Ecosystem Biologist

The Nature Trust of British Columbia (NTBC) is a leading non-profit land conservation organization with over 50 years of successfully protecting key habitats for wildlife, fish, and plants in BC. We acquire ecologically significant land and then manage this land to protect the natural diversity of wildlife and plants, and their habitats. Since 1971, we have secured 73,000 hectares (180,000 acres) of ecologically significant land.

The Nature Trust of British Columbia is seeking an enthusiastic and motivated individual to join our team as an Ecosystem Biologist. This is a two-year term position, with the likelihood of extension based on available funding.

The Ecosystem Biologist supports NTBC in acquiring and managing lands that have ecosystems with high biodiversity values. This position provides scientific and technical input for development of measures to plan and monitor the effectiveness of implementing NTBC’s conservation securement and land management goals from broad provincial or regional scales to site or property-specific scales.

The Ecosystem Biologist requires broad experience and knowledge of conservation stewardship, field-based ecology surveys, science-based approaches, and best management practices. Building support for NTBC’s vision and facilitating biodiversity conservation is an important role of the Ecosystem Biologist who will work with NTBC’s communications team in developing outreach material, signage content, and other publications that support NTBC’s conservation efforts.

**Duties and Responsibilities**:
Conservation Science and Planning
- Works with the Conservation Ecologist and Director of Conservation Land Management on coordinating, refining, and reporting of the ecological condition assessments used to monitor NTBC conservation lands.
- Plans and conducts field surveys to assess and/or measure elements such as carbon sequestration, wetland classification, species presence, ecological communities, and species at risk Critical Habitat attributes.
- Aids in development of ecological interpretive signage for NTBC conservation areas.
- Involved in the development of methods to measure the effectiveness of conservation actions and assists the land management team in implementing associated land management actions.

Land Management
- Helps to facilitate the development of management direction statements or management plans for NTBC conservation areas.
- Supports the Director of Conservation Land Management in assessing the potential for land management related conflicts and identifying strategies for their resolution, including working with the entities that are in conflict with NTBC conservation values.
- Leads conservation covenant (conservation easement) management, including annual monitoring, managing contractor support and/or other staff for annual monitoring services as required, reviewing annual monitoring reports, contacting and following-up with landowners, and supporting the Director of Conservation Land Management when working with landowners who are out of compliance with covenant restrictions.
- Works with the Director of Conservation Land Management and Conservation Ecologist to refine conservation covenant monitoring protocols, update Baseline Documentation Reports as needed, and implement procedures to resolve existing NTBC conservation covenants that are at risk of non-compliance and/or legal challenges.

Land Securement
- Supports the Conservation Land Securement Team in understanding and evaluating the ecological values of potential acquisitions.
- Works with partner organizations, including Federal, Provincial, and Local Governments, Indigenous groups, and Non-Government Organizations to develop and execute land securement projects, as required.

**Skills, Abilities, and Qualifications**:

- Bachelor or graduate degree in biology, or a related discipline from a recognized university.
- Designation as a Registered Professional Biologist in good standing with the College of Applied Biologists of British Columbia, or eligibility to become one within a year.
- Minimum of three to five years of relevant employment and/or volunteer experience.
- Knowledge of British Columbia’s flora and fauna with particular interest in sensitive, threatened, or endangered species and ecosystems.
- An understanding of project development and management. Previous project management experience is an asset.
- Strong interpersonal and social skills to foster relationships with conservation partners, Indigenous communities, conservation covenant landowners, and recreational users.
- Experience preparing and coordinating ecological field assessments and management plans.
- Experience with Microsoft Office, ArcGIS Field Maps (or Collector) and other GIS programs.
- Excellent written and verbal communication skills.
- Experience supervising people and/or leading teams is an asset.
- Willingness to occasionally work in remote locations.
- Possess a valid Class 5 BC Driver’s Licen