Watershed Restoration Manager

Company Description

The Forest Stewards Guild, a national organization of foresters and allied natural resource professionals, is dedicated to practicing and promoting responsible forestry as a means of sustaining the integrity of forest ecosystems and the people dependent upon them. We use innovative, science-based solutions to meet the challenges of forest conservation and management. The Guild has over 700 members, over half of whom are professionals who manage over 42 million acres of forestland in the United States and Canada. The Guild maintains regional offices in New Mexico, Maine, Minnesota, North Carolina, Oregon, Colorado, Washington, and Wisconsin.

The Guild is dedicated to providing an open, transparent, and just organization and workplace. We strive for clear, open, and kind communication and are committed to recruiting, hiring, mentoring, and supporting staff from underrepresented communities. We are dedicated to building a work culture that recognizes the inherent value of our employees, supports a healthy work-life balance, and provides an environment that supports personal and job growth.

We believe that a diverse workforce reflects the strengths of all members of our community. The Forest Stewards Guild strives to create a collaborative, supportive, and respectful setting for all employees and partners. To meet this goal, we recognize and celebrate the wide range of differences that characterize our members, employees, partners, and collaborators. Indeed, it is those differences that enhance our organization and help us to meet our mission and vision. The Guild values diverse forests because they are more productive, more resilient, more adaptable, and better able to recover from disturbances. Similarly, our community is healthier when we are inclusive of a diversity of people and perspectives.

, Job Description

The Forest Stewards Guild is hiring a full-time Watershed Restoration Manager position in Santa Fe, New Mexico to lead and maintain the Guild’s All-Lands Watershed Restoration Program with the goal of increasing the pace and scale of watershed restoration in the region. The Manager will be responsible for conducting, contracting and managing watershed restoration action plans (WRAP), wetland plans, and other riparian and watershed initiatives on four national forests in Colorado and New Mexico, managing agreements and contracts with the Forest Service, landowners, and Guild partners, applying for large landscape-scale grants to grow the watershed restoration program, engage in growing and maintaining partnerships, and participating in the 2-3-2 Cohesive Strategy Partnership.

The ideal candidate should have exceptional communication and collaboration skills and experience designing, organizing, funding, and directing complex stream, riparian, and watershed projects with a variety of partners inside and outside the organization. This is an exciting opportunity to contribute to cross boundary landscape-scale restoration by managing and shaping the work of our new watershed restoration program!

The Watershed Restoration Manager leads the execution of the Guild’s All-Lands Watershed Restoration Program, which builds on the Rio Chama Collaborative Forest Restoration Program (CFLRP) and centers around increasing the pace and scale of strategic, landscape-scale, cross-boundary forest and watershed management. The work of this program takes place within the complex social and ecological systems of northern New Mexico and southern Colorado.

The landscape includes the headwaters of the Chama, Rio Grande, and San Juan Rivers, critical drainages that supply water as the life blood of the arid Southwest ecosystems and human communities. These rivers are critical to meeting the needs of downstream water users in accordance with water rights that include interstate and international compacts. Watershed restoration treatments are needed to improve overall stream and hydrologic function, landscape-based water storage, and fish migration and breeding habitat, increasing overall aquatic habitat diversity. Treatments will improve the abundance of native wildlife, including native species of cutthroat trout, and reduce invasive, non-native, and exotic aquatic species.

The Manager must embrace working collaboratively with a team of interdisciplinary internal and external partners, fostering a shared vision for watershed management that brings science, policy and socioeconomic factors into consideration. Rapid learning and exceptional independent project management are foundational to this position.

The successful candidate will work with Guild staff, partners, funders, and members of the 2-3-2 Cohesive Strategy Partnership (www.232partnership.org) to develop a robust all-lands Watershed Restoration Program, build capacity to plan, design, and implement watershed restoration treatments, implement watershed restoration treatments, secure permits as needed, monitor and maintain watershed restoration treatments, and seek further funding opportunities to grow the program.

The successful individual will:

