If you would like more details on the Ecological Program Coordinator
position or about living in Fairbanks, you are welcome to contact Anne
Morkill, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, at 907/456-0549 or
1-800/362-4546, or e-mail to anne_morkill [at] fws.gov.
Ecological Program Coordinator Position Available
CLOSING DATE: 1 November 2000
The Arctic National Wildlife Refuge has a new job opening for an
Ecological Program Coordinator, who will be responsible for the Refuge's
long-term ecological inventory and monitoring program. The design and
implementation of this program is still in its initial stages, and the
coordinator will have an exciting and challenging opportunity to work
with highly experienced refuge staff and partners to build an
interdisciplinary program on a world-class natural area. Many of the
processes regulating northern physical and biological systems are not
well understood, and as North America's largest protected natural area
within the circumpolar north, the Arctic Refuge can play an important
role in increasing basic knowledge and contributing long-term
observational data that may be used to understand ecological processes
and detect change. The position will be based in the Arctic Refuge's
administrative office in Fairbanks, Alaska. The vacancy announcement and
application requirements are listed on http://www.usajobs.opm.gov under
Ecological Program Coordinator (Ecologist) GS-0408-11, Vacancy
Announcement No. FH-RD-0-6356. The application period is now open, with
a closing date of 1 November 2000.
The Arctic National Wildlife Refuge is the largest and northernmost
refuge in the National Wildlife Refuge System. Located entirely north of
the Arctic Circle in the northeast corner of Alaska, the 19.6
million-acre refuge (about the size of South Carolina) extends south
from the Arctic Ocean's Beaufort Sea across the coastal plain to the
Brooks Range and the boreal forest region of interior Alaska. The Arctic
Refuge includes 8 million acres of designated Wilderness, and 18 major
rivers including 3 designated Wild Rivers. The Refuge is roadless, so
the primary access is by small fixed-wing aircraft to river gravel bars
or tundra landing sites. The Arctic Refuge provides unparalleled
opportunities for studying undisturbed ecological and evolutionary
processes in an intact spectrum of arctic and subarctic ecosystems. It
includes the calving grounds and a major portion of the winter range of
one of North America's largest barren-ground caribou herds, in addition
to a wide variety of arctic-adapted species such as muskox, polar bear,
wolf, wolverine, Arctic fox, and Collared lemming. More than 180 bird
species have been recorded in the Refuge, which serves as a critical
breeding area for a diversity of migratory birds and as staging grounds
for the largest concentration of snow geese in Alaska. The lagoons,
rivers and lakes harbor 36 species of fish. Prominent features such as
permafrost, glaciers, thermal springs and other landforms, in
combination with extreme weather and light conditions, provide for a
wide diversity of plant communities, including many unique species and
unusual flora-faunal assemblages. There are two Alaska Native villages
located on the borders of the Refuge, and many residents continue to
subsistence hunt, fish, and gather in the Refuge. For more information
on the Arctic Refuge, visit our web site at http://arctic.fws.gov.
If you would like more details on the Ecological Program Coordinator
position or about living in Fairbanks, you are welcome to contact Anne
Morkill, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, at 907-456-0549 or
1-800-362-4546, or e-mail to anne_morkill [at] fws.gov.