Wild Places Program Director | 2021 Summer Intern and Extern Opportunities

Wild Places Program Director

Salary Range: $70,000-$80,000

Location: Denver, CO, Portland, OR, Seattle, WA, Missoula, MT or potentially elsewhere for the right person

Deadline for Applications: Review will begin December 2, 2020

Are you a Guardian for public lands, waters, and the wildlife that rely on those lands and waters?

WildEarth Guardians seeks a full-time Director for the Wild Places Program to guide efforts towards meeting our ambitious goals to address the nature crisis by protecting public lands in the American West. The Director will lead our team of smart, energized staff working on innovative and bold campaigns to protect public lands and national forests.  The Director will work with five Wild Places staff to articulate the vision, set goals, plan campaigns, and communicate and support staff in communicating the work.  The Director will inspire, mentor, strategically advise, and supervise a team of powerful advocates. The Program Director will also be responsible for some program work.

ABOUT WILDEARTH GUARDIANS

WildEarth Guardians (Guardians) is a west-wide nonprofit environmental advocacy organization headquartered in Santa Fe, NM with staff in Denver, CO, Missoula, MT, Boise, ID, Seattle, WA, Tucson, AZ, Portland, OR, and Sequim, WA. With a 30-year history of bold environmental action, we wage innovative legal, political, and grassroots campaigns to protect and restore wildlife, wild places, wild rivers, and community health in the American West.

The Wild Places Program works to protect and connect the West’s vast landscapes. Working across the west, we employ policy advocacy, litigation, grassroots organizing, communications, and legislative work to further our goals.  The Wild Places program works both defensively and proactively, developing strategies to influence and drive systemic change, and engaging on smaller, place-based projects as well. We will balance sustained focus on long-term campaigns, with nimbleness and agility in order to take advantage of significant opportunities as they arise.

POSITION SUMMARY

The Program Director works closely with the Program’s staff and the Conservation Director to provide both Program vision and strategic and tactical guidance. The Program Director works collaboratively with staff and other Program Directors to develop and implement strategies to protect wild places and the wildlife dependent on the habitat on public lands.  The majority of the program’s current focus is on protecting national forests. The position is supervised by the Conservation Director.

Principal Responsibilities:

• The Program Director hires, supports, supervises and nurtures the talent of the program staff;
• The Program Director works with staff to identify goals, develop work plans and campaign plans and assists in implementing the work;
• The Program Director ensures the Program produces effective, values-driven communications about the work;
• The Program Director works with staff and attorneys to develop, propose, and support legal advocacy;
• The Program Director dreams up and proposes policy solutions for the problems facing wild places in the American West.

Knowledge and Skills:

• Passion for protecting and restoring wild places of the American West;
• Strong relational skills, including ability to connect with and build coalitions with diverse stakeholders;
• Strong written and oral communication skills;
• Ability to translate compelling vision and ideas into action;
• Experience developing and leading campaigns;
• Strong moral compass and tenacity to stand against the tide;
• Analytical, strategic mind and ability to prioritize in a world full of problems, winnow out distractions, recognize and act on opportunities, and anticipate potential future consequences;
• Excitement and skills for managing, developing, and working with the strong advocates in the Program;
• Integrity, kindness, sense of humor, and a healthy sense of outrage.

Additional preferred skills include, but are not limited to:

• 7+ years experience in campaigning and/or environmental advocacy;
• Law degree or deep understanding of relevant laws and how to develop litigation;
• Creative, self-starter with proven ability to work independently and collaboratively;
• Knowledge of and experience with federal, regional, and state environmental policy;
• Comfort using social media platforms;
• Excellent organizational skills to support success in a fast-paced environment with a full workload where it is necessary to balance and prioritize multiple tasks and deadlines.

