Regional Forester

City of New York•Kingston, NY

49d•Onsite

About The Position

The NYC Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) enriches the environment and protects public health for all New Yorkers by providing 1.1 billion gallons of high-quality drinking water, managing wastewater and stormwater, and reducing air, noise, and hazardous materials pollution. DEP is the largest combined municipal water and wastewater utility in the country, with nearly 6,000 employees. DEP's water supply system is comprised of 19 reservoirs and 3 controlled lakes throughout the system’s 2,000 square mile watershed that extends 125 miles north and west of the City. The Bureau of Water Supply seeks to hire an Associate Project Manager II for a position with the Forestry Section, Natural Resources Division within the Source Water Protection Directorate, located in Kingston, New York. The Natural Resources Division oversees the management of the City-owned lands within the 1,971 square mile watershed to protect, conserve and enhance the water quality protection afforded by watershed forests. Forest management work is based on a Watershed Forest Management Plan that documents the extent and characteristics of the City’s forested landholdings and creates goals for the desired condition of the forest over the long term to best protect water quality. DEP’s Foresters design, and oversee in the field, forest management activities on City lands that grow the forest into the desired condition. Under direction, of the Forestry Program Manager, the Associate Project Manager II will serve as Regional Forester and will primarily be responsible for watershed forest management in the Catskill Region, which includes the basins of the Ashokan and Schoharie reservoirs. The responsibilities include: basin-level planning, and designing, coordinating and directing the implementation of wholistic forest management projects and contracts including multiple components (such as invasive species control, planting forest vegetation, commercial timber harvesting, forest stand improvement, thinning operations, and deer exclusion) in compliance with the goals, milestones and requirements of the City’s Watershed Forest Management Plan, Filtration Avoidance Determination (FAD), and the 1997 NYC Watershed Memorandum of Agreement (MOA). Specific duties include: - Prioritizing forest treatments that manage forest vegetation in a manner consistent with the NYC Watershed Forest Management Plan. - Being responsible for forest management in the assigned region and supervision of other foresters to achieve the regional goals. - Assisting in programmatic review and development of updates to the NYC Watershed Forest Management Plan consistent with the goals, milestones and requirements of the City’s FAD - Designing and implementing forest inventories and other forest assessments as needed to properly inform comprehensive forest management planning and forest management project implementation. - Designing and managing effective forest management projects that implement the treatments through a variety of mechanisms such as timber sale contracts, use of DEP staff, or inter-governmental agreements. - Overseeing contractor performance during forest management projects for quality of work, water-protection goals, and health and safety compliance. - Shepherding complicated regulatory submissions and reviews through both internal and external processes to ensure appropriate compliance and timely delivery of project plans - Developing contracts and purchase orders, and review and process invoices, contractor approvals, and vendor insurance for City-funded contracts. - Preparing and submitting written reports, annual reports, and evaluation reports pursuant to specific deliverables and requirements of the FAD. - Communicating and collaborating with local watershed stakeholders, program partners, and federal/State agencies to support program goals. (This is a brief description of what you might do in this position and does not include all the duties of this position.) Some of the physical activities performed by Associate Project Managers and environmental conditions experienced are: walking to and from inspection sites and during the course of inspections, climbing and descending ladders or stairs to get to areas to be inspected, including exposed heights and confined spaces, standing for extended periods of time, distinguishing colors, bending, stretching, and stooping during inspections, communicating orally, climbing over and around various objects, walking in areas that may be damp, moldy, dark, dusty, smoky, vermin infested, noisy, acrid, or containing fumes, emissions, extreme heat and cold, lead dust, asbestos, or other potentially hazardous material, and working outdoors in all kinds of weather.

