GSA Online Application System
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Public Land Name: Position Title: Agency: NPS Position Type: SIP Position ID Number: Location: 101 Reserve Street Accepting Applications? # of current Applicants: 0 Position Description: The intern(s) hired for this position will be part of the natural resource management team, helping to achieve wildlife management goals through research, monitoring, and tracking of threatened and endangered (T&E) bat species, aiding in visitor outreach and education about bats and white nose syndrome (WNS), and assisting the Chief of Resource Management and Visitor Services by creating maps, reports, interpretive programs, and printed educational materials to inform park management decisions and expand visitor understanding and satisfaction. The intern(s) will complete acoustic monitoring and radio tracking according to US Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) protocol, and will assist with setting up mist nets for bat captures. Interns may observe mist netting activities, but will not directly handle bats. Summer, 2016, acoustic monitoring efforts confirmed that one threatened bat species (Northern Long-eared Bat), one endangered bat species (Indiana Bat), and several other species that are vulnerable to WNS are present in the park. While bats infected with the disease have not been documented in Garland County, Arkansas, which is home to Hot Springs National Park, the fungus that causes WNS has been documented in a mine six miles from the park’s boundary. Information gathered through continued monitoring is thus crucial to the park management team’s decision-making and to ensure compliance with applicable law, such as the Endangered Species Act. The interns’ primary responsibilities will be to deploy and retrieve acoustic monitors throughout the park, download the recordings, analyze and identify bat species by acoustic signals from those recordings, maintain a digital database of identified species by date, time, and location, use radio-tracking devices to determine roosting locations of T&E bat species, and to record information about the physical location of roosts (DBH, forest composition, GPS location, etc.). Secondary responsibilities will include working with cooperating researchers to set up mist nets and prepare radio transmitters for deployment, the development of printed and digital interpretive material about the project, its results, and T&E species, the creation and presentation of formal interpretive programming about WNS and bats, and putting together a lesson plan about wildlife in the park that meets education curriculum standards in Arkansas. Tertiary duties may include assistance with other projects in natural or cultural resource management such as invasive vegetation management, water quality monitoring, and archival research. The results of this project are expected to inform wildlife management decisions of the future and to contribute to compliance with the Endangered Species Act. Upon successful completion of the GIP internship, the participant is eligible for an AmeriCorps Education Award. This position is offered through the National Park Service's Geoscientists-in-the-Parks Internship Program in partnership with Environmental Stewards 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. |