Compensation and Benefits

WildEarth Guardians offers a friendly and flexible, team-based environment with an excellent benefits package. You have flexibility to select benefits based on your personal preferences, your family situation, and/or your financial objectives. Benefits include full health, vision, dental, life, and disability coverage, a 403(b) retirement plan with a 3% match, paid and un-paid health and family leave, a sabbatical policy, sick leave, three weeks paid vacation to start, and fourteen holidays including your birthday. Salary is negotiable within the identified range based on experience.

TO APPLY

Apply for the position by providing a cover letter, resume, and three references through the web portal. Cover letters should communicate the applicant’s heartfelt commitment to protect and restore the wildlife, wild places, wild rivers, and health of the American West. Applicants are encouraged to tell us who they are as human beings, and why they care about this work and are interested in this position.

We will begin reviewing applications December 2, 2020 and will schedule interviews soon thereafter. We encourage timely applications, but may consider applications submitted after December 2, 2020.

Please respect our blind hiring process, and apply through the web portal rather than contacting Guardians staff directly.  Only candidates selected for interviews will be contacted.

WildEarth Guardians is an Equal Opportunity Employer and does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, class, sex, gender, sexual orientation, disability, family/marital status, religion or other protected classes. We especially encourage applications from persons of color, women and LGBTQ+ candidates.

WildEarth Guardians – 2021 Summer Interns and Externs

WildEarth Guardians is now recruiting for 2020 Summer Interns and Externs.

About WildEarth Guardians

WildEarth Guardians is a west-wide nonprofit environmental advocacy organization headquartered in Santa Fe, NM with offices in Denver, CO, Missoula, MT, Boise, ID, Seattle, WA, and Tucson, AZ. With a 30-year history of bold environmental action, we wage innovative legal, political, and grassroots campaigns to protect and restore wildlife, wild places, wild rivers, and community health in the American West.

Why spend the summer with WildEarth Guardians?

Guardians advocates in the courts, in the halls of Congress, and on the ground in western communities to secure stronger protections for landscapes, rivers, imperiled species, and healthy communities. We are known for developing and executing cutting edge litigation that serves as a lever for sweeping policy changes to combat the climate crisis, secure wildlife coexistence, restore living rivers, and stop extinction. Our work is housed in four program areas:

Wildlife. The wildlife program advocates for the intrinsic right of native species to thrive across the West. With a focus on protecting biodiversity and ensuring coexistence between native carnivores and people, we work to eliminate cruel and indiscriminate killing tools as well as to implement systemic change to ensure that wildlife is protected according to the best available science.

Wild Places. The wild places program works to protect and connect the West’s vast landscapes. With a focus on federal public lands, we work to reclaim places for the wild and reconnect wildlife habitat and waterways for ecosystems to thrive.

Wild Rivers. The rivers program advocates for living rivers across the American West. With a focus on the Rio Grande, Colorado and Willamette River Basins as key geographies, we work to safeguard clean water, revive dynamic flows, reform western water policy, protect imperiled fish, wildlife and plants, and restore healthy and sustainable aquatic and riparian ecosystems to support all life.

Climate and Energy. The climate program advocates for a fossil-fuel free American West. We work to expose the true cost of oil and gas extraction and leverage environmental and health liabilities to advance climate justice.

Who are we looking for as Summer Legal or Program Interns?

Legal Interns/Externs work under the supervision of one of our eleven attorneys on WildEarth Guardians’ program and legal teams to assist with various aspects of advocacy, case development, and litigation. Legal interns are typically charged with conducting legal and factual research, crafting comments, drafting litigation memorandums and pleadings, reviewing administrative records, editing and cite-checking legal briefs, and helping develop case strategy and legal theories.

Program Interns/Externs work under the supervision of one of Guardians’ program staff to assist with various aspects of program advocacy. Program interns are charged with a variety of tasks including, conducting legislative or factual research, developing key messaging, engaging on social media, drafting outreach materials, commenting on environmental reviews, and grassroots and grasstops engagement.

