees are required to attend the Southwest Chapter business meeting at the Annual Meeting in Portland, Oregon to receive their award. Applications will be judged by Southwest Chapter elected officers. Criteria for the awards will be overall quality of the abstract, student progress toward their degree, the degree to which the abstract and research reflect ecological issues relevant to the American Southwest, and financial need. Eligibility 1. Applicants must be the presenting author of a paper or poster that has been accepted for presentation at the Annual ESA meeting. 2. Applicants must be enrolled as graduate or undergraduate student members of the Southwestern Chapter at the time of their application. To join ESA and this chapter, visit eservices.esa.org<http://eservices.esa.org/>. If you have already renewed your membership, but have not added the Southwestern Chapter, please contact members...@esa.org<mailto:members...@esa.org> for assistance. 3. Students, co-authors, employees, and relatives of current section officers are ineligible for this award. Previous awardees are ineligible. Application materials are to be submitted via email in a single document (except the letter of recommendation) and include: 1. A copy of the abstract accepted by ESA for presentation at the annual meeting, including the paper/poster number and date/session/time of presentation; 2. A cover letter from the student describing the nature, importance, and relevance of the research to be presented, the student’s interest in attending the ESA meeting, and whether or not they have other forms of financial support; and 3. A letter of recommendation from the student’s advisor. Complete applications should be sent to Anne Kelly, Southwest Chapter Chair at akel...@ucmerced.edu with the subject line “ESA Southwest Chapter Student Travel Application.” We’re looking forward to seeing you in Portland! Sincerely, Anne Kelly, Chair Dan Potts, Vice-Chair Aaron Rhodes, Secretary
[ECOLOG-L] Job announcement - Catalina Island Conservancy invasive plant program
JOB DESCRIPTION POSITION: Habitat Program Supervisor REPORTS TO: Senior Plant Ecologist STATUS: Full-time, Exempt UPDATED:July 2014 DEPT: Conservation POSITION SUMMARY: The Habitat Program Supervisor leads the Conservancy’s Catalina Habitat Improvement and Restoration Program (CHIRP). A major position responsibility includes implementing the Conservancy’s invasive plant control program. Responsibilities involve a wide range of field and office activities, including program development and implementation, GIS data collection and analysis, project management, education and outreach, grant writing, and budget and grant management. This position is directly responsible for hiring and supervising permanent and seasonal staff and volunteers. This position is a two-year term with possibility of extension contingent on funding. ESSENTIAL DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES: • Lead in all aspects relating to the management of invasive plants including overall program development, budgeting, and grant management. • Maintain and update a prioritized list of non-native invasive plant species on the island based on their abundance, distribution, invasiveness, and ease of control. • Assist in the collection and analysis of monitoring data to measure the effectiveness of restoration and control strategies. Maintain invasive plant program GIS database in coordination with Conservancy GIS program staff. • Collaborate with other program staff on the development of a long-term island-wide habitat restoration and invasive plant control strategy based on different spatial scales. • Prepare and implement annual work plans that include goals, budgets, and schedules. • Identify grant-funding sources, cultivate working relationships with funding entities, and conceptualize, write, and submit grant proposals. • In collaboration with Conservancy staff, appropriate island agencies and organizations, community members, and the public, develop and implement prevention programs and strategies aimed at preventing the introduction and establishment of invasive plant species. • Provide technical expertise and conservation recommendations to staff, executive team, and board regarding conservation issues on the island. Provide assistance to visiting researchers as appropriate. • Develop and maintain a list of needed research projects related to non-native invasive plants, and facilitate research on those topics with academic institutions. • In collaboration with the Conservancy’s Education and Communications Departments develop outreach information, presentations, articles for internal and external publications, interpretive displays, professional journals and press releases on invasive plants and the Conservancy’s programs. • Perform other duties as assigned. REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS: To perform this job successfully, an individual must be able to perform each essential duty satisfactorily. The requirements listed below are representative of the knowledge, skill and/or ability required. An ideal candidate will possess a substantial combination of all these requirements. