Kirtland’s Warbler Recovery Forester
Title: Kirtland’s Warbler Recovery Forester
Supervisor: Kirtland’s Warbler Program Director
Location: Flexible within Michigan, but Northern Lower Peninsula strongly preferred
Job Type: Full-time
Salary: Estimated at $70,000/year; Based on experience; This position is supported through outside funding commitments and is subject to periodic reviews to confirm the continuation of funding. The role includes collaboration with our Development team to help ensure sustained support; however, ongoing employment is contingent upon the availability of grant funding and partner commitments
Application Deadline: October 31, 2025
Position Summary:
This is a full-time position with American Bird Conservancy (ABC). American Bird Conservancy is a fast-growing, results-focused nonprofit seeking employees with an entrepreneurial spirit and a desire to make a difference for birds and their habitats throughout the Americas. Inspired by the wonder of birds, ABC achieves lasting results for the bird species most in need while also benefiting human communities, biodiversity, and the planet’s fragile climate.
Kirtland’s Warbler is the rarest migratory songbird in North America. The species is reliant on early-successional, even-aged stands of jack pine forest for breeding. Although it was recently delisted as a federally endangered species, sustaining the population requires continual generation of new habitat in perpetuity as part of state and federal agreements to protect the species.
The Kirtland’s Warbler Recovery Forester (“Forester”) will primarily work with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS), USDA Forest Service (USFS), Michigan Department of Natural Resources (MI DNR), and Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (WI DNR) to implement Kirtland’s Warbler conservation and habitat management on public lands in northern Michigan and Wisconsin. The Forester may also conduct work on other private or public lands throughout the Great Lakes region.
The Forester will work closely with ABC’s Kirtland’s Warbler Program Director and USFWS staff to design and contract management prescriptions for Kirtland’s Warbler in the jack pine ecosystem. Duties will include, but are not limited to, providing technical forestry assistance and administrative support for public agencies, strengthening collaborative management partnerships (e.g., with NGO, public agency, and tribal entities), monitoring and reporting on management outcomes, innovating and testing new management techniques, promoting ABC and its various programs, and assisting with grant preparation and program reporting.
This position requires knowledge of and experience with northern forest ecosystem management, conservation agencies and organizations, and conservation partnerships. The Forester maintains a high level of contact and partnership, particularly with USFWS, in person, by telephone, and by email.
This work requires initiative, innovation, excellent communication skills, experience achieving on-the-ground results for bird conservation, strong writing skills, the ability to manage multiple simultaneous projects and responsibilities, ability to work independently and as part of a team, and attention to detail. The Forester must be articulate and responsive in representing ABC with partners and others within the bird and broader conservation community.
Primary Duties:
- Forestry – The Forester will direct timber sales, conduct forest inventories, and plan other jack pine management actions such as mastication and prescribed fire. Coordinate forest management collaboration between public agencies. Ensure compliance with applicable environmental laws.
- Research – Use novel experimental approaches to generate habitat for Kirtland’s Warbler and refine the habitat management program in an adaptive management framework. With assistance from biologists, foresters, and statisticians, design treatments to evaluate outcomes for Kirtland’s Warbler, forestry products, and other ecological measures.
- Monitoring – Monitor forestry sites for sufficient tree recruitment, forest health, and ecological or economic values. Collaborate with biologists monitoring Kirtland’s Warbler demography, nest parasitism, and life history traits. Assess the status of existing experimental projects that may be reclassified to other management categories.
- Habitat Tracking, Analysis, and Forecasting – Work with federal and state agencies, as well as local conservation groups, to document the progression of habitat through all project stages (e.g., timber sale, harvest, replanting, certification) and develop multi-year forecasts of habitat availability to prevent habitat shortfalls or find areas of efficiency.
- Coordination – Lead collaborative projects across multiple organizations. Generate agreement on goals and strategies, identify specific roles for participants, and keep projects on established timelines.
- Represent ABC within the Kirtland’s Warbler Conservation Team (KWCT) – Communicate accomplishments to the multi-organization KWCT in the context of interagency habitat generation agreements. Work with KWCT member organizations to improve the effectiveness, outcomes, and forestry products from Kirtland’s Warbler habitat-focused forestry.
- Prescribed Fire – Collaboratively plan and execute prescribed fire in jack pine forests with partner organizations for the benefit of Kirtland’s Warbler. Represent ABC at meetings, workshops, and other events hosted by organizations promoting prescribed fire, such as the Northern Michigan Fire Collaborative.
- Grant Preparation – Assist with drafting and reviewing proposals to support Kirtland’s Warbler conservation in collaboration with ABC Great Lakes staff and KWCT colleagues.
- Public Outreach – Communicate with members of the public and the media regarding Kirtland’s Warbler conservation and jack pine forest management via written correspondence, oral presentations, and public events. Engage with local communities and tribal partners to foster inclusive participation in Kirtland’s Warbler conservation.
- Other duties as assigned.
Position Requirements:
- Associate’s degree or Bachelor’s degree in forestry (e.g., forest management, forest science, agroforestry), or a similar conservation-related field; and
- A minimum of three years of experience in forestry, wildlife habitat management, or related natural resource management.
- The position requires regular travel within the northern Lower Peninsula of Michigan and occasional travel elsewhere. ABC will reimburse travel expenses. Applicants are required to have a valid driver’s license with a safe driving history.
- Willing and able to work in physically challenging outdoor environments throughout all seasons, including traversing difficult or uneven terrain, in a range of weather conditions, and with insect presence.
- All remote and hybrid employees are required to have a stable and high-speed internet service provider in place prior to beginning work for ABC. Our distributed work force relies heavily on cloud technologies, Zoom, and other automations to successfully complete our day to day work. The ideal speeds are 30-40 Mbps for downloads and 10-15 Mbps for uploads.
- You may be required to use your personal cell phone to access ABC systems remotely.
- Authorized to work in the US or Permanent Resident
- Background screening required
Benefits:
American Bird Conservancy fosters a mission-driven, collaborative, and supportive workplace where staff are respected, empowered, and connected by a shared purpose. ABC offers strong benefits, a 35-hour work week, generous leave policies, and flexible, remote-friendly work arrangements that support a healthy work-life balance.
- Excellent benefits package includes medical, dental, flexible spending accounts, and employer-matched retirement savings, flexible schedule, etc.
- Paid vacation days (starting at 15 days annually and increasing to 20 days after 1 year of employment), paid holidays (including both US holidays and additional ABC holidays) and sick leave.
- Lodging, meals, and transportation covered for work-related travel away from home where applicable.
- Rental vehicle or personal mileage reimbursement where applicable.
Please apply online at Paylocity: https://recruiting.paylocity.com/recruiting/jobs/Details/3554370/America...
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At American Bird Conservancy, we believe that a diversity of backgrounds, perspectives, and skills makes us more effective. We are committed to creating a respectful and inclusive work environment for all of our employees.
As an equal opportunity employer, ABC is committed to ensuring that employees and applicants for employment have equal opportunities regardless of race, color, national origin, ancestry, sex, age, religion, physical or mental disability, medical condition, veteran status, marital status, pregnancy, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, or any other factor unrelated to the requirements of the position.