Coconino Trails Strike Team - Flagstaff, AZ

Individual Placement/Internships

5075 N. Highway 89, Flagstaff, Arizona

4890-984

Full-Time/Regular

Title: Coconino Trails Strike Team (1 position)

Start/End Date: April 23, 2024 – October 19, 2024 (anticipated)

Stipend: $400 per week living stipend + $200 housing stipend +Education Award.

Term: 26 weeks, full time

Location: USFS Flagstaff Ranger Station (5075 N. Highway 89, Flagstaff, AZ 86004)

Status: 900-hour AmeriCorps Service Term

Benefits: AmeriCorps Education Award $3,247.50, Public Lands Corps Certificate*; both with successful completion of the internship.

*To be eligible for a Public Lands Corps certificate, interns must be between the ages of 18 – 30, inclusive, at the time the individual begins the term of service.

Arizona Conservation Corps (AZCC):

Arizona Conservation Corps, a program of Conservation Legacy, aims to continue the legacy of the Civilian Conservation Corps of the 1930's. AZCC is focused on connecting youth, young adults, and recent era military veterans with conservation service work projects on public lands. AZCC operates programs across Arizona that engage individuals and strengthen communities through service and conservation. AZCC has program offices in Flagstaff and Tucson.

Coconino National Forest:

One of six National Forests in Arizona, the Coconino National Forest comprises 1.856-million acres in northern Arizona, with elevations ranging from 2,600 feet to the highest point in Arizona at 12,633 feet (Humphrey's Peak). Coconino National Forest contains diverse landscapes, including deserts, ponderosa pine forests, flatlands, mesas, alpine tundra, and ancient volcanic peaks. The forest surrounds the towns of Sedona and Flagstaff and contains all or parts of 10 designated wilderness areas.

Position Summary:

Arizona Conservation Corps (AZCC) is partnering with the Coconino National Forest to provide a 26-week
paid professional opportunity to take place throughout the Coconino NF, focused on trail maintenance and construction activities on the Flagstaff Ranger District. Those activities will include the construction and maintenance of motorized, non-motorized, and wilderness trails around the Flagstaff Area. The interns will learn skills and techniques and will use a variety of tools to perform these activities. The interns will function in a crew setting with other team members and will help lead volunteers in basic tasks. No housing is available for this position.

Position Description/Objective:

The primary objective of this position will be serving as a member of the trail’s maintenance team, to maintain, repair, and build trails throughout the Forest Service unit to ensure protection of wildlife habitat and water quality in addition to improving recreational access to forest lands.

Essential Responsibilities and Functions:

• Serve as a member on a trails maintenance team to maintain, repair, and build trails throughout the Forest to ensure protection of wildlife habitat and water quality in addition to improving recreational access to forest lands.
• Build trails with gravel and associated materials, restore impacted areas, and replace signage as needed.
• Prepare construction materials, ensure proper tool maintenance, and report work completed.
• Plan and implement the logistics of projects associated with trail maintenance and reconstruction projects. Perform trail log, condition, and prescription surveys.
• Explain regulations concerning trail maintenance that are specific to the Wilderness Act. Inspect assigned areas to determine compliance with regulations or specifications.
• Oversee routine maintenance of trails at dispersed recreation sites including cleanup and naturalizing.
• Interact with Forest visitors and provide education regarding trail maintenance and cleanup when assigned.

Qualifications:

• Familiarity with a variety of hand tools like Pulaski’s, shovels, McLeod’s, etc.
• Ability to engage and interact with the public in a professional manner while wearing a U.S. Forest Service uniform.
• Knowledge of procedures for constructing, cleaning, and maintaining recreation areas, facilities, and trails to ensure recreation areas are safe and aesthetically pleasing to visitors.
• Wilderness First Aid (WFA) or Wilderness First Responder (WFR) certified is preferred.
• Applicants must pass a criminal history background check and should possess a valid driver’s license with a clean driving record.

Physical Requirements:

• To successfully perform essential functions, the individual is required to sit, stand, walk, speak, hear, etc... May be required to stoop, kneel, crouch or crawl for significant periods of time and be able to safely lift 50 pounds on a routine basis.
• Ability to hike over rough terrain for up to 8 hours in difficult environmental conditions.
• Ability to work, backpack, and live in varied outdoor conditions including exposure to adverse weather conditions at elevations of up to 12,600 feet. Ability to hike on steep, rocky terrain that seasonally holds ice and snow.
• Ability to remain adequately hydrated, fed, and properly dressed to remain generally healthy and safe, avoiding environmental injuries.
• Reasonable accommodations may be made for qualified individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.

Participation and Expedition Behavior:

• Contribute to a safe learning environment, no harassment of others for any reason.
• Work effectively as a member of a team despite potentially stressful and difficult conditions.
• Willingness and ability to complete all aspects of the program.
• Appropriately represent AmeriCorps, Arizona Conservation Corps, and the U.S. Forest Service at all times, including properly wearing the agency uniform.

Safety and Judgement:

• Effectively communicate danger to others in the form of either a warning of dangers others may be encountering or a notification of personal distress, injury, or need of assistance. Must be able to do so at a distance of up to 50 meters and in conditions with limited visibility or loud background noise such as darkness or high winds.
• Effectively perceive, understand and follow direction by others so that you will be able to successfully execute appropriate and perhaps unfamiliar techniques to manage hazards. These directions may be given before the hazard is encountered or may need to be given during exposure to the hazard. Ability to respond appropriately to stress or crises that may arise.
• Stay alert and focused for several hours at a time while traveling and working in varied weather conditions.
• If taking prescription medications, participants must be able to maintain proper dosage by self-medicating without assistance from others.
• Abide by agency safety protocol.

Environmental Ethics:

• Learn and practice “Leave No Trace” techniques.

Substance Free:

• In accordance with a drug free workplace, alcohol and drugs are prohibited while participating in AmeriCorps and program activities and while on organization property.

Term Schedule:

• Typical schedule will be 10-hour days, Wednesday through Saturday. Weekdays typically working with trail crew members and a trail crew foreman and Saturdays are usually spent assisting and implementing volunteer trail projects.

For more information on the USFS Coconino National Forest, please visit their website at fs.usda.gov/Coconino.

For more information about Arizona Conservation Corps, please visit www.azcorps.org. Arizona Conservation Corps is a program of Conservation Legacy