Emerald Necklace Natural Infrastructure Director of Volunteer Stewardship

Amigos de los Rios /The Emerald Necklace Group is a legacy 501(c) 3 non-profit environmental justice community based natural infrastructure design organization committed to planning and implementing convergent natural infra-structure projects for the benefit of residents of East County within Los Angeles Metro Area. This Landscape Scale Vision, entitled the ‘LA Basin Emerald Necklace’ protects biodiversity and integrates nature within the city. Our proposed ‘Mountains to the Sea’ interconnected watershed-scale natural infrastructure network of multi-objective urban river greenways, nature based parks, multi objective trails and ‘Watershed Discovery’ school campuses stretches from the San Gabriel Mountains towards Pacific Ocean. The goal of these natural infrastructure implementation projects is to protect and enhance ecosystem services whilst improving recreation opportunities and public health outcomes for urban residents.

We are an urban conservancy that owns no land, but partners with public agencies to develop urban greening projects in park deficient communities - Subsequent to completing the projects we help provide expert care to sustain them. We host 100 urban greening stewardship events per year.

Director of Volunteer Stewardship will direct our weekend volunteer stewardship events and coordinate with Managing Director and Facilities Director to insure emphasis of work supports the implementation of our open grants and maintenance of our legacy projects.

The Emerald Necklace Team is dedicated and passionate about ‘natural infrastructure’, environmental justice, developing innovative nature-based recreation spaces, and expanding multi benefit green space throughout LA County with a focus on underserved communities. We’re searching for like-minded individuals with a strong work ethic and desire to take responsibility for creating positive changes to the built environment and helping mitigate impacts of climate change.

Under the supervision of the Managing Director and in collaboration with our team of professional partners and key agency stakeholders, the Director of Volunteer Stewardship is responsible to:

• Maintain a working knowledge of all open urban grants and all jurisdictional stakeholders involved in cur-rent greening projects and in legacy projects under our care so as to support effective urban greening project implementation.

• Oversee and direct the Emerald Necklace Volunteer Stewardship program with the Amigos team of staff. This includes coordinating weekly volunteer events to support implementation and maintenance of cur-rent and legacy greening projects, overseeing outreach to stakeholders and volunteer cohorts, maintain all relevant contact records and facilitate data collection, analysis and reporting.

• Provide training and leadership to field team and volunteer stewardship staff.

Required Qualifications:

• Excellent Demonstrated skills in project management, report writing, data collection and communication, Microsoft Office Suite (specifically Excel and Word).

• Must be available to work most weekends, both Saturday and Sunday.

• Impeccable organizational skills, ability to prioritize multiple tasks and deadlines, working both independently and as an effective part of a team in a flexible manner.

• High Level Clerical Skill - ability to Record Keep all records of design and implementation process to create grant report with attention to detail

• Knowledge of California Native, Mediterranean and drought tolerant plants and trees.

• Current valid United States driver’s license/ Ability to lift 25-40 pounds.

Desired Skills:

• Knowledge of current principles of natural infrastructure/landscape principals

• Knowledge and use of California Native Plants in public landscaping for water conservation and cultural heritage celebration; Knowledge of native and Mediterranean plants, site requirements, efficient irrigation systems, plant disease, pest control, best practices for native plant maintenance and soil care.

• Superb Photography, ability to take short videos and immaculate meeting minutes/ action item note taking skills with relevant follow through.