The Wilderness Center is one of Ohio’s most established conservation-based organizations and is currently undergoing a strategic visioning process to create a bold and viable future. The Wilderness Center’s mission is to engage our community in conservation through action and education.
Summary of Position: The primary goals of this position is to lead TWC’s land trust, stewardship, preserve management, and conservation efforts on all owned and managed lands, including easements, and to incorporate conservation practices and principles into all aspects of TWC including education, development, and outreach.
Responsibilities:
· Lead TWC’s Land Trust activities including budgetary, planning, management, and records.
· Preserves management, monitoring, and reporting including the creation, implementation and management of conservation plans for all TWC properties and easements.
· Lead the Conservation and Stewardship Team to implement proactive conservation and restoration efforts to protect various wildlife habitats on TWC’s preserves and other privately held lands.
· Provide strategic direction and support to identify priority stewardship activities on TWC lands that may include ecological restoration or enhancement projects, invasive species removal and management, prescribed burns, mitigation projects, easement management, and visitor experience-based aspects on preserves open to the public.
· Develop protocol for opening more TWC preserves for public access.
· Identify and manage areas to be planted for TWC’s Tree of Life program.
· Maintain and create strong relationships with partner organizations including Federal, State, and local governments, local schools and colleges, and other nonprofit organizations.
· Work with TWC’s Executive Director to assess and prepare conservation easement amendments as necessary and to manage TWC’s response to violations of existing conservation easements if/when they occur.
· Create and maintain compliance with TWC standards including maintaining TWC’s project-related recordkeeping by evaluating, drafting, and updating TWC conservation plans and policies as needed.
· Create and maintain TWC’s conservation easement template and stay current on trends and guidelines associated with land transactions.
· Maintain and improve TWC’s conservation and stewardship policies, procedures and records in compliance with industry standards.
· Serve as the project manager for all active conservation projects. Responsible for coordinating multiple sub-contractors to complete due diligence and ensure thorough, timely, and ethical completion of conservation projects.
· Review and report on due diligence progress for land projects including appraisals, title review, environmental site assessments/hazardous materials assessments, and preliminary project budgets.
· Ensure that the Stewardship Coordinator conducts all annual monitoring of TWC properties and submits monitoring reports.
· Manage land stewards, stewardship interns, and stewardship volunteers.
· Development and supervision of volunteer work crew focused on preserves stewardship.
· Develop and maintain GIS database of all TWC properties and conservation projects. Create and manage the Landscape database to include all conservation properties and projects.
· Work collaboratively with development and education teams to incorporate conservation principles and practices into all aspects of TWC
· Identify resources for funding and partnering on conservation projects.
· Prepare grant applications and manage scope of work to support land management and conservation activities. Contribute to grant proposals and funder reports for project and organizational funding.
· Serve as a member of TWC’s Leadership Team and professionally represent TWC for outreach and coalition meetings.
· Represent TWC’s Conservation and Stewardship program in stakeholder meetings.
· Work with all TWC staff to host a variety of events, activities, and community outreach programming.
· Create reports for TWC’s Board of Directors and Conservation Committee as well as meeting presentations regarding the status and progress of active conservation projects.
Additional Qualifications & Requirements
· BA/BS degree and minimum 5 years’ experience in conservation practice or related.
· Must be proficient in GIS, Microsoft Office and other tech as needed.
· Must be a self-motivated team player who thrives on getting results and meeting goals.
· Must possess strong leadership and people skills.
· Must have strong business acumen with outstanding written and verbal communication skills.
· Should be proficient at managing multiple projects simultaneously.
· Needs to be able to successfully work with both inter and intra-departmental teams.
· Should project a helpful, friendly, and cooperative disposition to members, visitors, volunteers, clubs, and staff.
· Ability to work onsite, offsite, and outside with various props when needed.
· Willingness to work flexible hours, including occasional evenings and weekends.
· Ability to work independently and as a member of a team.
· Must support and adhere to TWCs mission and core values.
· Must be able to pass BCI background check
· Must possess a valid Ohio driver’s license with a clean driving record.
