Playa & Water Conservation Outreach Specialist

Playa Lakes Joint Venture (PLJV) is seeking a Playa & Water Conservation Outreach Specialist to engage local communities across eastern New Mexico and help them support the integration of playa restoration into local and regional water planning efforts as part of Kansas Water Office’s Tomorrow’s Water grant from NFWF America’s Ecosystem Restoration Initiative. This position will build on previous water conservation efforts and Tomorrow’s Water models used in Kansas, New Mexico, and Texas by using and adapting existing messages, products, and tools. It is one of eight outreach positions working to expand Tomorrow’s Water across five states, with guidance from a project coordinator and in collaboration with the other positions. 

Tomorrow’s Water is an adaptive, collaborative process that helps local communities, including agricultural producers in the surrounding counties, partner with conservation organizations to create an actionable plan to ensure a clean and sustainable water supply by incorporating playa conservation as part of broader water quantity and quality efforts. The Outreach Specialist will play a central role in advancing this model at the community level by engaging stakeholders, building relationships, and translating conservation goals into on-the-ground actions. Using this plan, landowners in the community use conservation programs to voluntarily restore playas near municipal and domestic wells and reach sustainable levels of irrigation.