Plant Ecologist

RES is the nation's largest and most experienced provider of ecological restoration and water resource solutions. To date, we have restored over 328 stream miles, 58,024 wetland acres, and rehabilitated, preserved, and/or managed over 15,000 acres of special-status species habitats. RES operations include planting over 17,400,000 restorative trees and reducing over 267 tons of polluting nutrients. RES navigates and streamlines the environmental permitting process with solutions that balance economic development and ecological sustainability through the establishment of mitigation/conservation banks, permittee responsible turnkey mitigation, and corporate social responsibility projects.

RES is accepting applications for a Plant Ecologist to work collaboratively with a team of field ecologists, environmental land operators, restoration, and mitigation professionals in our Sacramento or San Francisco, CA offices. Project sites are located throughout California, Oregon, and Washington. The majority of the sites and projects are within California and require a thorough knowledge of the ecology and flora of California landscapes ranging from vernal pools to seasonal and tidal wetlands. This role requires ecological expertise in these landscapes and the ability to write and verbally communicate that expertise with a variety of stakeholders including clients, regulatory agencies, internal team members, and other RES technical staff and project managers throughout the country. This position will report directly to the Senior Wetland Ecologist and assist with projects across the entire region as needed.

The role of the Plant Ecologist requires technical skills, strong organizational and communication skills, the ability to work independently, collaboratively, and confidently to achieve task goals. This is a mid-career role with the expectation of mentoring junior staff and peers. Successful candidates must be flexible and responsive to a challenging work environment where schedules, site locations, and tasks fluctuate according to the needs of the project.

As a Plant Ecologist, you will use judgment and critical thinking to select, apply and adapt standard techniques, methods and procedures for a range of annual monitoring and management of conservation lands, restoration design projects, and biological studies. You will serve as a Plant Ecology technical specialist, peer reviewing the work of others and providing mentoring to junior team members and other Ecologists.

The desired candidate's responsibilities will include performing all aspects of field work, reviewing, developing, and implementing botanical survey protocols, collecting and organizing data, writing technical reports, preparing permit applications, communication with clients, landowners and RES' Operations Team, and assisting in the stewardship of all RES's conservation bank portfolio within the Western Region.

Minimum Qualifications:

• Bachelor's degree in ecology, biology, environmental science or other related discipline.
• A minimum of 5 years of work experience (or 3+ years with Masters' level education) with mitigation, habitat restoration, land management, and/or environmental permitting.
• Strong working knowledge of ecology, California ecosystems, habitat restoration, and land management. Particular ecosystems of interest include: seasonal wetlands and vernal pools.
• Familiarity with California flora and rare plants, survey protocols, listing authorities, and conservation measures.
• Familiarity with invasive plants of California.
• Strong writing ability; this role requires writing annual monitoring reports, Biological Assessments, Biological Resource Assessments, Biological Inventories, rare plant survey reports, and other technical documents. Must be able to prepare these documents with limited instruction, seeking input from senior staff for key items.
• Preparing written responses to comments from the regulatory agencies on Biological Assessments, mitigation bank entitlement documents, and permit application packages.
• Demonstrated experience with plant keys including Jepson Manual.
• The ability to engage in self-directed learning. This position necessitates the ability to quickly learn and synthesize information through self-directed learning such as reading scientific papers, attending webinars and conferences, and reviewing past work products.
• Understanding of and experience with a variety of federal and California environmental regulations (federal Clean Water Act 404/401, California Fish and Game Code 1600, federal and California Endangered Species Acts).
• Attending meetings with regulatory agencies, clients, and teaming partners. Engage with these audiences as a representative of RES.
• Perform and sometimes lead biological field studies including native flora and fauna surveys including rare plant surveys, vegetation classification and habitat mapping, wetland delineations and endangered species documentation.
• Be a flexible team player. This position requires an individual who is willing to work on multiple projects at any given time and assist other team members as needed and the ability and comfort to work independently on a variety of tasks.
• Demonstrated field experience.
• Effective problem solving ability, organized, and detail oriented.
• Project management.
• Comfortable working in physically challenging outdoor situations in all types of weather and traveling on a regular basis to project sites which may require overnight stays.
• Ability to lift 25 pounds.
• Must have a valid driver's license, Clean DMV record, and compliance with company safety policies are required.
• Experience with MS Office, Apple iPads, and GPS technology.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Hold a collector permit for rare plant species.
• Experience creating herbarium sheets.
• Wetland delineation training.
• CRAM training.
• Flora of Oregon and/or Washington
• Basic understanding of operation a of biological and land management equipment, including but not limited to UTV/ATV.
• Familiarity with invasive plants and management techniques.
• Familiarity with vernal pool wildlife species.

VEVRAA Federal Contractor

RES is an equal opportunity employer and all qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability status, protected veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by law.