Job Title: Archeologist: Desert National Wildlife Refuge Complex
Location: (Las Vegas, NV)
Contract Length: Over 12 Months
Job Description: This year-long position is a unique opportunity for a mid-career cultural resources professional to engage in diverse management initiatives throughout the Desert National Wildlife Refuge Complex (DNWRC).
The Great Basin Institute, in cooperation with the U.S Fish & Wildlife Service (FWS), is recruiting an Archaeology Research Associate to work cooperatively with DNWRC Refuge Managers and FWS Regional Archaeologist.
The Research Associate will lead and conduct various projects on the refuge complex in compliance with the National Historic Preservation Act (NHPA), Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA), the Archaeological Resource Protection Act (ARPA), and other Federal and state cultural resources legislation. The Research Associate will also coordinate programs addressing similar cultural resources issues occurring on neighboring federal lands.
Some overnight travel for fieldwork, research, conferences, and training can be expected.
Primary Duties Include:
• Conducting research at libraries, agencies, and other institutions concerning archaeological, historical, and ethnographic background information.
• Managing cultural resource projects and collaborating with project proponents, partners, and FWS staff, volunteers, Tribes, and other archaeologists. Serving as a liaison between the FWS and Tribes. Conducting consultation with Tribes on all cultural resource issues.
• Completing archaeological surveys, site identification, and site evaluation using standard archaeological techniques and in compliance with Section 106 of the NHPA.
• Researching, preparing, and completing key cultural resources compliance documents (i.e. formal letters, agreement documents, site records, and evaluation reports) per requirements of the NHPA and State Historic Preservation Offices. This includes generating research, data, and manuscripts suitable for professional technical publications.
• Providing determinations of effect for Section 106 compliance along with the rationale, policy and legal foundations for such determinations. Supplying alternative management recommendations and strategies for decision-makers.
• Updating and maintaining computer records, generating geospatial data, and preparing collected materials for curation.
• Organizing and conducting educational and outreach activities, presentations, and events that provide information on cultural resources of the Refuge.
• Preparing scopes of work (SOW), in conjunction with the RHPO, for contracts to conduct cultural resources work on the DNWR complex.
Minimum Required Qualifications (one of the following):
• M.A. or M.S. degree in Anthropology, Archaeology, or closely related discipline from an accredited university or college AND at least 2 years of relevant and comprehensive, applied cultural resources experience; OR
• Bachelor’s degree in Anthropology, Archaeology, or closely related discipline from an accredited university or college AND with at least 4 years of relevant and comprehensive, applied cultural resources experience.
Preferred Qualifications:
• Applied professional knowledge of the methods and theories of North American archaeology including the ability to design, conduct, analyze, report, and finish a cultural resources research project that applies current archaeological and anthropological method and theory, and involves the collection and analysis of data from the field, literature, archives, and/or oral testimony.
• Applied professional knowledge and ability with laws, regulations, and policies of historic preservation, including Section 106 process of the National Historic Preservation Act (NHPA). This must be documented by project reports or agreement documents produced to comply with NHPA, NAGPRA, and/or ARPA.
• Practical cultural resources management ability and experience in the Great Basin and/or Mohave Desert. This must be demonstrated by field experience and report production on a project involving the archaeology and anthropology of the Great Basin and/or Mohave Desert.
• Demonstrated skill and work experience communicating and negotiating with Tribes, Federal land managers, municipalities, and historic preservation regulators for the exchange of data, collection of oral history, policy/procedure, and other concerns.
• Strong knowledge and experience using GPS and ArcGIS/ArcMap for navigating and collecting geospatial data, uploading data and manipulating spatial data using; and generating project location and archaeological site maps.
• Communication ability must include outreach and interpretation for audiences unfamiliar with the technical aspects of the archaeological and cultural resources discipline.
• Ability and skill with personal computers, database, graphics, GPS, GIS, mapping and word processing software.
• Must be physically capable of working in a wide variety of environmental and weather conditions including both office and outdoors. The DNWRC is in a hot, dry desert environment and the work will require hiking in rugged trail-less and water-less terrain, climbing, occasional overnight camping, and occasional lifting of heavy objects.
• Must have a valid driver’s license and the ability to drive and care for a 4-wheel drive vehicles on steep and rugged roads for long distances.
The successful applicant must complete a Department of Interior (DOI) Background Investigation (BI) or submit paperwork to USFWS human resources indicating an active and fully adjudicated BI has already been completed prior to beginning this position.
Location: Las Vegas, Nevada
The duty station is at the Corn Creek office building for Desert NWR just outside of Las Vegas. Created in 1936 to provide habitat and protection for desert bighorn sheep, Desert NWR is the largest National Wildlife Refuge outside of Alaska! Teeming with diversity over a vast landscape, Desert NWR encompasses six major mountain ranges and boasts over 500 plant species as it transitions from the Mojave to the Great Basin Desert. The refuge complex also includes Ash Meadows, Pahranagat and Moapa NWR’s, the complex showcases the abundance and variety of nature that can be found in Southern Nevada.
Compensation and Benefits: • Rate of pay: $27.00-$30.00/hour, depending on experience
• Full health, vision, and dental insurance
• Paid personal leave and holidays in accordance with federal schedule
Please apply online here
