Stewardship Associate

Job Description

Hudson Taconic Lands (HTL) owns, or holds conservation easements on, thousands of acres of land, all of which requires careful stewardship, such as annual monitoring, trail and infrastructure maintenance, invasive species monitoring and management, and administrative oversight. Many of our conserved lands are community forests which are stewarded in part by committees of volunteer community members who help oversee the management of the properties. The Stewardship Associate works primarily in the field assisting the Stewardship Manager to coordinate with volunteers and staff to ensure that all necessary land stewardship work is completed in a timely manner, including Annual Monitoring. The Stewardship Associate helps ensure that public properties are welcoming, safe, and inviting with clear signage, kiosks, maps, and other infrastructure. They also work to assess, preserve or restore healthy ecosystems at all properties.

 

Essential Functions:​

1. Work with the Stewardship Manager, other staff, the Board of Directors, and volunteers to steward all HTL properties.

2. Assist with annual monitoring and potential violations at all properties, including conducting monitoring of fee and easement properties using ground and remote methods.

3. Help to train volunteers in monitoring policies and procedures and in the use of tools such as LandScape, Land Conservation Software.

4. Help maintain landowner and volunteer steward contact information in all HTL databases, including Little Green Light and Landscape.

5. Work with the Volunteer Coordinator to keep volunteers on schedule with land projects and provided with all tools necessary to steward the land.

6. Establish and maintain positive relationships with landowners and easement landowners, including participating in/planning activities or events.

7. Assist with the management of baseline documentation reports for new conservation easement projects.

8. Assess the ecological health of properties, and work to preserve and restore that health where feasible, including mapping the invasive species present at each property.

9. Help create and maintain priority matrices for ecological management of HTL properties and coordinate ecological restoration projects (like invasive species removal and mitigation) with partners, volunteers, and staff.

10. Work with the Weekday and Weekend Trail Crew Leaders to organize and facilitate the volunteer trail crew, including overseeing tool inventory and distribution. Help maintain the Trail Crew culture of always being kind to one another, patience, flexibility, fun, and being genuine and authentic. We expect that this position may evolve into organizing and facilitating the volunteer trail crew independently.

11. Serve on the Wildlife Committee, Hunting Committee, and some community forest committees as needed.

12. Assist with boundary marking, trail work, special projects, monitoring of invasive species and biodiversity as directed by the Stewardship Manager.

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Specific Responsibilities:

1.  Support land stewards with annual monitoring, including annual monitoring site visits and help with Landscape.

2. Help to plan, and participate in, programs, outings, and workdays on HTL properties, including workplans, logistics, training, greeting, and directing.

3. Be a positive representative of HTL to land stewards, landowners, conservation easement landowners and in the community broadly.

4. Help maintain the paper file system for land-related documents, including paper copies of essential documents in the off-site safe.

5. Maintain and inventory all supplies, tools and equipment, with assistance from others.

6. Maintain all infrastructure on HTL lands, including installing, maintaining, and updating kiosks, signage, parking lots, benches, tables, etc.

7. Perform, direct and report on projects and assignments as requested by your supervisor(s).

8. Work in-person each Wednesday morning with the volunteer weekday trail crew. Work with the weekend trail crew in person at least one weekend morning per month.

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​The Stewardship Associate reports to the Stewardship Manager and works remotely from their home office, at the HTL office, and in the field as noted in more detail below. 

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Required Abilities, Skills, Qualifications

1. Excellent people skills and an ability to work with committees, colleagues, and others, and to lead small teams.

2. Excellent written and oral communication skills.

3. Basic carpentry skills, including proficiency with hand and power tools and an interest in learning and applying new skills.

4. Clean driving record and comfort with driving a 1-ton pickup truck.

5. Basic trail management skills.

6. Comfortable with being “off-trail” in the woods and land navigation.

7. Proven organizational skills and ability to balance multiple priorities.

8. Availability to work occasional prescheduled evenings and weekends, as required.

9. Availability to travel occasionally for meetings, conferences and/or training.

10. Ability to lift at least 25lbs. by yourself, walk or stand for long periods of time, and spend extended periods of time outdoors in various weather conditions.

11. Commitment to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion.

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Preferred Abilities, Skills, Qualifications

1. Familiarity with LandScape land conservation software (training will be provided).

2. Familiarity with Upstream Tech, Lens, or other remote monitoring software (training will be provided).

3. Familiarity with land conservation tools.

4. Proficiency in Microsoft Office Outlook and Word

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Specific Monthly/Weekly Duties:

1. Attend weekly staff meetings and selected committee meetings.

2. Work with HTL staff and volunteers to support the installation of new infrastructure.

3. Be the primary point of contact and support person for the trail crews and other groups or volunteers working on the land.

4. Assist with investigating violations and encroachments.

5. Work on projects on the land.

6. Perform trail maintenance, including mowing, string trimming, etc.

7. Assist with fundraising activities and other staff work as directed.

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Other Duties:

As a member of a small team the Stewardship Associate may also perform other duties as directed by your supervisor(s). Duties will be assigned based on scheduling among other duties, strengths, aptitude, and cross-training. These may include taking photographs/videos at programs, events, or volunteer activities and working with the Communications team to provide material for ongoing communications, including photos/videos and copy on recent projects, events and activities.

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Schedule and Work Location:

This position allows for a flexible schedule within the following framework:

1. The position is 40 hours per week.

2. Work on-site at the HTL office at least 2 days per week, including the Staff “Office Day” and the day of the land conservation committee meeting and stewardship committee meeting.

3. The Stewardship Associate role is a seasonal position, working full-time from March 1 – November 30 annually, with occasional minimal hours from December 1 – February 28 on an as needed basis in coordination with your availability.

 

Hudson Taconic Lands is an equal opportunity employer.