Education & Riparian Outreach Coordinator

Position Description

This position will coordinate and carry out outreach and education to both K-12 students (conservation education programming) and riparian vegetation restoration professionals (training and collaboration), along with other duties.  This position requires a hard-working, flexible, enthusiastic, and outgoing individual dedicated to native fish conservation, with an interest and knowledge of native riparian plant communities in the Mid-Columbia Region.

Primary Work Tasks

• Riparian Vegetation Restoration Professionals – Training, Collaboration, & Information Sharing (approx. 40%)
• K-12 Students – Conservation Education, Support, & Coordination (approx. 40%)
• Support to other Mid-Columbia Fisheries projects and programs, including administrative and field support. (20%)

Key Information

Mid-Columbia Fisheries is a non-profit organization dedicated to protecting and restoring wild salmonid populations and their habitats through restoration, protection, education, and community involvement throughout our region. Mid-Columbia Fisheries’ work and this position are supported by grants.

• Starting pay range is $21 – $25/hr.  MCF uses the federal “general schedule” for wage rates. This position is in grade 7.
• This position is located in Yakima or Kittitas Counties and requires some in-person work in Kittitas County in winter. The employee is expected to reside in the area. Some occasional travel in other parts of Washington State is also required.
• The position is expected to work one day per weekend for three weekends per month from late June to early September.  Beyond this the work schedule has some flexibility, and could be a five day per week, 8 hr. per day job, or a 4-10 position.  The employee is expected to be responsive to meetings and appointments on regularly scheduled work days throughout the Yakima Basin.
• Office space is available in Yakima and Ellensburg.  Home-based work, or a hybrid work model, with regular meetings with managers is also an option.
• Ideally, this is a full-time position.  For the right candidate, a slightly less than full-time schedule may be negotiated.
• The position reports to the Outreach & Communications Manager.
• The position will work collaboratively and communicate regularly with outside entities such as the Washington Department of Ecology, Yakima Basin Fish & Wildlife Recovery Board, the Populus Committee, and others.
• The position is grant funded through October 31, 2023.  Work priorities and tasks may shift after July 1, 2023. There is the potential that funding will be available beyond October 31, 2023 to retain the employee. 
• Mid-Columbia Fisheries’ (MCF) personnel policy requires employees to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19.
• All employees are provided with benefits prescribed by law, including sick leave, Social Security, workers’ compensation, and labor and industry insurance. This position is eligible for additional benefits including healthcare, dental, and accrual of vacation and holidays.
• Since this position will work with children, a Washington State criminal background check is required.

Position Details

Primary Task 1: Riparian Vegetation Restoration – Outreach, Collaboration, & Information Sharing (approx. 40%)

The Eastern Washington Riparian Planting Symposium was created by partnering agencies (Department of Ecology and the Yakima Basin Fish and Wildlife Recovery Board) as a forum for information sharing for restoration professionals to improve project success. The Education & Riparian Outreach Coordinator will support and work at the direction of a multi-agency steering committee (called Populus) to plan and coordinate information sharing, online and in person workshops, project tours, and an annual symposium. The goal of this work is to improve the success of riparian restoration work in eastern Washington, with a particular focus on improving revegetation establishment and accelerating the rate of restoration (acres/year) in high-priority stream reaches for water quality and salmon recovery.

Tasks may include but not be limited to:

• Develop, plan, and coordinate year-round online and in person trainings, including recruiting trainers, advertising trainings, and managing registrations, logistics, evaluations, and follow-up. These events may include project tours, hands-on learning activities, guest speakers, films, or social events.
• For the annual Eastern Washington Riparian Planting Symposium, recruit speakers, advertise, research discussion topics, select a venue, organize audio, video, catering, etc., and handle registration and pre-symposium social activities and field trips. Create and implement post-symposium surveys and content management and other activities related to the symposium.
• Coordinate project site visits at projects that demonstrate various or unique planting and maintenance techniques. Travel to projects sites to document and share information about projects in photo and video.
• Maintain and grow an email contact list and ListServ of interested professionals, students, professors, researchers, landowners, and others; actively advertise to build membership and participation.
• Assist the Populus Committee, as needed, with:
  • Information Sharing – Developing and implementing a communication plan to share information about other trainings, events, best practices, evolving techniques, related literature, projects, case-studies, and other new information to improve riparian planting success in the East Cascades, Okanogan, Columbia Plateau and other ecoregions of Eastern Washington. This will likely involve developing a regular newsletter, web pages, and other tools that cover these topics. 
  • Building and maintaining working relationships between restoration professionals to share ecosystem-specific lessons learned and restoration strategies to accelerate project implementation and success in the shrub steppe, grasslands, scablands of the Columbia Plateau, forest and other ecosystems in Eastern WA.
  • Financial Planning – Activities may include: continuing and expanding communication with current and potential financial contributors and sponsors, identifying potential fundraising events or products, and goals and objectives for future work for use in funding proposals by MCFEG.
  • Strategic Planning – Assist the committee with strategic planning to identify greatest needs and events and tools that will best serve those needs. This task may include long-range planning to support continuation of these efforts beyond the end of the current funding support.
  • Committee Meetings – Assist as needed in meetings, such as scheduling, agendas, note taking, providing updates, creating task lists, etc.
  • Committee recruitment and support of any volunteer involvement in the committee.
• Coordinate with other regional restoration and training groups, such as River Restoration Northwest and the Coastal Training Program.
• Liaison between the MCF riparian restoration ecologist and the Populus steering committee in coordinating technical topics, speakers and field trips for the symposium and year-round events.