Requirements

One year of full-time satisfactory experience in supervising employees performing project management work, such as planning, administering, managing, coordinating, or expediting, on engineering and/or architectural and/or landscape architectural projects, or supervising a construction project with a value of $1,000,000 or more, and either:
A baccalaureate degree from an accredited college or university in engineering, engineering technology, architecture, landscape architecture, architectural technology, construction, construction management, construction technology, sustainable design, urban planning, urban studies, city planning, transportation planning, business administration, or public administration, and one year of full-time satisfactory experience in project management work, such as planning, administering, managing, coordinating, or expediting, for engineering and/or architectural and/or landscape architectural projects; or
A four-year high school diploma or its educational equivalent and five years of experience as described in "1" above; or
A four-year high school diploma or its educational equivalent plus any combination of college or university education and/or experience described in "1" above to make up the equivalent of five years of education and experience.
One year of experience credit will be given for: (a) each 30 semester credits of college or university education leading to a bachelor's degree from an accredited college or university in engineering, engineering technology, architecture, landscape architecture, architectural technology, construction, construction management, construction technology, sustainable design, urban planning, urban studies, city planning, transportation planning, business administration, or public administration; (b) a Master’s degree from an accredited college or university in one of the disciplines described in "1" above; (c) a Juris Doctor degree, or (d) a valid New York State license as a Professional Engineer, Registered Architect or Registered Landscape Architect.
Where experience which is primarily of a design nature is not acceptable towards meeting the qualification requirements.
In addition to meeting the qualification requirements for Assignment Level I, candidates must have at least one additional year of experience as described in "1" above in a supervisory capacity or have served for at least one year as a project manager for a large and/or complex construction project.
In addition to meeting the qualification requirements for Assignment Level I, candidates must have at least two additional years of experience as described in "1" above in a supervisory capacity or have served for at least two additional years as a project manager for a large and/or complex construction project.

Nice To Haves

Strong computer skills, including word processing and spreadsheets.
Experience with Microsoft Office products.
Experience Geographic Information Systems (GIS), ESRI GIS software, GPS software, hardware, data collection, and processing.
A bachelor’s degree in forest ecology, forestry, forest science, restoration ecology, natural resources management, or a directly related field, or a master’s degree in the same disciplines and two years of full-time experience in a relevant field.
Experience preparing and implementing silvicultural prescriptions, preferably in Northeastern forests.
Experience in timber harvest layout and administration, including use of forestry Best Management Practices.
Effective communication with loggers, consultants, regulators, town boards, landowners, abutters, and other parties potentially involved with timber harvests.
Knowledge of forest ecology, invasive species biology and control, dendrology, forest types, stand dynamics, and silviculture of northeastern forests, forest inventory data collection and processing.
Experience in Best Management Practices to protect water quality and environmental health and safety practices in forestry operations.
Ability to navigate effectively in the woods.
Ability to work alone outdoors.
Ability to traverse rough terrain in remote locations, sometimes with limited means of communication.
Ability to work outside in all types of weather including temperature extremes and different types of precipitation.
Ability to communicate effectively in oral and written means.
Ability to communicate technical forestry concepts effectively to groups, including lay audiences
Ability to work independently, maintain accurate records, to use independent judgment to make decisions and to act quickly in emergency situations.
A Drivers’ License valid in the State of New York.

Responsibilities

basin-level planning
designing, coordinating and directing the implementation of wholistic forest management projects and contracts including multiple components (such as invasive species control, planting forest vegetation, commercial timber harvesting, forest stand improvement, thinning operations, and deer exclusion) in compliance with the goals, milestones and requirements of the City’s Watershed Forest Management Plan, Filtration Avoidance Determination (FAD), and the 1997 NYC Watershed Memorandum of Agreement (MOA)
Prioritizing forest treatments that manage forest vegetation in a manner consistent with the NYC Watershed Forest Management Plan
Being responsible for forest management in the assigned region and supervision of other foresters to achieve the regional goals
Assisting in programmatic review and development of updates to the NYC Watershed Forest Management Plan consistent with the goals, milestones and requirements of the City’s FAD
Designing and implementing forest inventories and other forest assessments as needed to properly inform comprehensive forest management planning and forest management project implementation
Designing and managing effective forest management projects that implement the treatments through a variety of mechanisms such as timber sale contracts, use of DEP staff, or inter-governmental agreements
Overseeing contractor performance during forest management projects for quality of work, water-protection goals, and health and safety compliance
Shepherding complicated regulatory submissions and reviews through both internal and external processes to ensure appropriate compliance and timely delivery of project plans
Developing contracts and purchase orders, and review and process invoices, contractor approvals, and vendor insurance for City-funded contracts
Preparing and submitting written reports, annual reports, and evaluation reports pursuant to specific deliverables and requirements of the FAD
Communicating and collaborating with local watershed stakeholders, program partners, and federal/State agencies to support program goals