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Public Land Name:
Point Reyes National Seashore

Position Title:
Wetlands Assistant [Mosaics]

Agency: NPS

Position Type: Mosaics

Position ID Number:
2015233

Location:
Point Reyes, CA

Accepting Applications?

# of current Applicants: 0

Position Description:
The San Francisco Bay Area Network (SFAN) proposes to host a Mosaics in Science participant for 10 weeks in order to consolidate historical wetlands mapping efforts and perform field verification in order to build comprehensive wetlands GIS that will both preserve legacy data and improve the utility of existing knowledge for park managers. Point Reyes National Seashore will provide housing and direct supervision and the participant will gain the opportunity to work with specialists in four network parks. The network consists of eight parks stretched along the central California Coastal Range – including Point Reyes National Seashore, Muir Woods National Monument, Golden Gate National Recreation Area, and Pinnacles National Park. The geology of the area has been described “crazy-quilt pattern of rocks almost defying description and order” (Sloan 2006). Numerous faults dissect the landscape; most notably, the San Andreas Fault runs directly through or in close proximity to all SFAN park units. The complex geology and topography of these parks support tremendous habitat diversity, ranging from the coastal plains and forests of the Point Reyes Peninsula, south through protected lands and waters surrounding urban San Francisco, to arid scrub slopes and riparian corridors of Pinnacles National Park. These areas also support a high diversity of wetland habitats, including, among others, pickleweed tidal flats, rush-dominated freshwater marshes, alder forests, back-dune vegetated swales, arroyo willow riparian forests, and isolated spring-fed seeps. Many of the plant and animal species in the parks are dependent on wetland habitat for at least a portion of their life cycles. Despite the importance and diversity of wetland habitats, however, the location and condition of these resources is poorly known in SFAN parks. Wetland mapping from aerial photography is accurate only at very coarse scales often not usable for local managers (Tiner 1997). Within SFAN parks, managers have conducted a patchwork of localized project-specific ground surveys for wetlands, using a range of methodologies. Approximately 15 to 25 of these local projects have been completed in the past ten years. Although the projects resulted in completed reports and GIS data, these data exist in scattered computer files that are not readily findable by park managers, partners, or the public. Also, managers in SFAN parks have anecdotal information and hand-drawn maps about locations of seeps and springs in parks; however much of this information is not verified and does not exist in an easily-transferable format. The Mosaics in Science Program is run in partnership with the National Park Service and The Geological Society of America.

If you have questions about the application and selection process, please contact GSA's GeoCorps managers.  If you have questions about any aspect of the position — description, qualifications, housing, dates — please direct them to the contact(s) listed in the project description. Remember, application materials can only be submitted online. The project contact(s) will not accept application materials sent to them via e-mail, mail, fax, etc. See the full program details at the GeoCorps homepage.