We are looking for self-motivated applicants with excellent research and writing skills and a demonstrated commitment to, or interest in, public interest environmental advocacy. Students who have completed their second year of law school or in their junior/senior year of college are strongly preferred, but truly exceptional students who have completed only one year of law school or early college may be considered. Foundational coursework or applied experience in environmental, federal public lands, natural resources, and administrative law is a plus. We prefer all summer interns join our team for 10-12 weeks during the summer and provide a minimum of 30 hours per week.

Internships are generally unpaid. For-credit externship opportunities may be available in coordination with the applicant’s university or law school. We are willing to work with interns to secure outside funding and may upon availability of funds have need-based scholarships available.

The following positions are currently available:

• Rivers Program or Legal Intern (Remote and/or Denver, Colorado) — The Rivers Program or Legal Intern will have the opportunity to work in the Wild Rivers Program under its director and attorney Jen Pelz. The rivers program work will focus on protecting and restoring flows in western rivers (focusing on the Colorado River, Rio Grande and Willamette River) and reforming western water policy through strategic litigation. Substantive work may include case development, legal research, and strategic legal advocacy under the Endangered Species Act, Clean Water Act, National Environmental Policy Act, Wild and Scenic Rivers Act, and other relevant state water and land use laws and regulations.
• Wild Places and Wildlife Legal Interns (Two positions, Remote) — The Wild Places and Wildlife Legal Interns will have the opportunity to work in the Legal Program under staff attorneys, Marla Fox and Jennifer Schwartz with a focus on litigation that supports the Wild Places and Wildlife Programs. Substantive work will include factual record review, legal research and analysis, developing and researching legal claims under the National Forest Management Act, National Environmental Policy Act, Endangered Species Act, Administrative Procedure Act, and more.
• Climate & Energy and General Litigation Legal Intern (Remote and/or Santa Fe, New Mexico) — The C & E/General Litigation legal intern/extern will work with our Santa Fe, New Mexico Legal Director Samantha Ruscavage-Barz and Staff Attorney Daniel Timmons. Substantive work includes factual record review, legal research and analysis, and developing and researching legal claims under the Endangered Species Act, National Environmental Policy Act, Clean Air Act, and more.
• California Wildlife Policy Intern (Remote/ California) — The California Wildlife Policy Intern will work to support Wildlife Coexistence Campaigner Samantha Bruegger to achieve policy reform goals in California. Substantive work will include grassroots and grasstops engagement, document review and research for the California joint Environmental Impact Study/ Environmental Impact Report by Wildlife Services and California Department of Food and Agriculture on Wildlife Damage Management.
• Greater Gila Campaign Research Intern (Remote/S. New Mexico) — The Greater Gila Research Intern will have the opportunity to work with Greater Gila Guardian Madeleine Carey and Campaigner Leia Barnett. The Greater Gila campaign work will include research projects related to public lands management, threatened and endangered species habitat, large landscape protection initiatives, tribal interests, public lands grazing issues and other topics related to the campaign, in addition to some administrative tasks. Open to undergraduates, graduate students, working professionals, and extremely motivated high school students.
• Wildlife on Wildlands Intern (Remote/New Mexico/Arizona) — The Wildlife on Wildlands Intern will have the opportunity to work with Greater Gila Guardian, Madeleine Carey and Southern Rockies Wildlife Advocate, Chris Smith. The Wildlife on Wildlands intern will work on research, writing, outreach, and media projects related to the Mexican wolf recovery campaign, TrapFree New Mexico campaign, beaver restoration, wildlife governance reform, and our Grazing Permit Retirement Campaign. We are open to undergraduate students, graduate students, working professionals, and highly-motivated high-school students.

How to apply

To apply, please submit the following in a single PDF file to apply@wildearthguardians.org: cover letter, resume, unofficial transcript, one recent writing sample (for legal interns–preferably a legal brief or memorandum of no more than ten pages that primarily reflects your work), and three references. The subject line of the email and your cover letter should indicate your preferred position, office location, and interest area(s). Interested students may apply to multiple offices with one application.

Incomplete applications will not be considered.