The Soil Ecology and Restoration Group (SERG) is a habitat restoration and research group within the biology department of San Diego State University and administered by the San Diego State University Research Foundation. The research emphasis of SERG is on ecosystem dynamics of southern California.

We seek a Restoration Technician for habitat restoration projects on San Clemente Island, a Naval installation on the southern-most of California’s Channel Islands. This position performs duties supporting all botanical projects including but not limited to: native plant seed collection and propagation; installation and monitoring of outplanting sites; mechanical and chemical weed control; fire monitoring; endangered, sensitive and endemic plant monitoring; GIS mapping; and maintenance of databases. This position requires extensive physical labor to conduct management activities, including working with pesticide around heavy equipment, hand weeding, digging, backpack pesticide application, bending and crouching to perform vegetation monitoring, and hauling heavy, awkward materials and equipment.

All work will be conducted on San Clemente Island, which is owned and operated by the U.S. Navy as a test and evaluation site.  With an area of 56 square miles, San Clemente Island is the second-largest of the Southern Channel Islands. Of all the Channel Islands, San Clemente Island has a particularly unique flora, hosting 15 plants that are known from nowhere else in the world, and an additional 48 plants that are only known from the Channel Islands as a whole. The island is home to a large number of endemic and rare plant and animal species, with an extensive community of biologists, archaeologists, and researchers. Applicants should enjoy living as part of a small and remote community, and be able to maintain a professional, positive attitude at all times.