Botany Assistant or Aquatic and Wildlife Biology Assistant

Job Title: Botany Assistant or Aquatic and Wildlife Biology Assistant

Location: Backcountry areas throughout the park

Project Duration: Ongoing

Hours Per Week: Flexible, Mon-Fri

Hours Per Month: Flexible

Description of Duties: Everglades National Park, like much of south Florida in general, has serious and complex environmental problems, including significant plant community changes and rapid declines in native bird and fish populations. Furthermore, because several nationally-listed endangered species are found within the park, the need for basic ecosystem research has grown substantially over the last few decades. Contribute to research projects throughout the park by becoming an aquatic and wildlife biology assistant or botany assistant. Duties may include collecting samples from various park ecosystems, setting animal live traps, sorting specimens in a laboratory, making plant or animal observations and recording GPS location, banding and identifying animals, mapping plant or animal territories, and entering data into computer databases.

Benefits: The volunteer will learn biology or botany skills, gain experience in scientific data collection and analysis, and explore various park ecosystems.

Goal/Outcome of Position: To study the ecosystems of south Florida and determine how changes outside the parks are influencing the fragile areas within.

Knowledge/Skills/Experience Desired: We are looking for someone who is interested in working outdoors while learning about scientific monitoring, botany, aquatic and wildlife biology, and south Florida ecosystems.