Job Announcement: Connections Coordinator
June 2018
Greater Hells Canyon Council seeks a Connections Coordinator to lead our Wild Connections initiative. The Wild Connections goal is to enhance the connectivity of priority wildlife corridors and native species’ habitats from Hells Canyon to the Wenaha-Tucannon Wilderness.
Our Mission is to connect, protect, and restore the wild lands, waters, native species and habitats of the Greater Hells Canyon Region, ensuring a legacy of healthy ecosystems for future generations. We envision a region of wild lands and waters where both native species and human communities thrive.
The Greater Hells Canyon Region is one of the last great wild places in the lower 48 states. The region occupies a critical intersection of large eco-regions, connecting the northern Rockies, Oregon’s high deserts, the Columbia River Basin, and the Cascade Mountains to one another. This biological connectivity facilitates the movement and migration of native wildlife, plants, and fishes. Protecting this important area and its natural processes supports the health of the entire region, including human communities.
We are proud of our 50 + years of grassroots advocacy for public lands. Our mission guides us to ensure “a legacy of healthy ecosystems for future generations.” We imagine those future generations to be more diverse, equitable, and inclusive. Our work reflects that imagination. We use the lenses of diversity, equity, and inclusion when planning our outreach, program work, board of directors recruiting, and staff hiring.
The Position
The Connections Coordinator will spearhead our Wild Connections initiative. The coordinator will enhance the organization’s protections and restoration work by proactively seeking innovative and inclusive approaches to habitat conservation across a landscape-scale swath of public and private lands within the Greater Hells Canyon Region. The coordinator will forge connections with and support the conservation efforts of regional stakeholders—government and tribal entities, private interests, and other non-profits. All work will be done in a way that acknowledges and enhances the region’s significant cultural and recreational values.
Qualifications
- Excellent verbal and written communication skills
- Experience or expertise in environmental and/or land use policy and planning or environmental science, and in one or more of the following: community organizing, collaborative engagement, communications or outreach related fields
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- Ability to engage successfully and respectfully with people of differing viewpoints
- Ability to compile existing research and spatial data that illustrates certain wildlife, cultural, and recreational attributes within the Greater Hells Canyon Region; and/or to procure and manage contracted services that produce the same
- Ability to develop and convey compelling messages to the media, public, membership, agencies, and elected officials using a variety of communications tools–written, visual, and electronic media–and through participation in public meetings, presentations, and one-on-one conversations
- Excellent organizational, time-management, and computer skills
- Ability to work independently and with minimal direction and as a productive member of the GHCC team
- Ability to assist staff and board to integrate diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) strategies into GHCC’s internal and external programs
- A strong belief in GHCC’s mission and a commitment to advancing the Wild Connections goal
- Familiarity and passion for the Greater Hells Canyon Region is highly
Responsibilities
The Connections Coordinator will lead GHCC’s Wild Connections initiative, which directly enhances our partner Yellowstone to Yukon Initiative’s vision and work at the Greater Hells Canyon Regional scale.
Data Compilation/Forging Partnerships
The first phase of work will entail the compilation of a suite of research and data to identify and map a multitude of values, such as priority wildlife corridors, native species habitats, ecological attributes, significant cultural sites, recreational sites and user demographics, and land-use priorities between Hells Canyon and the Wenaha-Tucannon Wilderness in northeastern Oregon– the Wild Connections area of focus.
Note: If the successful candidate does not possess mapping expertise, s/he will be responsible to procure and manage contracted services to provide the products.
Additionally, the first phase will include identifying and forging relationships with allies and collaborators who will help advance the initiative—government agencies, tribes, land trusts, private landowners, nonprofit organizations, and interested community members.
Priority Identification/ Raising Awareness
The second phase of work will utilize the information and maps generated in the first phase to delineate and prioritize the areas most deserving of protection and restoration; to initiate an outreach effort to raise awareness of the unique attributes of the region; and, to increase understanding of the necessity to restore and maintain protected wildlife corridors and native species’ habitats and other high priority values within the Wild Connections area of focus.
Campaign Development and Implementation
The next and longer-term phase of work will entail the development and implementation of a comprehensive campaign for the protection and improvement of the identified connectivity corridors, habitats, and regional attributes determined in the second phase, i.e., assess the campaign climate and chart the course to include strategies, messaging, and evaluation processes along the way.
Program Funding Development
The Connections Coordinator will work closely with GHCC’s Executive Director and development staff to identify funding sources for Wild Connections, develop relationships with funders and key donors, and create compelling proposals and written reports on program progress.
General
Commitment: GHCC welcomes diversity and is committed to creating an inclusive environment for all employees.
Location: This position is based in La Grande, Oregon.
Salary Range: Full-time starting salary in the $35,000 – $37,000 range per year (DOE) is commensurate with similar positions within the organization and region.
Benefits: GHCC offers a generous vacation policy, paid holidays and personal/sick days, health benefits, some flexible hours, and opportunity for time in the field.
To Apply
Email cover letter and résumé with three references to:
Executive Director, Darilyn Parry Brown, darilyn@hellscanyon.org