Trail crews, greeters needed in national forest

GORHAM, N.H. – Seasonal jobs available in the White Mountain National Forest could help ease some of the area’s unemployment pain.

Most jobs are 40 hours per week from May to October, with pay starting at $9.40 per hour. They range from conducting bird monitoring surveys to prying rocks on steep trails, and applicants are warned they must be willing to work outdoors in “sometimes harsh conditions and steep terrain.”

A 10-person trail crew will be hired in the next few weeks, and there will be jobs patrolling parking lots. Two visitor center greeter jobs are opening up in Gorham, N.H., and Bethel, Maine.

The jobs are particularly important to a region that has seen 19 percent unemployment since September, when the pulp and paper mills in Gorham and Berlin closed.

“We have several positions open right here in Gorham,” said Don Muise, assistant district ranger at the Androscoggin Ranger District, the northeast corner of the forest. “We’re hiring folks to work in outdoor recreation, fisheries, wildlife and timber. We also have a visitor information receptionist position open.”

There’s no guarantee, however, that the jobs will go to local applicants. A relatively new system for applying for seasonal jobs means locals cannot be given preference and instead are part of a national pool, said Pat Nasta, spokesman for the Androscoggin Ranger District.