California Department of Fish and Wildlife

The California Department of Fish and Wildlife seeks to fill several currently advertised and soon-to-be advertised positions within the newly established Nutria Eradication Program. Please see below for descriptions of each position and visit https://www.calcareers.ca.gov/CalHRPublic/Search/JobSearchResults.aspx#kw=nutria for more information and to apply.

Senior Environmental Scientist (Specialist): responsible for coordinating with the Program Manager and Operations Supervisors to strategically develop and track spatial assignments for project field staff working across the multi-region project area, pursuing and managing access agreements to public and private lands containing habitat requiring nutria monitoring, collaborating with the project Geographic Information Systems (GIS) Analyst and Data Manager to review project data and ensure effective completion of spatial assignments and consistency with project strategies, conducting statistical analyses and ecological/population modeling to evaluate, inform, and improve project methodologies and strategies, and communicating effectively with a wide audience, including stakeholders and the general public, through written products, presentations, and verbal communications.

Environmental Scientist: one of the Program’s lead scientists on nutria coordination, detection, and eradication.  This will include conducting investigations and directing a field crew within the southern portion of the nutria infestation. The incumbent will also closely coordinate with other regions and Department functions, as well as other affected and involved local, State, and Federal agencies.  Work includes preparing draft reports and correspondence and answering routine questions from the public relative to Departmental nutria efforts.  The primary geographical focus of this position will be in Fresno, Madera, Merced, Stanislaus, Tuolumne, and Mariposa counties, but work may be assigned in any part of the area of nutria infestation.

Fish and Wildlife Technician (up to 9 positions): responsible for the detection and eradication of invasive nutria within the southern portion of the infestation. Work includes surveys, trapping, data collection, communicating with landowners to obtain entry permits, and answering routine questions from the public relative to Departmental nutria efforts. The primary geographical focus of these positions varies based on the office (Stockton or Los Banos) each vacancy is based in and is defined within each job ad.

Soon to be posted:

Scientific Aids (up to 15): to assist the project Environmental Scientists and Fish and Wildlife Technicians with all survey, trapping, necropsy, and data collection tasks.

Environmental Scientists (2; Sacramento): to implement the Judas Nutria Project in collaboration with CDFW’s Wildlife Investigations Laboratory and Nutria Eradication Program field staff. Duties will include coordinating the sterilization and tagging (satellite GPS) of Judas nutria and conducting strategic releases in order to remotely monitor for association with wild, previously undetected nutria. Project releases will be conducted to detect and locate any wild nutria in areas where they have not yet been detected, to detect remnant or migrating nutria in previously trapped locations where nutria are believed to be at zero or near-zero densities, and within their home range to evaluate nutria spatial ecology in California (e.g., average home range size, average movement and dispersal distances and patterns, and variation by sex, age, season, etc.).