The Family Forest Outreach Specialist will join a team of Conservancy staff and agency partners working together to increase and improve management and conservation of family-owned forest land in Allegany and Garrett counties, Maryland. This 2-year grant funded position will work directly with landowners and the agencies who provide technical assistance for managing and protecting wildlife habitat and forest health on private lands. The Specialist will play a key role in the success of our Family Forest Stewardship Project, which is demonstrating targeted marketing and a collaborative customer service model to expand benefits of science-based forest management to family forest landowners.
The Family Forest Outreach Specialist will serve landowners who respond to our targeted marketing campaign, helping them find the information, technical support or financial resources to restore or maintain wildlife habitat and improve forest health on their wooded land. The Specialist will gather information from the landowner, review data available in existing databases, and consult with forestry and wildlife experts to provide landowners with recommendations and referrals to appropriate programs, resources, and agency staff. The Family Forest Outreach Specialist will track the progress of each landowner’s engagement with agency staff and programs and continue to assist the landowner and partners as needed to complete projects that contribute to landowner goals. This may include following up with landowners about next steps, helping schedule field visits, assisting with paper work or applications, and supporting third-party contract administration.
RESPONSIBILITIES AND SCOPE
- Perform landowner intake assessment and initial referrals for family forest landowners who respond to outreach campaign in Garrett and Allegany counties.
- Follow up with landowners to ensure they get the support and assistance they need to complete priority forest management and conservation projects on their lands. Projects could include forest stewardship planning, wildlife habitat restoration, invasive species control, commercial or pre-commercial timber harvest, estate or easement planning, forest or wildlife monitoring, riparian buffer planting, or others.
- Assist with increased coordination among staff from partner agencies including MD Department of Natural Resources (Forest Service, Wildlife and Heritage), Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), MD Extension Service, and the Maryland Environmental Trust.
- Assist staff and partners to develop and oversee implementation of 3-6 projects on private or public lands that demonstrate innovative, underutilized or hard-to-fund management approaches.
- Maintain and use the American Forest Foundation’s landowner engagement database to support follow up and to track outcomes.
- Assist with written reports to project funder.
- Use GIS to support project planning and reporting.
- May work in variable weather conditions, at remote locations, on difficult and hazardous terrain and under physically demanding situations.
- Experience with Microsoft Office suite.
- Experience coordinating multiple projects.
- Experience handling standard business communications.
DESIRED QUALIFICATIONS
- Strong people skills to quickly establish productive relationships by interacting with others in ways that build rapport and trust.
- Knowledge and understanding of current trends and practices in forestry, land management, and natural resource conservation, including species and habitat conservation.
- Knowledge of western Maryland natural history and understanding of Eastern deciduous forest ecosystems.
- Knowledge of state and federal cost-share programs preferred.
- Ability to complete tasks independently within assigned time frames.
- Ability to manage multiple priorities, with assignments sometimes coming from a number of sources.
- Ability to coordinate project information from a number of sources to populate databases, create reports and produce manual files.
- Experience utilizing databases for data entry and report production.
- Experience using GIS for basic mapping and analysis.
- Strong administrative skills including attention to detail and numerical ability.
- Ability to plan, administer and record results of team meetings and activities.
- Multi-lingual and multi-cultural or cross-cultural experience appreciated.
The Nature Conservancy offers competitive compensation, 401k or savings-plan matching for eligible employees, excellent benefits, flexible work policies and a collaborative work environment. We also provide professional development opportunities and promote from within. As a result, you will find a culture that supports and inspires conservation achievement and personal development, both within the workplace and beyond.