Employment Opportunity!

Employment Opportunity – Application Period Closes June 30, 2023

POSITION TITLE - Southern High Plains Grassland Specialist

JOB TITLE - Grassland Specialist

LOCATION - Red Hills in Southern Kansas and Northern Woods County of Oklahoma

STATUS - Contract Salary (1/2 Time) Approximately $40,000/year (no benefits)

DESIRED START OF EMPLOYMENT: July 2023

The Southern High Plains (SHP) Grassland Specialist (Red Hills Grassland Specialist) is a 2-year term position with the potential for an extended period, ideally starting in July 2023, that will implement a spatially focused conservation strategy by supporting landowner efforts to enhance grassland biodiversity in a focus area within the Red Hills region of southcentral Kansas and northcentral Oklahoma. This strategic approach of coordinating and leveraging existing conservation programs, private and public resources, and conservation anchor properties is necessary to outpace threats within the last intact Southern High Plains landscapes. In addition, it will help sustain and restore ecological goods and services provided by grasslands, ranchers, and communities. In the longer term, success in these areas will demonstrate a collaborative model that can be transferred to other communities, resulting in large, interconnected blocks of high-quality grasslands with long-term voluntary conservation.

ESSENTIAL FUNCTIONS
The Red Hills Grassland Specialist will provide outreach and technical assistance to private landowners to implement voluntary, incentive-based conservation practices in a focus area that includes portions of Comanche, Clark, and Barber County. The Specialist will meet one-on-one with producers and participate in other outreach efforts, to let them know about priority conservation practices and programs and apply for additional incentive payments. Through this outreach, they will work with social scientists to conduct interviews and incentive payment applications to help identify and address barriers to participation in priority conservation practices. The Specialist will also work with rancher driven conservation groups in the area to aid and enhance conservation and land stewardship activities in the Red Hills region. Directly and by working closely with partner staff, the Specialist will provide conservation and grazing management planning and application assistance with USDA and other programs. They will also coordinate and secure TNC landowner agreements and associated incentive payments. The specialist will work with a network of TNC Southern High Plains Initiative (SHPI) and partner staff to scale up this strategy and assist with interpreting and communicating social science research.

RESPONSIBILITIES & SCOPE

• Provide outreach and technical assistance to producers for planning program enrollment, implementation, and follow-up for increase adoption of priority conservation practices.
• Assist social scientists in conducting interviews and focus groups to identif and address barriers to participation in conservation practices, including providing recommendations for creative solutions.
• Assist partners (e.g. Comanche Pool, USDA, USFWS, KDWP, Pheasants Forever, and Local Prescribed Burn Associations) with coordination, outreach, field data collection, conservation and grazing management planning, and program enrollment.
• Assist with incentive payment applications, ranking, social science research, and communications strategies with TNC, KGLC, and partner staff.
• Assist SHP Grassland Project Manager, KGLC, and partners with efforts to secure funding beyond the current three years of funding.
• Make strategic decisions independently and with partners, based on analysis, ambiguous information, and context.
• Negotiate agreements in a complex political environment.
• Occasional domestic travel along with evening and weekend hours.
• Work in variable weather conditions, at remote locations, and on difficult terrain.

MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS

• Understanding of livestock/ranching operations.
• BA/BS and/or 5 years’ experience in natural resource management or related field or equivalent combination of education and experience.
• Experience in range management and willing to become proficient in plant identification.
• Experience with Farm Bill programs and practices.
• Experience managing complex or multiple projects, including finances, and coordinating with other professionals and partners.
• Experience using applications such as Microsoft Word and Excel.
• Experience in partnership development with individuals, community groups, and/or government agencies.
• Experience in scheduling tasks and required reporting by to meet deadline(s).
• Experience negotiating.
• Assisting local rancher driven conservation groups with activities and educational events that enhance conservation and stewardship activities and landscape regeneration.

DESIRED QUALIFICATIONS

• Familiarity with conservation challenges and opportunities in the Southern High
• Plains of Kansas and specifically in the Red Hills.
• Ability to explain conservation practices to technical and non-technical audiences.
• Experience with desktop or mobile mapping applications such as ArcGIS or Google Earth.
• Multi-cultural or cross-cultural experience appreciated.
• Experience communicating with farmers and ranchers in meeting and in one-on-one settings.

PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS

• A knowledge of ranching enterprises (livestock, wildlife, recreation, etc.) and operations.
• An understanding of landscape altering practices such as prescribed fire, prescribed grazing, use deferment, and management decisions based upon present weather conditions.

ORGANIZATIONAL COMPETENCIES

• Builds Relationships - Builds productive relationships by interacting with others in ways that enhance mutual trust and commitment.
• Collaboration & Teamwork- Works collaboratively with stakeholders across levels, geographies, backgrounds, and cultures to improve decisions, strengthen commitment, and be more effective.
• Communicates Authentically - Communicates proactively and in a timely manner to share information, persuade, and influence with the appropriate level of detail, tone, and opportunities for feedback.
• Develops Others - Takes ownership to help develop others’ skills, behaviors, and mindsets to help them maximize their workplace contributions.
• Drives for Results - Sets challenging goals and objectives based on a strong sense of purpose and high-performance standards and steadfastly pushes self and others for tangible results, while ensuring work-life balance.
• Leverage Differences - Demonstrates commitment to harnessing the power of differences strategically; consistently sees, learns from, and takes strategic action related to difference; and demonstrates the self-awareness and behaviors to work across differences of identity and power respectfully and effectively with all stakeholders.
• Actively seeks to build and retain a diverse workforce and fosters an equitable inclusive workplace by drawing upon diverse perspectives.

Systems Leadership - Thinks and acts from a broad perspective with a long-term view and an understanding of 1) the dynamic nature of large- scale challenges and 2) the need for integrating five key practices: skillfully engaging appropriate people; providing a clear process for change; taking a holistic view of situations; focusing on a small number of strategic actions, while learning from and adapting them over time; and being aware of how one’s own thinking or patterns of behavior may be limiting change. This description is not designed to be a complete list of all duties and responsibilities The individual selected for the KGLC Red Hills Grassland Specialist will be required to sign an employment contract with KGLC which outlines work responsibilities and requirements of both parties. Grassland Specialist will be required to produce monthly reports and maintain frequent communication with KGLC and The Nature Conservancy for the purpose of assisting KGLC with required donor organization reports.

To apply, email your resume to either david.kraft@kglc.org or bruce.wells@kglc.org

Kansas Grazing Lands Coalition
226 Broadway, Cottonwood Falls, KS 66845
Phone: (620) 437-7613 or (620)340-2985
Email: david.kraft@kglc.org or bruce.wells@kglc.org
Web: www.kglc.org