Holden Forests & Gardens - Lakes Basin Forests Health Coordinator

Holden Forests & Gardens seeks a Great Lakes Basin Forest Health Coordinator
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The long-term objective of the Great Lakes Basin Forest Health Collaborative (GLBFHC) is expansion and acceleration of the identification, production and planting of pest-resistant trees to provide improved seed sources for use in forest restoration plantings by both public and private landowners across the Great Lakes basin. The GLBFHC coordinator is responsible for working collaboratively with the U.S. Forest Service to support participatory resistance-breeding activities for tree species that are threatened by insects and diseases (including ash, elm, hemlock and beech) with the long-term goal of restoration in areas of need in the Great Lakes Water Basin.

The primary mission of the coordinator is to facilitate expansion of efforts to develop resistance breeding programs in ash, elm, beech and hemlock by serving as a liaison between research and implementation of on the ground breeding programs among a wide array of partners (state and municipalities, NGOs, private landowners, citizen volunteer groups, tribal nations and universities). The coordinator is responsible for raising awareness of resistance breeding and the value it has as a tool to manage damaging invasive pests, recruiting interested partners to participate in all phases of the breeding process, and provide training to partners based on protocols developed and validated through research.

• Monitoring, identifying and reporting potentially resistant trees
• Propagation and conservation of such candidate trees
• Establishing and maintaining plantings from seed or vegetative propagules for preservation of germplasm for testing field performance of genotypes (which requires data collection)
• Selection of parent trees suitable for seed orchard development.
• Develop protocols as needed for all phases of breeding. In some species protocols are not yet fully optimized by researchers, and some species may require more than one generation of breeding to achieve a sufficient level of resistance.

The coordinator is responsible for facilitating the creation of Regional Breeding Networks among Collaborative members that in some cases may require finding new partners or contractors to fill gaps in skillsets or necessary infrastructure to carry out all aspects of a breeding program. The coordinator will work with the breeding networks to identify funding sources, write grants and/or find a partner or FS researcher to consult.

Members of a breeding network may play different roles in the breeding process but work together to create a complete pipeline from identifying resistant trees to installing test plantings, to achieve the common goal of developing an improved genetically diverse seed orchard appropriate for restoration plantings in a specific, defined region within the southern Great Lakes Basin. Multiple Regional Breeding Networks will be necessary to cover the range of each species over the long term.

• Communicate with land managers, researchers, nursery managers and restoration specialists to always have current state of knowledge of research & breeding program progress for all species. Arrange to attend in person training when needed to learn new techniques.
• Identify partners and their interests and capabilities (volunteers, land for plantings, facilities for propagation, seedling production, etc.) through various outreach and education activities.
• Organize and lead educational meetings, training sessions and workshops as needed
• Build Regional Breeding Networks consisting of partners with shared interests and long-term mutually beneficial goals (ie improved genetically diverse, regional seed orchard)
• Facilitate goal setting for Regional Breeding Networks and coordinate with researchers (including the Executive Committee and Technical Assistance Committees when appropriate) for assistance in sourcing rootstock, assistance with vegetative propagation techniques, and planting design for various types of plantings, etc.
• Goals of Regional Breeding Networks should include one or more of the following types of plantings of propagated trees or seedlings selected as presumably having increased levels of resistance: preservation plantings, research test plantings, restoration plantings, and seed orchards within the Great Lakes Region.
• Work with Breeding Networks to assist in developing grant proposals and finding funding sources for priority projects, especially those that fill a specific need for establishment of plantings such as fencing and site prep for planting installation.
• Work with Holden Arboretum Communications staff and the GLBFHC Executive Board to develop communication tools for targeted and general audiences.
• Interact with citizen science app developers to stay up to date and provide training for partners to use such apps to report candidate resistant trees, and annual monitoring plot data. Review data input from GLBFHC partners and breeding networks annually to update and…