Employment & Volunteer Opportunities

Join the NepRWA team and help make a difference in your community!

Employment Opportunities

 

Posted 10/23/20

River Restoration Director

Background

The Neponset River Watershed Association (NepRWA) seeks a candidate for the full- time, permanent position of River Restoration Director.

NepRWA is a nonprofit environmental conservation group (www.neponset.org) working to protect and restore the Neponset River, its tributaries and surrounding watershed lands located south and west of Boston. NepRWA pursues its goals through advocacy, education, technical assistance, environmental monitoring, and hands on restoration projects. The organization presently has nine staff (eight FTE).

Position Description

The River Restoration Director is a key member of NepRWA’s senior program staff. They plan and implement programs to restore the physical, chemical and biological integrity of local waterways and wetlands. They also provide scientific and/or engineering expertise to complement the legal, policy, political and communications expertise of other staff members.

Key responsibilities include

  • Serve as project leader for a variety of assessment and/or implementation projects aimed at restoring aquatic, wetland and riparian habitats and/or increasing ecosystem resilience, including: removal of obsolete small dams, replacement of problem culverts, riparian re-vegetation, preservation and improvement of brook trout habitat in the watershed, salt marsh restoration, invasive species management, and remediation of contaminated stream sediments.
  • Plan and supervise NepRWA’s volunteer-based water quality monitoring program including regular monitoring, “hotspot” monitoring, data analysis, reporting to technical and non-nontechnical audiences, and working with relevant authorities to secure remediation of pollution
  • Hire and supervise NepRWA’s Environmental Science Fellow, seasonal interns, and project
  • Prepare project plans and funding applications and manage grant contract reporting and
  • Provide technical support to colleagues as needed on stormwater management, hydrology, water conservation and other
  • Build partnerships with municipal staff, state and federal agencies, academic institutions, private consultants and
  • Assist communication and development staff to document results through writing, presentations, photography and social

This position requires occasional early morning or weekend sampling, and occasional participation in evening meetings or weekend events.

The NepRWA office is presently largely closed due to the Covid pandemic, with staff working primarily from home, however the position does require regular, socially distanced field work with colleagues and/or volunteers, and occasional face-to-face socially distanced interaction with interns, project partners or trainees. We anticipate that the office will re-open for regular operations sometime in 2021.

Qualifications

The successful candidate will have an unusual combination of technical, communication, and leadership skills. A master’s degree in ecological restoration, aquatic biology, ecology, hydrology, civil or environmental engineering, landscape architecture or a related field, plus at least two years of relevant work experience, or a relevant bachelor’s degree and five years work experience is required. It is unlikely that any one candidate will have extensive formal training in all the disciplines that are touched by this position, but they must have a strong foundation in at least one area and must be a lifelong learner who enjoys stepping outside their established areas of expertise.

They should be enthusiastic about the mission of the organization, motivated to achieve tangible results, and intrigued by the technical, social and political challenges involved in restoring an urban river. They must be self-motivated, and have excellent writing, presentation and interpersonal skills. They must be able to enunciate the policy and regulatory implications of watershed data and have the ability to connect effectively with both technical and non-technical audiences. They should be a capable project manager, who works well in a fast-paced team environment. They should be comfortable working independently, including in the field on uneven terrain, in a canoe and wading.

The candidate should have experience with ecological restoration methods, water quality monitoring, basic laboratory and data analysis, and be proficient with GIS. Experience with stormwater best management practices, green infrastructure, state and federal regulatory programs related to water and wetlands, streamflow monitoring, watershed modeling, grant contract management, working with municipalities and volunteers, and supervising junior staff and interns will all be invaluable.

This is an existing full-time, permanent position, which is available to commence work immediately. Compensation is commensurate with experience and includes paid time off and health insurance plan. NepRWA is an equal opportunity employer and applications from under- represented communities and communities of color are strongly encouraged.

Application Procedure

To apply, send a resume, along with a cover letter explaining how the position would complement your career goals and how your talents and experience would help advance NepRWA’s efforts. Resumes will be accepted until the position is filled. The most recent posting will be maintained at www.neponset.org/about/employment and a notice will be posted promptly at that location once the position has been filled.

Responses should be directed via email to:

Ian Cooke Executive Director
Neponset River Watershed Association 2173 Washington Street
Canton, MA 02021 cooke@neponset.org

Volunteer Positions

Water Samplers Needed, May – Oct 2021

Join the Citizen Water Monitoring Network (CWMN) Team! Volunteers are needed annually to collect water quality samples at various sites throughout the watershed, as part of the CWMN program. Sampling occurs once a month, on the second Thursday, from May through Oct. Training is provided.

We always need backup or fill-in volunteers to sample on days when our regular volunteers aren’t able to.

If you or anyone you know might be interested in helping us out, please email Declan Devine at devine@neponset.org.

Learn more about the CWMN Program.

 

We have many additional volunteer opportunities throughout the year, so be sure to sign up for our emails to stay up to date.

 

As a volunteer, you might:

  • sample water at streams around the watershed
  • work with other volunteers on a river cleanup
  • staff an event table on behalf of the Watershed Association
  • take photo’s of sites around the watershed for use in publications
  • survey dams and culverts
  • assist with office projects

Click here to register as a volunteer or email our Volunteer Coordinator, Andres Ripley, at ripley@neponset.org

volunteer-group-photo-for-web

Descriptions of Volunteer Opportunities

Citizen Water Monitoring Network

The Citizen Water Monitoring Network (“CWMN” – pronounced “swimmin”) is a volunteer-based monitoring program that assesses water quality in Neponset waterways. Each year, roughly 50 volunteers take water samples, monitor dissolved oxygen levels, and transport samples from 41 locations around the watershed, six times throughout the spring, summer and fall.

For the monitoring season, we seek volunteers to fill the following CWMN positions:

  • water samplers
  • dissolved oxygen samplers
  • sample coordinators
  • sample transporters

Each position plays a vital role in helping the Watershed Association to monitor water quality throughout the watershed. In addition to filling those positions, we also seek “Fill-In Samplers” whose duty it is to help cover sampling locations when a station’s regular volunteer is unable to sample. We provide training and equipment, and you provide a few hours of your time. The result is a comprehensive look at water quality around the Neponset River Watershed, which helps the Watershed Association to monitor the river and prioritize clean-up and restoration efforts

Photographers

We are looking for folks who like to take photos! We could use pictures of beautiful landscapes, wildlife, watershed association events, and even pollution, flooding, and drought. Most of all we need pictures of people (and faces) who are out enjoying or working on the watershed.

Please keep photographs focused on the geographic area of the watershed, which includes Canton, Dedham, Dorchester, Dover, Foxborough, Hyde Park, Mattapan, Medfield, Milton, Norwood, Randolph, Quincy, Sharon, Stoughton, Walpole, and Westwood.

To email photos:

Share photos via social media @neprwa:

Advocate for Watershed Protection

Advocate for watershed protection! Join the watershed association’s e-mail list to receive advocacy updates, and then act according to your own schedule.

“On-Call” Helpers

These volunteers have their names added to the “on-call” volunteer email list and agree to “help when they can” with short-term group efforts to prepare mailings, provide an extra set of hands on the day of a special event, or assist with other miscellaneous tasks as they come up.

The location varies depending on the need – e.g., sometimes at the office and sometimes at a special event location. Time and schedule also depend on need. Generally, short-term projects are 1 to 2 hours in duration. Commitment is determined by the volunteer.

Volunteer today!