- Agency
- Sierra Institute for Community and Environment
- Location
- Taylorsville, CA
- Job Category
- Apprentice
- Salary
- $16.50/Hour
- Start Date
- 05/01/2023
- Last Date to Apply
- 03/20/2023
- Website
- https://sierrainstitute.us/about/jobs/
- Description
- Job Duties: The selected candidate will have the opportunity to advance their knowledge and professional skills while contributing to meaningful outcomes for rural communities and landscapes through involvement with a suite of Sierra Institute projects. Project areas described below provide an overview of the core efforts the selected apprentice will contribute to. These are meant to provide a general understanding of the position and may not capture all responsibilities. Collaborative Natural Resource Management (~60%): Sierra Institute is actively engaged with a number of collaboratives working to advance landscape scale, cross-boundary forest restoration while improving local socioeconomic conditions. The apprentice will support Sierra Institute’s work with existing collaboratives, including the South Lassen Watersheds Group and the Burney Hat Creek Community Forest and Watersheds Group. In addition, the apprentice will play a key role in emerging work focused on working directly with communities to plan and implement forest restoration on private lands. This work is a critical element of our large landscape work with public land management agencies, and builds on the foundational work of informal community groups like the Taylorsville Firewise Committee and the Friends of Warner Valley to ground restoration in community values. Sierra Institute is currently partnered with Friends of Warner Valley, which represents a group of private landowners in Warner Valley, CA, to build a management plan for the watershed. Warner Valley is a multijurisdictional landscape that includes Lassen National Forest, Lassen Volcanic National Park, California Department of Fish and Wildlife, and both industrial and non-industrial private lands. Since the 2021 Dixie Fire, which heavily impacted the Warner Valley area, Friends of Warner Valley is interested in convening relevant land managers to build a cohesive land management plan for the area. This plan would provide a pathway forward for unified land management that would enhance forest health, restore the meadow system, enhance recreation opportunities, protect wildlife, and more. Apprentice duties related to this work may include collecting information on the Warner Valley area, researching forest and watershed management, coordinating meetings and workshops for diverse stakeholders, and developing a natural resource management plan with local landowners, agencies, and industry. Collaborative Restoration Planning and Implementation (~30%): Sierra Institute in partnership with the South Lassen Watersheds Group, a collaborative group planning for the future of forest management, climate resilience, and economic development in critical upper watersheds, to accelerate restoration across a million-acre landscape. In support of this work, the apprentice will work with staff on numerous projects. Active projects include large landscape estoration planning on two ~170,000 acre multi-jurisdictional restoration projects, as well as advancing implementation of fuels management in preparation for prescribed fire in wilderness areas, and integrated forest-meadow-stream restoration across several project areas. Activities may include, but are not limited to, providing planning process support, conducting background research for environmental planning, and engaging in an array of field activities including forest monitoring and inventory, project preparation work, and implementation of fuels reduction and forest restoration on public and private lands.
- Qualifications
- Qualifications Required ● An undergraduate or advanced degree in the social science, natural resources or related field; ● Excellent written and oral communication skills; ● Basic understanding of land management policies, and natural resource issues such as wildfire forestry, and ecological restoration; ● Proficiency in Microsoft Office (Word, PowerPoint, Excel); ● A willingness to work and live in a rural, mountainous area that receives snow and ice in winter; ● A team-oriented perspective with a productive level of self-guidance and initiative; ● An ability to bring critical thinking skills, creativity, and laughter to the workplace; ● A personal vehicle for transportation outside of work; ● Experience living and/or working in a rural setting and a strong desire to learn about rural issues. Preferred ● Demonstrated knowledge of collaborative resource management and community involvement; ● Experience with qualitative and/or quantitative social science research methods; ● In-depth experience conducting community surveys and/or stakeholder interviews; ● Experience with online surveys, webinars, website management, and/or utilizing other computer software programs; ● Experience using ESRI ArcGIS. Please note these qualifications are what we believe is necessary to ensure the selected applicant is successful in this position, however, we encourage all who are interested to apply and highlight how their experience and background will make them successful.
- Contact Person
- Danielle Berry
- Contact Phone
- 5302841022
- Contact eMail
- jobs@sierrainstitute.us