Primary Task 2: K-12 Conservation Education, Support & Coordination (approx. 40%)

• Plan, coordinate, and deliver K-12 in-class lessons and field trips in Kittitas County, and potentially Yakima and Grant Counties, or elsewhere in the region. 
• Coordinate salmon in the classroom program, including salmon tanks, technical support, delivery of salmon eggs, and release field trips, for approximately 8 schools in Kittitas County. 
• Communicate with teachers and other external partners to ensure smooth implementation of educational programming. 
• Support the Outreach and Communications Manager in developing opportunities for college student mentors and other volunteers to support education field trips.
• Assist with coordination of a summer high school intern program.
• Support MCF in meeting grant deliverables. Track educational metrics, data, and grant deliverables, and assist with reporting. 
• If a teacher training is held, support planning, logistics, and coordination.

Safety

• For the summer of 2022, the Education and Riparian Outreach Coordinator will serve as a summer safety check-in at least three weekend days per month from late June to early September.  These will be scheduled in advance and involves being available to track and respond to communication from field crews at the beginning and end of the field crews’ workday.
• Comply with MCF policies and safety procedures; evaluate work safety and address safety concerns immediately.  Notify supervisor of on-going safety concerns.  MCF’s personnel policy requires employees to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19.
• Evaluate field trip and site visit safety and address any safety concerns.

Administrative and Field Support

• Assist Mid-Columbia Fisheries with other organization needs, including administrative tasks and assistance to field crews. 
• Over time, may supervise an AmeriCorps Individual Placement position, volunteers, work study, or other entry-level positions.

Communication and Social Media

• Provide regular content for social medial posts.
• Keep supervisor informed about progress on key tasks, challenges and accomplishments. 
• Ask questions and let superiors know if additional support is needed to ensure progress on work tasks.

Required Skills and Qualifications:

• Dependable, self-motivated, and demonstrate a positive attitude.
• Must have a passion for the outdoors and conservation.
• A bachelor’s degree in education, environmental science or studies, ecology, botany, biology or similar knowledge and experience is required, plus a minimum of one year of professional work experience.
• Good verbal communication skills with children and adults.
• Must communicate respectfully with coworkers, supervisors, students, interns, volunteers, recreationists, and others.
• Must be flexible to changes in work schedule and assigned duties.
• Ability to pass criminal background check for safe work with minors.
• A valid driver’s license, clean driving record, and the ability to safely operate vehicles.
• Proficiency in business applications including Microsoft office, online meeting platforms.
• Ability to learn to use email management & marketing software, such as constant contact.
• Ability to learn to update a website.
• Able and willing to perform all aspects of the work, which may include occasionally lifting up to 35 lbs into and out of trucks, working near flowing water, and occasionally walking a few miles over steep or uneven terrain.

Desired Qualifications:

• An understanding of and interest in native plant communities in Eastern Washington and familiarity with riparian revegetation techniques.
• Layout and design skills to create online outreach materials (newsletter, website content) that are informative and attractive.
• Fluency in Spanish would be beneficial for K-12 conservation education.
• Good written communication skills.

Mid-Columbia Fisheries Enhancement Group is a non-profit, community based group dedicated to restoring self-sustaining populations of salmon and steelhead. Mid-Columbia Fisheries works with landowners and community partners to protect and restore fish habitat. The Mid-Columbia region includes the Yakima Basin, the Klickitat, White Salmon, and Wind Rivers, and numerous smaller tributaries in Skamania, Klickitat, Benton, Yakima, Kittitas and Franklin Counties. It is the policy and intent of the MCF to provide equal employment opportunity for all persons regardless of race, color, religion, national origin, marital status, political ideology, sexual orientation, status with regard to public assistance, disability, sex, or age. MCF intends to act nondiscriminatory in all acts related to recruiting, hiring or promotion of staff. For more information about us please visit our website: https://midcolumbiafisheries.org/