• Independently manage their own project work-flow and collaborate with a team using software such as Asana, Slack, and Microsoft Teams.
• Attend rural water user association meetings to work with community leaders as part of a holistic community-centered approach.
• Work from the existing Needs Assessment to determine where workforce development and/or training opportunities are needed to meet anticipated watershed restoration needs, as well as refresh it annually.
• Pursue grant opportunities to establish a robust, multi-year, all-lands watershed restoration program. Examples could include the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation (NFWF) and Bureau of Reclamation WaterSmart grant opportunities.
• Conduct Watershed Restoration Action Planning (WRAPs) on NFS lands and similar approaches for non-NFS lands to collaboratively identify essential and complementary projects where landowners are amenable with an emphasis on identified focal watersheds.
• Write a multi-year strategy to guide workforce development and training to increase watershed restoration capacity.
• Provide technical assistance to communities and partner organizations to identify potential grant opportunities to meet watershed restoration needs identified in WRAPs.
• Provide design services and contract engineered solutions to implement watershed restoration treatments, including both engineered solutions as well as process-based restoration techniques (aka: beaver mimicry) and upland treatments identified in WRAP essential and complementary project listings.
• Implement, and contract for aquatic organism passage (AOP) solutions.
• Develop application packages for permits/certifications that may be required to implement watershed restoration treatments, including but not limited to Clean Water Act 404 permits and 401 certifications, National Pollution Discharge Elimination System permits, as well as other permits that may be required by state, counties, or other governmental entities.
• Implement watershed restoration treatments (including upland planting and reforestation as well as fuels management and vegetation removal) as designed, abiding by any permit/certification requirements, mitigation measures, or other regulatory requirements.
• Write program reports.
• Conduct programmatic-level or project-level implementation and effectiveness monitoring through the multiparty monitoring plan, as appropriate or required.
• Think strategically across a multi-year horizon about watershed restoration planning, implementation, capacity, and maintenance needs. Maintain and grow partnerships for southwest programs.
• As needed and desired, may support Guild prescribed fire operations.
• As needed, may support other CFLRP or collaborative forestry projects.
  
  

, Qualifications

What You’ll Bring

• A BA/BS degree and 5-7 years' experience in water resources, hydrology, eco-hydrology, ecology, natural resource management, watershed management, or related field, or combination of education and experience.
• Experience maintaining, implementing, and managing a complex program or project of strategic importance, including managing finances, and coordinating the work of partners with overall accountability for outcomes.
• Experience working with current trends and practices in discipline(s) and geographic regions relevant to this position, including an understanding of ecological process-based restoration approaches and techniques.
• Experience in partnership development and networking with a diverse range of individuals and organizations including non-profit partners, community groups and/or government agencies.
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills and technical writing skills.
• Ability to work both independently and with a team.
• Effective knowledge of common software applications.
• Valid driver’s license.
  
  

Additional Desired Qualifications:

• Experience in Southwest ecosystems and human communities.
• Advanced degree in natural resources, water resources, science, conservation, hydrology, or related field.
• Demonstrated working knowledge of the current trends, practices and major issues in forest and watershed management in the western United States.
• Experience working ethically and effectively with Tribal nations and indigenous people or communities.
• Able to think strategically, develop practical applications of scientific concepts, and integrate equity into the design and implementation of projects.
• Understanding of the relationship between upland frequent fire Southwestern forests, riparian systems, post-fire issues, and community drinking water resilience.
• Experience applying for and securing grants, working with federal partners to establish agreements, executing contracts and agreements with non-governmental partners.
• Experience managing large, complex budgets and meeting match requirements.
• Experience supervising professional staff.
• Experience managing a data for project and monitoring purposes.
  
  

Additional Information

All your information will be kept confidential according to EEO guidelines.

Compensation And Benefits Package

• $32.00 - 34.95 per hour, 40 hours/week
• Paid leave is accrued monthly from the first day of employment
• Paid sick leave
• 12 paid holidays per year
• Employer-sponsored comprehensive health and dental care coverage is available after 30 days of continuous employment with the employee contribution at 20%
• Short and long-term disability policies paid by the Guild after 60 days of employment
• Accidental death/dismemberment and life insurance policies paid by The Guild after 60 days
• Flexible compensation plan available after 60 days
• Retirement plan with an employer match is available after 90 days
• Family Leave after 12 months, including up to six weeks paid leave with the remaining time unpaid up to 12 weeks total.
  
  

Location

This position is based at the Forest Stewards Guild’s office in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Other locations in northern NM and southern CO (i.e., Chama, Taos, Pagosa) will also be considered. A hybrid schedule is acceptable and remote work is evaluated on a case-by-case basis. This position requires travel throughout northern New Mexico and southern Colorado. Some overnight travel is required if travel distances make it necessary. All travel costs from the Guild office in Santa Fe are covered, including the use of a Guild vehicle.

How To Apply

Interested applicants should visit the Smart Recruiters posting here: https://smrtr.io/m7JcP, and click “I’m Interested” to submit a one-page cover letter, resume, one-page writing sample, three professional references, and earliest available start date. This position is open until filled, application review beings July 22nd.

NOTE: After clicking “Next” on the initial application page, you will have an opportunity to upload the cover letter and reference documents.

The one-page writing sample format is flexible. It can be on a natural resource subject of your choice; it can be a press release, newsletter article, research brief, or other sample of your writing capabilities. Incomplete applications will not be considered.

Contact Us

Questions about this position can be directed to Eytan Krasilovsky at eytan at forestguild.org.