AmeriCorps Historic Trades Team Member

We are seeking 3 candidates to serve with the AmeriCorps Historic Trades Team and gain new skills while preserving unique cultural resources in the Monongahela National Forest. This three-person team will serve closely alongside their site supervisor, who is an Architectural Historian for the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Forest Service, to complete hands-on historic preservation and documentation projects across 10 counties.

The Monongahela National Forest is a unit of the USDA Forest Service and includes approximately 920,000 acres throughout the Allegheny Highlands region of West Virginia – an area world renowned for its rugged landscape and spectacular views, rivers, blueberry thickets, highland bogs, and open areas with exposed rocks. The Heritage Program is tasked with the management of a wealth of above-ground cultural resources throughout the forest including transportation resources, homesites, recreation resources from the mid-century and CCC-era, and more. 

The AmeriCorps Historic Trades Team Member will serve approximately 35-40 hours per week. The team will primarily serve as a unit conducting hands-on historic preservation repairs and maintenance on cultural resources and will be based at the Forest Service headquarters in Elkins. Regional travel will be required to complete projects. The Forest Service may provide transportation for team activities requiring regional travel. Team activities will primarily focus on three programmatic areas with the goal of enhancing the stewardship and use of cultural resources, including:

(1) Hands-on Historic Trades to Address Deferred Maintenance 

• Window restoration
• Vegetation and biological growth removal
• Cemetery cleaning and maintenance
• Minor log and wood treatments
• Repainting

(2) Identification & Documentation

• Photograph historic resources
• Write physical descriptions of properties with measurements and site drawings
• Evaluation for eligibility for listing on National Register of Historic Places
• Nominations of historic properties for listing on National Register of Historic Places

(3) Educational & Interpretation

• Research and develop digital and physical content for the public