Numerous species of North American bats are declining because of multiple continuous and emerging threats, including white-nose syndrome and wind energy development. Regulatory agencies and resource managers need information to inform pre-listing decisions and adaptive management efforts. However, until now, there have been no large-scale monitoring programs capable of tracking status and trends of bat populations across North America. The North American Bat Monitoring Program (NABat) is a multi-agency, multi-national collaborative monitoring program aimed at improving the state of conservation science for North American bats through standardized protocols, a unifying sampling strategy, and integrated data pipelines and analysis. NABat partners in more than 39 states and 10 Canadian provinces have now collected monitoring data following NABat protocols.
NABat coordinates data collection efforts across state, federal, tribal, and affiliated partners, provides the IT infrastructure to support data management, mapping and reporting tools, and status and trends assessments. To help facilitate these endeavors, the NABat Coordinating Office (NCO) located at the USGS Fort Collins Science Center (FORT) continues to expand on NABat’s web-based monitoring tools and work with NABat Partners to establish detailed sampling protocols and training materials. NCO is currently seeking an extremely motivated, recent graduate student (must have graduated or close to graduating with a bachelor’s or master’s degree in relevant field within the past 12 months) to serve as the NABat Technical Monitoring Liaison. The position will be located at the Fort Collins Science Center in Fort Collins, CO. The position offers a unique opportunity to combine and apply writing and communication skills, data management experience, and fieldwork expertise, while supporting NABat Partners and contributing directly to this collaborative conservation monitoring program of international importance.
Position details:
Estimate of the number of hours to be performed: 40 hours/week
Pay rate ranging from $20.54-$37.66 depending on experience.
Approx. start date: As soon as possible
Approx. end date: 1 year after official start date with opportunity for extension possible
Number of positions required: 1-3
Former students who graduated more than 12 months ago or who left school without graduating are not eligible. For more information on eligibility visit: https://insight.usgs.gov/aei/offices/oa/oag/AOP/studentservices.pdf
Due date for submission of resumes: May 16, 2022
The duties and responsibilities of this position include:
The technical monitoring liaison will provide online user support, help NABat Partners establish long-term monitoring projects, select their NABat grid cells for monitoring, and contribute monitoring data.
The Technical Monitoring Liaison will work closely with NCO staff (NABat Coordinator, Data Manager, and software developers) to develop informative training materials and consistent program-related content for a variety of outlets including the NABat website, online videos, printed fact sheets, and guidance documents. Training materials will cover technical guidance and advice on use of acoustic and video monitoring equipment as well as data processing procedures.
The Technical Monitoring Liaison will be expected to conduct research to evaluate and implement optimal data submission pathways.
The Technical Monitoring Liaison will be expected to conduct training via webinars for partnering organizations and through presentations at meetings.
The Technical Monitoring Liaison will also work collaboratively across a variety of partners including regional monitoring hubs, regional bat working groups, and NABat technical committees to develop and refine survey protocols.
As needed, the successful applicant will also be expected to work alongside FORT scientists in field data collection efforts.
Minimum qualifications:
1-2 years of experience conducting acoustic monitoring for bats (stationary or mobile).
Demonstrated experience using automated species classification software to process bat acoustic data.
Demonstrated experience with manual species identification of bat acoustic recordings.
Strong written communication skills.
Strong oral communication skills with demonstrated experience presenting information to the scientific and/or conservation community.
Ability to lead and coordinate a diverse group of stakeholders.
Desired qualifications:
Experience conducting internal roost count surveys for bats at winter hibernacula.
Experience conducting emergence count surveys for bats.
Experience writing protocols/standard operating procedures for field survey methodology.
Experience conducting surveys methods (acoustic or count-based) following the NABat guidelines (Loeb et al. 2015, Banner et al. 2018, Reichert et al. 2018).
To apply, please email the following material to Brian Reichert (breichert@usgs.gov):
1-page cover letter describing your interest in the position and your relevant experience conducting fieldwork on bats and managing survey data on bats.
Curriculum vitae (CV)
Writing sample illustrating your ability to deliver scientific information in a succinct reader-friendly way to the conservation community and to the public.