About us
The American Forest Foundation (AFF) unlocks the power of family forests as a climate solution while helping thousands of landowner’s care for their land and improve forest health. Through its Family Forest Carbon Program, AFF expands access to the voluntary carbon market for family forest owners from all walks of life while producing high quality forest carbon credits to help companies reach their net zero goals. The organization’s strategic direction seeks to enable family forests to capture and store one billion tonnes of carbon by 2050.
We do not do this alone. AFF works across a broad coalition of conservation partners, corporations, and policymakers to equip family forest owners with financial and technical support to implement sustainable forest management practices on their lands and activate their forests as a critical tool in the fight against climate change.
AFF is in a mode of complex problem solving and rapid iteration. All teams at AFF are working to discover solutions to the planet’s most pressing climate issues through developing and iterating viable and scalable models for impact. AFF is driven by values of our shared purpose, measurable and verifiable results, and learning for continuous improvement to tackle big conservation challenges.
About the Role
The Outreach Forester, Family Forest Carbon Program (FFCP), builds relationships with and provides direct technical assistance to landowners interested in the FFCP. This role ensures a positive experience and excellent stewardship of landowners involved in the Family Forest Carbon Program. First and foremost, this role will provide top-notch “customer service” and management information/options to landowners. This includes keeping track of follow-up steps for landowners and engaging in on-the-ground visits with interested landowners. The Outreach Forester works collaboratively with the Midwest Senior Forestry Manager and the rest of the National Forestry Team to plan projects for landowners.
This position will focus on the state of Michigan but may be subject to traveling to other regions and states periodically. Ideally a candidate will reside in either Lake or Wexford County located on the in the Western half of the Lower Peninsula of MI.
Responsibilities
- Steward a portfolio of landowners, including conducting initial phone calls, keeping track of follow-up steps using an online Customer Relationship Management tool, and continuing to engage with landowners through the enrolment process.
- Conduct on-the-ground visits with interested landowners, including conducting forest inventory measurements such as diameter at breast height, average stand diameter, tree height, and project area delineation.
- Utilize forest measurements and make calculations using various computer tools, including Excel and the Landowner Customer Relationship Management Tools, to determine woodland eligibility and plan FFCP projects on behalf of landowners.
- Apply forestry tools and measurements to summarize a project area into a forest management plan for landowners’ woodlands enrolled in the FFCP.
- Collaborate with the FFCP team and landowners to ensure a positive landowner experience and seek ways to streamline and improve the program for landowners. Ensure that each landowner has a positive experience and provide excellent stewardship of landowners involved in the Family Forest Carbon Program.
- Provide timely follow-up and answer questions for landowners as they consider enrolling in the Family Forest Carbon Program.
- Other duties as assigned.
Candidate requirements
- Required: 2 or 4-year degree in forestry, natural resource management, wildlife habitat management, ecology, ecosystem management, etc. and 1-2 years of experience in forest operations, forest carbon, conservation, or equivalent combination of education and experience. Preferred: SAF accreditation, and/or on the list for the MI Registered Forester Program.
- Experience working directly with forest landowners with demonstrated positive outcomes.
- Familiarity with forest dendrology and mensuration.
- Experience with forest management plans for timber and wildlife outcomes, and forest certification programs
- Understanding of the relevance of sustainability, climate science and policy, natural climate solutions, and carbon sequestration.
- Basic computer literacy, including experience with Microsoft Office suite of programs and GIS?
- Both personable and flexible with the ability to work under pressure and adapt based on what is learned through experience.
- A sound work ethic with the ability to act both independently and as part of a team.
- Strong initiative; a self-starter with tenacity, resilience, and high energy.
- Ability to thrive in a collaborative environment.
- Strong interpersonal skills with the ability to interact with a wide variety of constituencies, including co-workers, business and community leaders, partners, donors, board members, volunteers, public officials, and the public at large, in a wide variety of settings.
- Customer service mindset
- Excellent organizational skills with attention to detail and the ability to effectively plan and problem solve
- Time management skills, with the ability to prioritize, coordinate and manage multiple priorities
- Ability and willingness to travel as needed
Core Competencies
- Agility – Thriving in volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous environments by anticipating and responding to changes with swift, focused and flexible actions.
- Collaborating with Others – Working together with others in a cooperative and supportive manner to achieve shared goals.
- Ensuring Accountability – Holding yourself and others to high standards of accountability, creating an infrastructure and transparent organization culture that supports and measures personal and organizational responsibility and accountability.
- Problem Solving – Identifying problems and the solutions to them. Your contributions and leadership will be appreciated. Our staff is passionate, dedicated and good at what they do, and will be deeply grateful for your efforts to create and preserve an environment that is both fun and fair.
Job Function Competencies
- Client Focus – Providing service excellence to internal and/or external clients.
- Planning and Organizing – Making and executing plans to reach goals supporting organizational success.
- Thinking Strategically – Seeing and synthesizing different sides of an issue, examining the full range of options and outcomes, and building intellectual frameworks to guide analysis and action.
- Achievement Orientation – Focusing efforts on achieving high quality results consistent that meet or exceed standard expectations.
What’s attractive to the right candidate
- You have the unique and exciting opportunity to work with amazing colleagues, partners and landowners to help connect forest landowners with technical and financial assistance to better steward their land and achieve vital landscape-scale conservation impacts.
- Your contributions and leadership will be appreciated. Our staff is passionate, dedicated and good at what they do, and will be deeply grateful for your efforts to create and preserve an environment that is both fun and fair.
- We offer a flexible work environment that respects your life outside of work.
- Salary is commensurate with experience.
- AFF offers a comprehensive and competitive benefits package.
Contact us to applyWe know there are great candidates who may not check all these boxes, and we also know you might bring important skills that we haven’t considered. If that applies to you, don’t hesitate to apply and tell us about yourself.
https://www.forestfoundation.org/who-we-are/people/careers/We are committed to creating a diverse work environment and proud to be an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, gender, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, national origin, genetics, disability, age, veteran status or any other basis protected by law.
