Beaver Coexistence and Relocation Project Manager or Senior Project Manager

Description

Trout Unlimited (TU) brings together diverse interests to care for and recover the rivers and streams on which we all depend. We are a national organization with 300,000 members and supporters organized into over 400 chapters and councils nationwide. Our dedicated grassroots volunteers are matched by a respected staff of organizers, lawyers, policy experts, and scientists, who work out of more than 25 offices across the country.

The Wenatchee-Entiat Beaver Project was established in 2018 to provide technical assistance, education, and support to the communities of Washington’s Chelan and Douglas counties to help resolve human-beaver conflicts through coexistence and relocation. In addition to partnering with numerous federal, state, local, NGO, and private groups, we “partner” with beavers to harness their restorative potential by relocating them to vital streams so that they can enhance aquatic habitat and adjacent floodplain while providing habitat for a host of fish, wildlife, and plant species, including threatened and endangered salmonids. Learning from beavers, the project applies beaver-mimicking restoration to degraded streams through low-tech process-based restoration, or LTPBR. We install structures such as beaver dam analogs and post-assisted log structures to kickstart natural processes to allow streams to heal themselves. We have become a leader in installing low-tech process-based restoration projects throughout these same geographies. 

In addition to the Beaver Project’s stream restoration and beaver relocation/coexistence efforts, we provide outreach, education, and volunteer opportunities for the local community, research opportunities for graduate students, and engage with LTPBR practitioners and the Washington Beaver Working Group statewide coalition. The beaver/dam analog habitat project manager joins a team of 17 TU staffers in Washington state including seven in Eastern Washington. 

Position Summary

TU seeks to hire a self-motivated and highly capable person to manage beaver relocation and coexistence and assist with stream restoration projects for the benefit of ecosystems, communities, and native wild fish populations in Upper Columbia Basin watersheds in Washington State. Depending on experience, the position may be titled Project Coordinator, Project Manager, or Senior Project Manager. 

The Beaver Coexistence and Relocation (BCR) Specialist will work closely with the Beaver Restoration Specialist and Restoration Program Director to implement TU’s beaver-based restoration program in the Upper Columbia watershed. A successful candidate will be self-motivated, well organized, and capable of completing assigned duties safely and efficiently, conducting work professionally as a public representative of TU, and working well with a team having diverse backgrounds and personalities. The primary duty stations will be the Leavenworth National Fish Hatchery in Leavenworth, WA and the TU office in Wenatchee, WA.  

Competitive candidates for this position will need to demonstrate strong organizational and project management skills and technical abilities related to public communication and problem solving, animal handling, ecology, grant writing and management and partnership-building.. The successful applicant will be expected to earn and maintain a WDFW Beaver Relocation permit, field communications from landowners and managers, conduct site assessments, and work to facilitate coexistence with beavers. 

The successful applicant will also manage seasonal operations of the beaver trapping and relocation program and complete necessary communication and reporting to WDFW. The BCR Specialist manages projects and works with TU staff and partners to secure additional funding for project activities, conceptualize and develop new projects, and functions as part of the team, assisting other staff as necessary. The BCR project manager works collaboratively with the Beaver Restoration Specialist to manage and implement stream habitat restoration projects throughout Central Washington. 

Duties and Responsibilities

• Conduct outreach and meet with community members and land managers managing conflicts with beavers and strategize coexistence and relocation opportunities.      
  • Obtain required permits, coordinate with partners, and implement coexistence measures. 
  • Implement conflict beaver coexistence and relocation work including tree caging, culvert protector and pond leveler construction, beaver live trapping, handling, processing and husbandry of captive beavers, hatchery maintenance, beaver release, site assessments, and post release site monitoring.
  • Preparation, maintenance, and cleaning of acclimation facility and equipment.
• Foster and ma