Urban and Community Forestry Specialist: GIS Tools and Technologies

VIEW THE FULL JOB DESCRIPTION AND INSTRUCTIONS FOR SUBMITTING AN APPLICATION HERE: https://www.naturalheritagetrust.org/employment 

UCF Specialist: GIS Tools and Technologies. This position will be responsible for developing and maintaining urban forestry data, including spatial tools and technologies, inventory, funding and grants tracking, and other program information to support grants, programs, and events relating to the urban and community forestry practice area. In addition, this position will support and educate communities about information management, platforms and tools available to contribute to urban forest management.   As the Urban and Community Forestry Program expands to address climate challenges including extreme heat, air pollution, and carbon sequestration goals; provides statewide leadership and delivers unprecedented levels of funding for tree planting and maintenance efforts across the state, this position is critical to track tree planting efforts, share technology and tools to plan, analyze, and track urban forestry actions and impacts, and help monitor changes in tree canopy across the state. 

Specific Duties: 

• Develop and maintain multiple databases related to tree planting, tree inventories, canopy cover, grants, and other Division of Lands and Forests Programs. 
• Collect, manage and analyze a variety of geospatial data, including but not limited to tree planting and tree inventory projects, tree canopy, and grants, and drawing on existing data layers such as NYS Disadvantaged Communities, air pollution data, extreme heat, and canopy data.  
• Create information management, map and spatial analysis products. 
• Interface with the 25 Million Trees Tracker and other planting and stewardship platforms to create efficient and effective data sharing products to support urban forestry 
• Assist in the preparation of reports, especially information relating to communicating how to use publicly available GIS and other platforms and tools available to urban forest practitioners. 
• Assist in the development, review and program execution of Urban and Community Forestry (UCF) grants and programs as needed in a timely manner and consistent with state and federal grant requirements. 
• Work independently and as a supportive and productive member of a cohesive team. Must be detail oriented, highly organized and a good communicator. 
• Utilize various tools and technologies including various webinar software, ArcGIS Pro/ArcGIS Online (AGOL), Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Adobe Acrobat. 
• The position may require travel and outdoor work as needed. 

Required Qualifications:  

• Bachelor's or higher degree in Forest Management, Environmental Sciences, Environmental Studies, Natural Resources Management, Natural Resources Planning, Geography, or Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and two years of professional experience in local and/or regional natural resource planning and analysis. 
• Must have a valid driver’s license. 
• Three (3) years of experience with desktop GIS software (ArcGIS, QGIS, or other) for data creation, editing, management, and analysis. 
• Experience with data management and manipulation (using software such as Excel, Access, M365 tools, and/or other database query tools). 
• Experience developing grant tracking systems. 
• Experience utilizing ArcGIS Online tools to design, create, update and publish communication products based upon geospatial and other datasets. 
• Experience in the creation of digital dashboards and visualization tools, using AGOL Dashboards, Experience Builder, StoryMaps, Tableau, R Shiny Apps. 
• Familiarity with tree and canopy data collection technologies, including LiDAR and/or field-based collection tools like Field Maps/Survey123.  
• Experience in establishing data schema and managing a digital library of geospatial datasets created by multiple staff and organizations. 
• Proficiency using R, python, Arcade, SQL, and/or JavaScript.