Restoration Ecologist

Our Mission in Action

Trees play a vital role in solving some of the most pressing issues facing our communities, our society, and our world today. For 150 years, American Forests has stood boldly at the forefront of the conservation movement, working collaboratively and innovatively to ensure that all people have access to the benefits of trees. As we look ahead to the next 150, continued collective action will be essential to securing a healthy, climate‑resilient future for all.

To support this work, we are looking for a Senior Manager, Texas Ecology to join our Resilient Forests Team.

As a part of the team, you will advance ecological restoration of South Texas’ thorn forest ecosystem through skilled management of reforestation sites, identification and reporting of conservation‑based restoration outcomes and cross‑organizational collaborations. Major responsibilities include:

• In coordination with American Forests’ Texas‑based staff and federal agency partners, lead efforts to manage restored thorn forest sites during the post‑plant timeline through execution and oversight of recurrent field‑based monitoring, routine maintenance activities, augmentation seeding, treatment interventions and cooperator outreach to control invasive plant and wildlife populations
• Ensure performance of all management tasks in accordance with safety policies (federal, state and organizational), including those designated through field‑based SOPs for the use of facilities and equipment safely and respectfully
• Manage strong relations with leaseholders, cooperators and other designated operators on public lands, conservation easements and private lands, including but not limited to representatives of the law enforcement, energy, livestock, farming, outdoors man and utilities management sectors
• Contracting: develop and execute coordinated efforts in project scoping, bid solicitations, service agreements, quality assurance and invoice payments for supply purchases, post‑plant maintenance activities (i.e., mowing, herbicide application, grazing exclusion, etc.) and other functions as required for multiple restoration sites
• In conjunction with state and federal agencies, develop and deliver technical guidance and site management recommendations to private landowners, municipalities and other end‑users of thorn forest restoration in the Rio Grande Valley

• In coordination with federal agency partners and the Resilient Forests Science Team, develop metrics and monitoring designs to evaluate the ecological impact of thorn forest restoration activities in the Rio Grande Valley
• Implement monitoring of restored forest and in‑situ wildlife populations, including field sampling (i.e., observer‑based and passive methods), data collection and data management
• Implement standardized survivorship monitoring of restoration seedlings at regular intervals
• Generate summary statistics and geospatial analyses using collected data points as needed
• Reporting: provide progress reporting on restoration outcomes at regular intervals for both internal and external queries

• In coordination with AF’s GIS/Data Science branch and agency partners, create and periodically update detailed ArcGIS shape files to reflect site boundaries, maintenance/intervention histories and conservation outcomes for multiple thorn forest restoration sites throughout the Rio Grande Valley
• Assist Texas Restoration and Community Resilience Teams with translation and procurement of site boundary data, maps and corresponding outcomes as related to restoration projects being conducted at both landscape and local scales

• Alongside American Forests’ staff and partners, co‑develop planning for geospatial interfaces, research‑based analyses and other decision‑support tools necessary to advance the restoration of landscape connectivity and related goals within fragmented forest and woodland ecosystems in Texas
• In coordination with the Resilient Forests’ Science Team, develop analyses and draft…