Hiring: Conservation Technician
Organization: Friends of the Rouge Watershed
Location: various sites around Rouge National Park in Scarborough/Markham area, GTA
FRW Conservation Technician (Spring and Early Summer 2023)
Employer: Friends of the Rouge Watershed (FRW)
Location: Rouge River Watershed, Eastern GTA, Ontario
Work Period: 13 week contract (subject to confirmation of Canada Summer Jobs funding)
Start and End Dates: April 20, 2023 to July 18, 2023
35 hours per week: Monday to Friday and up to four Saturdays
Pay: $16.00 per hour: Potential for raises, subject to productivity and FRW funding status.
To be eligible for Canada Summer Jobs, you must:
- be 15 to 30 years of age and legally entitled to work in Canada, according to legislation and regulations.
- be a Canadian citizen or permanent resident or have official refugee protection status.
FRW is an equal opportunity employer. We embrace diversity and inclusivity.
Job Description and Tasks:
Conservation Technicians should be prepared to work outside on most days. Candidates should have reliable transportation to access FRW planting sites with public transit limitations. Job Tasks include:
- Training and coordinating school and community volunteers.
- Planting 10,000 bare-root and potted trees, shrubs and wildflowers, and ensuring quality control.
- Watering, mulching, monitoring and maintaining planting sites to maximize survival and growth.
- Installing rodent guards, weed blankets and protective fencing around trees.
- Identifying native trees, shrubs, flowers, birds and mammals.
- Identifying, collecting, storing and stratifying native seed.
- Identifying and manually removing invasive plants.
- Monitoring planting success and new habitat use by key wildlife species.
- Assisting with public outreach, community events and communications.
- Assisting with virtual and interpretive nature hikes for school and community groups.
- Recording daily activities via photos and approved posts to social media and website.
- Assisting with other activities related to watershed planning and protection.
Conservation Technicians will share the valuable natural resource experience FRW has gained after 30-years of award-winning ecosystem planning, protection, monitoring and restoration work. In 2016, FRW received the J.R. Dymond Award from Ontario Nature for our:
“tireless and inspirational role in the creation of Rouge National Park” and
“exceptional work on the ground with stewardship and restoration projects.”
APPLY
To apply for this job with FRW, please send your cover letter and resume (1 PDF) to applytofrw@gmail.com
by Sunday, March 26h 2023. Please indicate you saw this posting at GoodWork.
Desired Conservation Technician Qualities:
- Love of nature and willingness to work diligently for FRW and mother nature.
- Knowledge of, and proximity to, the Rouge River Watershed (eastern GTA).
- Tree planting and ecological restoration and education experience.
- Volunteer and NGO experience.
- Fitness and endurance for manual and repetitive outdoor work.
- Strong work ethic, punctuality and ability to meet ambitious planting and maintenance goals.
- Reliably work 7 to 8 hour days starting as early as 7:00 am.
- Ability to work comfortably outside in all weather conditions (rain or shine, heat or cold).
- Ability to follow instructions and work safely and independently with minimum supervision.
- Experience with photo and video editing and uploading for online educational content.
Desired Conservation Technician Assets:
- Education and/or volunteer experience in environmental science/ecology/forestry or related field.
- Valid First Aid Certificate.
- License and vehicle to travel to planting sites which are difficult to reach by public transit.
- Ability to obtain vulnerable sector screening police clearance for working with children.
About Friends of the Rouge Watershed
FRW is a registered Canadian Charity (# 88878 1028 RR 001). We involve thousands of student and community volunteers in practical ecological education and restoration work every year. FRW helped to generate the broad public and political support which led to the creation of Rouge Watershed, Ontario Greenbelt, and Rouge National Park Plans. Since 1991, with the help of federal, provincial, municipal, school, community and corporate partners, FRW has:
- educated and activated 70,000 school and community volunteers.
- planted more than 768,000 native trees, shrubs and flowers.
- restored 3.5 square kilometers of forests, wetlands, meadows and stream buffers.
Several million dollars of public benefits accrue from this habitat restoration work every year, based on the 2009 Report “Estimating Ecosystem Services in Southern Ontario”. FRW increases public environmental awareness, values and actions; we motivate energy and resource conservation; and we restore forest and wetland habitat to:
- reduce water and air pollution to improve watershed, ecosystem and human health.
- reduce carbon pollution to avoid costly climate change and flooding damages.
- reduce damage to people, property and infrastructure from flooding.
- conserve biodiversity and help species at risk recover.
