Urban River Restoration Apprentice

Position Description

The Urban River Restoration Apprentice will be part of the River Run Network team, working with a variety of staff, docents, and other volunteers at WMG, to create and steward cooling riparian corridors in Tucson’s arroyos and rivers. Apprentices will work closely with WMG staff, volunteers, and partners and participate in watershed planning, green infrastructure design and implementation workshops, and community engagement.

The ideal candidate will be passionate about WMG’s mission; enjoy working outdoors and learning new green infrastructure, native riparian habitat, nature-based solutions, and community engagement and education skills; and participate in WMG’s efforts to engage a diverse community in the Santa Cruz watershed.

Restoration projects will value Sonoran Desert plant communities, ecological principles, and a  culturally-centered approach. WMG’s restoration efforts work to engage limited-income, BIPOC, and LGBTQ+ communities, and we seek an apprentices who is part of and/or able and interested in engaging with these populations.

The Apprentice will participate in weekly onboarding and development activities with a cohort of other apprentices, interns, and docents. Training often occurs on Friday afternoons, 3-5pm.

Job Requirements

• Interest in and support of WMG’s mission and vision.
• Ability to work well in a team setting and collaborate with other team members to accomplish projects together.
• 1+ years of basic experience with manual labor in a desert environment, such as using hand tools, planting, surveying, invasive plant removal, water harvesting, and green infrastructure.
• Cell phone that can be used to make and receive work calls
• Ability to work evening and weekend hours as needed and work outside in physically demanding environments for full field days.

Routine Duties & Responsibilities

• Engage community members in caring for our rivers and cooling our neighborhoods.
  • Engage individuals and neighborhood groups in hands-on educational activities and workshops about rivers, green infrastructure, and cooling urban forests.
  • Participate in and coordinate monthly outreach events in heat vulnerable, low canopy communities.
  • Conduct outreach through in-person community events, distributing flyers, phone calls, emails, print media, social media, and website promotion.
• Install riparian restoration projects and green infrastructure
  • Learn about designing, permitting, and implementing green infrastructure and riparian forests.
  • Implement projects including water harvesting earthworks (basins, berms, swales); native riparian trees and native understory plants; pole planting; organic groundcovers, and stabilizing rock work. Project implementation will be supported with community green infrastructure workshops, engaging residents in how to build rain gardens and plant trees.
• Monitor and care for riparian projects and native habitat
  • Document project efforts and conduct monitoring.
  • Develop maintenance plans for all project sites.
  • Learn and participate in native plant and green infrastructure care techniques.

Preferred Experience

• Knowledgeable in native plants, green stormwater infrastructure, river ecology, and rainwater harvesting systems
• Experience in community outreach and environmental education
• Strong communication skills for a lay audience, including through verbal or written communication.
• Bilingual speaker and writer, fluent in English and Spanish.