Hopland, CA

https://hrec.ucanr.edu/

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Oak Woodland and Rangeland Stewardship Through Education and Land Management

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Desired Skills/Traits:

• Background in communications and education. Natural resource management and field work education and/or experience. 

• Primary Desired Skills

  • Experience and confidence in crafting and delivering scientifically driven educational programs for diverse audiences

  • Experience working with diverse audiences and underserved communities

  • Experience with conducting field work such as rangeland and forest assessments, prescribed fire planning

• Secondary Desired Skills

  • Fluency in Spanish

  • Experience working with youth and volunteers

  • GIS skills

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Openings: 2 of 2​

project breakdown

Goals & Needs

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Living at the 5,358 HREC site, a living laboratory of oak woodlands and rangelands that hosts a variety of research projects and educational programs, and working directly with both the HREC Community Education Specialist and Director, these two positions will work on a blend of:

1. Education programming, from direct education delivery to communication planning and curriculum improvement: generate social media posts/short films/press releases/publicity for research and extension work; develop and deliver school programs to over 1000 K-12 students, working with community volunteers; develop new communication strategies and educational programs to meet the needs of underrepresented audiences; interpretive sign development.

2. Land stewardship planning and implementation: assist with prescribed burn preparations and planning; enact various elements of an existing Carbon Farm Plan including ecological restoration activities; conducting planning for fencing and water infrastructure improvements for livestock and wildlife; collaborate on installing rangeland monitoring sites.

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Capacity Building Projects

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Project 1: Land Management - HREC Carbon Farm Plan - using existing HREC Carbon Farm Plan, build capacity to implement the plan by prioritizing activities, developing concrete plans for implementation including location, activities, budget, and schedule. Desired outcomes include establishment of concrete site improvements such as riparian restoration areas, compost spreading on rangelands, oak regeneration plots. Increased ability to steward the land and demonstrate best practices to stakeholders

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Project 2: Land Management - HREC Rangeland improvement (cattle, sheep, prescribed fire) - within existing frameworks, develop plans for expanding sheep flock and implementing regenerative rotational grazing by cattle. Working with CalFire and prescribed burn associations, assist with planning for expanded prescribed fires to mitigate wildfire risk and implement research projects. Desired outcomes include installing new water infrastructure, implementing prescribed burns. Increased ability to steward the land, demonstrate best practices to stakeholders, and implement research projects.

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Project 3: Land Management - HREC Oak Regeneration - engaging with nascent volunteer group to expand their oak regeneration initiative, creating structure, implementing new regen plots, developing future plans. Desired outcomes include a well organized volunteer program, new regeneration areas, plans for future work, GIS maps of past and future work.

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Project 4: Youth Field Trip Programming: Improving equity in youth programming. Serving Mendocino County K-8 grade. The role of the Fellow would be to review 3-5th grade bird focused curriculum with particular attention to integration of Spanish language materials and cultural consideration of content in relation to the Hopland Band of Pomo Indians. The outcome would be updated curricula. Supporting capacity to meet the needs of our school audience through field trip programs.

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Project 5: Youth Summer Camp: Serving Mendocino County 9-12 year olds. The role of the fellows would be to build a science summer camp program that connects research conducted at HREC, to inspire youth in these fields. The desired outcome would be delivery of camp and transfer of materials for future educators. Supporting capacity to connect academic research and youth science career pathways at HREC.

Project 6: Mendocino County Fire Safe Youth Programming: To expand middle school programming access to all Mendocino County schools. The role of the fellows will be to coordinate with Mendocino County Fire Safe Council, HREC and Mendocino County Schools to develop mechanisms of delivery that meet the needs of all middle school teachers (field trips/teacher training/classroom delivery). Supporting capacity to deliver fire science programming to middle school students throughout Mendocino.

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Organizational & Community Highlights

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The Hopland Research and Extension Center, located a few miles outside of Hopland in Mendocino County, is a 5,358 acre beautiful mixture of oak woodlands, chaparral and riparian areas, allowing fellows great opportunities for hiking, running and biking during their free time. The community of Hopland is small, but does have a few restaurants, and a small grocery store. The towns of Cloverdale (30 mins south) and Ukiah (30 mins North) offer a greater variety of shopping and restaurants. Santa Rosa is roughly an hour to the south and San Francisco is two hours away by car.

The small team of nine staff support a great variety of work including shepherding the sheep flock, supporting researchers from a variety of institutions, offering educational programs such as the California Naturalist class, and maintaining the site. Although the team are frequently working independently, a biweekly meeting provides chance for everyone to check in.

Two other staff members and their families live on the site in houses adjacent to the GrizzlyCorps Fellows house. Other housing on site is occupied by CalFire crews and occasional visiting researchers or educational program participants.

Working hours usually start early (7:30am-4:00pm), although some flexibility to the work-day is possible it is encouraged for fellows to stick within these hours to work most effectively with the whole team.

Due to the rural and somewhat isolated location, Fellows should be aware that they will need to put effort into connecting with the local community beyond HREC.

No dogs are allowed on site due to the use of guardian dogs to protect the sheep.

Since this is a research facility there are ample opportunities to meet visiting research teams in disciplines such as ecology, soils, fire, livestock, and conservation biology.

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We have onsite housing provided in a private three-bedroom, one-bath house shared with other GrizzlyCorps Fellows. The house has a full kitchen, bathroom and living room. The house will likely be shared with one or two other GrizzlyCorps occupants, one based at HREC and the other serving at an organization nearby. Each fellow will have a private bedroom. We have onsite coin-operated laundry facilities and trash/recycling services. The Fellows will also be provided with semi-private work space, including computer, within the main office building, right down the road from the residences. The housing will be offered at no cost to the Member, and all utilities are included with the housing. WiFi at the houses can be intermittent, but the office is just a five-minute walk from the houses and internet access is reliable there.

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