Forest Conservation Fellow

Summary

Join the Hunter Parks Forest Conservation Fellowship at ACR, a collaborative effort with Green Assets, to gain valuable experience in forest carbon project evaluation. As a member of the ACR Forestry team, you will contribute to conserving, sustainably managing, and restoring forestlands. This two-year fellowship, awarded to a recent forestry graduate, offers a competitive opportunity to work alongside forestry and carbon market experts. The role involves project reviews, record-keeping system development, site visits, audits, and stakeholder support. Successful candidates will possess strong technical and analytical skills, attention to detail, and a commitment to Winrock's mission. Upon completion, a full-time position may be offered.

Requirements

• Recent graduate with Bachelor’s or advanced degree in Forestry, Natural Resources, GHG emissions accounting, or a related field. Advanced degree preferred
• Professional experience and/or relevant work or research-related experience is required
• Proficiency in MS Office suite (Outlook, Word, Excel), GIS and SharePoint, is required
• Strong writing skills required
• Fluency in spoken and written English is required
• Must be available to travel 1-3 times per year for short-term assignments
• Strong technical and analytical expertise
• Excellent attention to detail
• Ability to track and adhere to deadlines and perform required reviews with speed, accuracy, and efficiency
• Ability to work well in teams and independently on multiple projects at a time without sacrificing quality
• Strong critical thinking and problem-solving skills
• Ability to meticulously review and provide substantive feedback on datasets and documents
• Ability to consistently interact with others in a professional, courteous, and tactful manner
• Strong interpersonal skills, integrity, and trustworthiness
• Strong speaking, presentation, and written communication skills
• Typical office environment with continual sitting or standing required
• Must be authorized to work in the United States
• Sponsorship for this role is not available

Responsibilities

• Perform routine and increasingly complex GHG emissions reduction and removal project reviews accurately, efficiently, independently, and according to regulatory deadlines (where required), seeking input from colleagues and leadership as needed
• Provide accurate, consistent and coherent technical support to external stakeholders (e.g., project developers, validation and verification bodies, regulators) on matters that come up as part of project implementation, verification, and review, seeking input from colleagues and leadership as needed
• Provide basic support to external stakeholders on routine use of the registry, seeking input from or escalating to registry staff as needed
• Develop and/or maintain institutional systems for project record keeping, regulatory guidance tracking, and sector-specific technological advancements
• Attend site visits and perform audits, as assigned
• Perform technical and policy analysis, as assigned
• Support and contribute to technical team and ACR objectives appropriate to level of experience and expertise (e.g., develop template and presentation materials, coordinate across ACR teams, develop internal policies and procedures, develop project GIS maps, support co-benefits efforts, author sections of ACR policy documents, perform policy analysis) in coordination with leadership, as assigned
• Provide administrative, technical, and policy support for methodology development and updates, as assigned
• Represent ACR externally (e.g., working groups, conference presentations), as assigned
• Complete other tasks as assigned

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience in, training in, and/or familiarity with fundamental forest quantification and GHG emissions/carbon accounting principles, verification and auditing standards, and at least one of the ACR Forestry sector project types
• Familiarity and experience related to forest ecology, carbon markets, forest carbon measurement and monitoring, forest inventory design and statistics, silviculture, or related fields
• Fluency in one or more additional languages is an asset

Benefits

• The pay range for this role is $65,000 - $95,000 per year depending on the candidate's experience, education, specialized knowledge and skills, and current market conditions
• Winrock offers an excellent benefits package