Watershed Stewardship & GIS

Organization Background: The Southeast Alaska Watershed Coalition (SAWC) is a nonprofit organization that fosters partnerships and inspires Southeast Alaskans to steward our watersheds through participatory projects, research, and learning.  SAWC has a professional staff of 7 full-time employees and an annual budget of around $2 million a year.  We are a regional leader in stream, riparian, and wetland restoration; stormwater and invasive plant management; watershed assessment, planning, and management; and environmental monitoring. We work hand-in-hand with Tribes, forest partnerships, and community-based watershed councils.  We were awarded the National Rise to the Future Award for Partnerships by the US Forest Service in 2022 and the US Fish & Wildlife Service’s Regional Director’s Outstanding Partner Award in 2021.  We showcase our partnerships and project outcomes at:  alaskawatershedcoalition.org and  facebook.com/alaskawatershedcoalition/

Position Scope: Are you an experienced biologist, ecologist, or hydrologist with a strong background in GIS who wants to work with a fun and productive team?  Tired of agency bureaucracy and government flip flopping?  Crave some creativity and to make a difference in the world?  Responsibilities for this position include the following: 

1) Stewardship & Restoration. SAWC is looking to add capacity for a variety of watershed stewardship projects around the region.  This includes project and people management in stream, riparian, and wetland restoration; watershed assessment; and environmental monitoring. 

• Project Management:
  • Watershed issues recognition, assessment, and planning
• Stewardship and restoration project planning, permitting, and design
  • Contract management & construction management
  • Monitoring
  • Remote fieldwork

• Working with Partners:
  • Work with agencies on watershed stewardship priorities and permitting
    • US Forest Service, US Fish and Wildlife Service, AK Department of Fish and Game, AK Department of Environmental Conservation, and US Army Corp of Engineers
  • Working with Southeast Alaska communities, organizations, and tribes
    • Various cities and villages, Alaska Native organizations and corporations, SAWC member group organizations, and other non-profits
    • Workforce development is a common theme in community led projects

2) GIS & Field Maps.  SAWC uses ArcGIS Field Maps for more than just collecting watershed data.  We use Field Maps as a communication tool to guide and collaborate with several tribally run natural resource stewardship crews around the region.  This position is responsible for maintaining and advancing the way SAWC uses Field Maps, including creating and managing web maps, associated base maps, and feature layers used to visualize and collect geospatial data.  The individual will need to collaborate with SAWC staff, agency partners, and tribal groups.  This includes maintaining Field Maps enabled iPads used by SAWC staff and partners, leading training on data collection, and participating in field assessments.  For example, this individual will review past data collected in the Klawock Lake watershed, identify data gaps, work with a tribally run stewardship crew to fill those data gaps, and then create written reports and mapping products to update the Klawock Lake Watershed Action Plan. 

• Watershed Data & ArcGIS Field Maps:
  • Maintain Field Maps for SAWC staff & tribal partners around the region
  • Create data collection and background feature layers
  • Participate in data collection and understand field applications
  • QA/QC field data in ArcGIS online
  • Direct the analysis of data to determine actions, next steps, and strategies
  • Provide geospatial support to SAWC staff
  • Synthesize and produce written reports on data collected
  • Maintain SAWC project tracker web map
  • Creating Arc GIS StoryMaps

• Work With Partners:
  • Maintain ArcGIS online account and facilitate data sharing with partners.
  • Support integration of USFWS’s Fish Barrier Hunter App and data analysis,
  • Support geospatial & field assessment training for tribal partners.
  • Participate in Forest Partnership technical committees as needed.
  • Facilitate training of partners in field maps and data collection as needed
  • Grant application and grant management

Qualifications: 

• Proficiency in ArcGIS Field Maps & ArcGIS Pro
• Field experience and data collection in remote locations
• Data management & analysis
• Willingness to travel and work in the field
• Relevant graduate degree and/or 3 years of experience
• An upbeat attitude, happy to take on and complete small and large tasks
• Strong interpersonal, verbal, written communication skills
• Self-starter and goals oriented
• Knowledge and experience working in rural Alaska plus
• Communication experience a plus
• Grant writing and grant management experience a plus

Note: This position is offered as a one-year term because it is funded by federal grants.  Due to recent executive actions and policy changes, federal grants are facing uncertainty.  Satisfactory job performance and grant revenue could extend the position.  

Physical Demands and Work Environment

The physical and work environment characteristics described here are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of this job.  Reasonable accommodation may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform essential functions. While performing the duties of this job, the employee is required to walk, use hands to finger, handle objects, tools, or controls; reach with hands and arms; balance, stoop; bending or crouching; talk or hear.  This can include bush bashing through nasty second growth forest and flooded streams full of bears in the rain for hours on end! The employee must be able to lift/carry and/or move up to 30 pounds safely. Specific vision abilities required by the job include close vision, distance vision, and the ability to adjust focus. Driver’s license is required, and willingness to travel on small planes and boats to remote locations is necessary.