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions. KNOWLEDGE/SKILLS: • Must be experienced in invasive plant management including herbicide types and uses, herbicide application equipment (truck mounted spray rigs, backpack sprayers), mechanical control methods (e.g. chainsaws, brush cutters, Macleod, Pulaski, lopper, handsaw, weed wrench) and current herbicide storage, application, safety, and disposal regulations. • Possession of a Qualified Applicator Certificate or ability to obtain this certification within six months required. • Knowledge or experience in applied habitat restoration, especially plant community restoration, and monitoring required. • Previous collection and analysis of field data using quantitative analytical skills is required. Must be proficient in Windows and geospatial software and equipment. Experience with ArcView/ArcInfo Pathfinder, Trimble and ArcPad GPS platforms preferred. • Employee must hold a valid driver's license and be able to drive 4 wheel drive vehicles with spray rigs over rough terrain and unimproved roads. COMPLEXITY/PROBLEM SOLVING: • Able to think critically and creatively to develop solutions to complex restoration and invasive species control problems. • Ability to adapt and respond to unexpected or unplanned ecological (e.g. fire, drought, new invasions) or programmatic (e.g. changes in organizational priorities or funding) circumstances while still progressing towards core program objectives. • Ability to work effectively on an interdisciplinary team balancing conservation, recreation and education organizational goals. COMMUNICATIONS/INTERPERSONAL CONTACTS: • Excellent written
Re: [ECOLOG-L] Recent PhDs on Food Stamps - Overwhelmed with Replies
As a newly graduating PhD with a K12 teaching credential, I can attest that there are not many jobs for new PhDs outside of academia. I am looking in all sectors except consulting, but I'm not qualified as a consultant. My only interview so far has been with a non-profit, where I was one of hundreds of applicants. The few ecology-related government jobs that came up this year (for PhDs) also had hundreds of applicants. I've maintained my teaching credential in case I need to return to teaching high school, but most school districts within the state have been under a hiring freeze or are laying off staff, even in science and math. With most of these jobs, one must pick between good or rewarding. Starting salaries for K12 teachers is about $35k-$45k in California and it is an incredibly difficult job. I truly love my PhD work and I would like to continue doing research. It's challenging and rewarding, and I believe it has real benefit to society. However the bleak prospects in this field have been discouraging to say the least. Thank you to those who are participating in this discussion. I would love to see this discussion posted more publicly, perhaps a blog with open commenting, because our colleagues in other fields are all struggling with these same issues. The broader academic community might benefit by sharing our thoughts and ideas on this problem. -Anne On Mon Feb 10 06:00:50 2014, Judith S. Weis wrote: The existence of many good and rewarding jobs outside academia - in federal agencies (EPA, NOAA, FWS, USGS, FDA etc.) as well as in state agencies, the private sector (e.g. consulting firms) and non-profits (environmental groups) or for those who love teaching, teaching in K-12 seems to be ignored in this discussion. If we agree that jobs for ecologists are resource limited, and If we agree that resources are not increasing, then it follows that ecologists who wish to produce intellectual offspring (MS and PhD) should produce such offspring in a way that maximizes the probability that they will be represented in the next generation's career 'gene pool'. If ecologists believe the current job market is competitive, they should reproduce like albatrosses, maximizing their investment in a very few highly competitive offspring with a wide array of attractive skills (K-slection). If they believe the current job market is essentially a crap shoot, then they should spawn like salmon, investing little or nothing, with subsequent massive mortality, and only a few offspring surviving (r-selection) The present situation seems to be more salmonid in an albatross environment with considerable human carnage. What can be done? Individuals can look into other fields but that means giving up a dream and acquiring more debt if they go back to school to retrain. If they stay, they risk remaining on the outside of academic/professional leks, opportunistically exploiting irregular and marginal rewards. They can teach, becoming contingent faculty, a growing national scandal where untenured faculty with precarious teaching positions may rely on food stamps to get by. If they have a large debt from student loans, they will end up taking just about any job that allows them to make their monthly repayments. The long term solution is a ZPG for ecologists: professors should essentially only reproduce themselves. Some may reply that they need 'excess' grad students as teaching assistants. In reality these positions could be filled and better taught by what are now contingent faculty. Make these better paid, give them a heavier load than one or two classes a semester and provide five-year contracts that would give them with more security. Faculty should not admit grad students unless they can be fully supported by fellowships. With fewer degrees each year, agencies might consider increasing the number of independent post docs that are long enough to be useful (5 years?) to allow people to develop. Funders should be prepared, if they fund projects with interns, to fund them at a living wage. Funding agencies should also support programs that support those in overcrowded fields who wish to retrain for teaching or health fields. We make a big point of wanting more people to enter the STEM fields, maybe we need to think more about how to retain them. David Duffy On Sun, Feb 9, 2014 at 10:57 AM, David L. McNeely mcnee...@cox.net wrote: Kevin Klein kkl...@mail.ic.edu wrote: I haven't been able to follow the entire thread but one thing I draw from what I have read is that it is incumbent on those of us who work with students at all stages in their academic careers to also advise them to consider the job market in their chosen disciplines. In so doing, they make more informed decision and they study with eyes open wide on the possibilities open to them at the next stage in their life and career journey. Much easier said than done.
