Watershed and Stewardship Biologist, Fish & Wildlife Biologist 3 (FWB3)

Watershed and Stewardship Biologist, Fish & Wildlife Biologist 3 (FWB3)
Recruitment #2024-2-P439
Full-time, Project, Represented position
Anticipated Project is March 2024-June 2025
Location flexibility may be available and considered: Arlington and Granite Falls, WA
Work Hours and Telework flexibility may be available and considered
Salary: $5,088.00 – $6,838.00 Monthly 

Want to join something GREAT and make a difference?
Are you passionate about restoring salmon habitat and promoting healthy forests?

Washington State Department of Natural Resources (DNR) is looking for a Watershed and Stewardship Biologist to help build and implement a new program to support salmon habitat restoration on private forest lands in the Snohomish Watershed. As a senior-level professional within the Forest Resilience Division Service Forestry team, this position will help to advance salmon recovery and watershed health by providing technical assistance and guidance to forest landowners, with a focus on providing scientific expertise and management advice to issues related to wildlife and fish populations.

This position will advance the implementation of key outcomes of the DNR Snohomish Watershed Resilience Action Plan (WRAP) and support the goals of our Service Forestry Program. This is a unique opportunity to work across agency programs to achieve landscape-scale restoration and stewardship goals.  The WRAP is a “trees to seas” plan for landscape-scale restoration and salmon recovery in the Snohomish Watershed (WRIA 7) over a ten-year period. This position is the program’s independent fish and wildlife specialist supporting DNR’s efforts to help restore and enhance salmon habitat and build climate resilience in priority western Washington watersheds.

DNR’s Service Forestry Program provides land management advice to forest landowners and helps to assess resource conditions and forest health, identify potential problems and opportunities, determine financial assistance eligibility, assist with treatment implementation, and recommend management practices to help achieve objectives. The program educates landowners and assists with the development and implementation of management plans to guide current and future management actions.

The initial focus of the Watershed and Stewardship Biologist’s portfolio will be on planning and implementing the Private Forestlands Fish Passage Barrier Inventory. This work will support a much broader effort to identify and correct fish passage barriers that limit or prevent access to upstream habitat for salmonids. While salmon recovery partners including state agencies, counties, and tribal co-managers are hard at work identifying and correcting barriers on public roads and trails, the number and extent of barriers on private lands is not well understood. The WRAP team is working to fill this data gap in the Snohomish watershed, work which will be led by this position.

Required Qualifications: 

• A Bachelor of Science degree in fish and wildlife biology, wildlife management, natural resources, environmental science, forestry, fisheries, marine science, or closely related field AND three years of experience in environmental science, natural resource management, forestry, fisheries, wildlife science, marine science, environmental engineering, land use or environmental planning, or other relevant field.
  OR An equivalent combination of education plus experience.
• Experience with natural resource management and habitat restoration resulting in knowledge of, and the ability to interpret and apply, natural resource laws, policies, and programs and how these affect or enable fish, wildlife, and habitat conservation in Washington State.
• Experience managing complex projects with multiple partners and funding sources.
• Contract management and budgetary experience.
• Working knowledge of silviculture and forest management practices in the Pacific Northwest.
• Experience teaching or providing group presentations.
• Experience responding to and interacting in a positive, responsive, cooperative, and collaborative manner while interacting with the public and other professionals (both inter-organizational and interdisciplinary).
• Proficient with computers, Microsoft Office applications, SharePoint, online presentation tools, etc.
• Experience with Geographic Information Systems (GIS), including ArcMap, Survey123, Collector, and other mapping tools to document work and convey information to non-technical audiences.
• Demonstrated commitment to fostering and supporting an environment that honors diversity, equity, inclusion, and environmental justice practices.
• Perform assigned duties in a manner consistent with applicable laws, and regulations, and public records retention and requests are followed.
• Ability to organize efficiently and develop or use systems for tracking implementation and accomplishments of several complex projects.
• Highly motivated toward accomplishing set goals.
• Ability to work independently and effectively manage multiple tasks at different stages.
• Ability to convey oral and written communications clearly and effectively to large and small audiences.