Biologist to address ‘climate emergency’ that she calls ‘a huge human rights crisis’
Sandra Steingraber doesn’t give PowerPoint presentations. No, she won’t bore you to death with slides about the science of hydraulic fracturing and its dangers, or about how plankton stocks are declining in warming oceans — stocks that supply us with half the oxygen we breathe. She doesn’t want you to die of boredom. She wants you to fight in a movement that, she said, has to act fast, before it’s too late. She said we’ve got about 10 more years to contain a “climate emergency” before we’re sunk in ecological and public health disaster. FROM THE BERKSHIRE EAGLE <more>
Protecting Indigenous Sacred Stone Landscapes
Jobs (click for full job listings)
Environmental Justice Community Organizer | Arise for Social Justice | Springfield, MA
Conservation Agent | Town of Becket | Becket, MA
Executive Coordinator & Trustee Liaison | The Nature Conservancy | Boston, MA
Fee Stewardship Coordinator | MA Dept. of Fish & Game | Westborough, MA
Interpretive Writer | Hiltown Families | Williamsburg, MA
Development & Sales Officer | Hiltown Families | Williamsburg, MA
Executive Director | Hiltown Families | Williamsburg, MA
MA Community Organizer | Mothers Out Front | Worcester, MA
Government Relations Specialist | The Nature Conservancy | Boston, MA
Event Planner | Wild & Scenic Westfield River Committee | Westfield, MA
Campus Organizer | PIRG Campus Action | Western MA
Environmental Health Manager | Pioneer Valley Asthma Coalition | Springfield, MA
Regional Recycling Coordinator | City of Pittsfield | Pittsfield, MA
Conservation Projects Manager | Housatonic Valley Association | Cornwall Bridge, CT
Director of Ecological Restoration | MA Dept. of Fish & Game | Boston, MA
Community Solar Interns | Co-op Power | Florence, MA
Energy Efficiency Intern | Co-op Power | Florence, MA
Community Solar Program Director | Co-op Power | Florence, MA
Energy Efficiency Program Manager | Co-op Power | Florence, MA
Chief Executive Officer | Co-op Power | Florence, MA
2017-18 Position Openings | TerraCorps – Various locations
Biologist to address ‘climate emergency’ that she calls ‘a huge human rights crisis’
FROM THE BERKSHIRE EAGLE | BY HEATHER BELLOW
LENOX — Sandra Steingraber doesn’t give PowerPoint presentations. No, she won’t bore you to death with slides about the science of hydraulic fracturing and its dangers, or about how plankton stocks are declining in warming oceans — stocks that supply us with half the oxygen we breathe.
She doesn’t want you to die of boredom. She wants you to fight in a movement that, she said, has to act fast, before it’s too late. She said we’ve got about 10 more years to contain a “climate emergency” before we’re sunk in ecological and public health disaster.
“It’s a huge human rights crisis,” Steingraber said in a phone interview from her Trumansburg, N.Y., home in the Finger Lakes region. “We are now in the eleventh hour.”
What biologist, poet, advocate and author Steingraber will do is take you on a little storytelling trip that starts with fossilized corpses of animals deep in the Earth and their voyage to our stove burners and the whoosh of igniting methane.
And she’ll do it Dec. 2 at Lenox High School, where, she said, she will tailor her talk to the Berkshires. She will tackle the PCB contamination that plagues the Housatonic River. And she’ll talk fracked methane, since a natural gas pipeline just completed in Sandisfield is still sparking controversy.
She will also screen a trailer of “Unfractured,” a documentary directed by Chanda Chevannes that follows Steingraber’s work as an eco-warrior.
Steingraber, a founder of New Yorkers Against Fracking and Concerned Health Professionals of New York, said the fossil fuel industry is keeping everyone trapped in an archaic and dangerous cycle.
“It’s like we’re all still using the rotary dial phone,” she said. “We have the energy equivalent of the iPhone, but industry has put us all in a time capsule and is holding us hostage.”
But Steingraber said there’s not much time left to make changes now hindered by a powerful oil and gas industry.
“I see this as a kind of battle between the future and the past,” she said. “We have good data to show that we could entirely run our economy on wind, water and solar, and save lives — we would solve a whole bunch of problems at once.”
The rest of the world is advancing, she added, while American industry keeps to its old-fashioned ways.
“The fossil fuel industry isn’t voluntarily exiting the stage, so they’ll have to be pushed off,” she said.
Already doing the pushing are activists in a growing movement that is drawing in many different people and groups as it rolls along. Her role in this activism is to translate the science so people can understand how threats to the climate become public health threats.
She does it poetically as she connects groundwater and raindrops to human blood plasma and cerebral spinal fluid. In some places, the water source is a well; in others, surface water.
“We’re all 65 percent water by weight.”
It goes in us before we urinate — before it is recycled again into drinking water.
“All the world’s water is a big wheel,” she said. “We have an intimate relationship with water that you can’t opt out of.”
And this is why she said the water protectors, an activist movement born fighting an oil pipeline at the Standing Rock Indian Reservation in North Dakota “have made sense.”
“Water is life,” she said, repeating the water protector catchphrase, one heard often at pipeline protests in Sandisfield.
Steingraber’s four books include “Living Downstream: A Scientist’s Personal Investigation of Cancer and the Environment” and “Raising Elijah: Protecting Our Children in an Age of Environmental Crisis.” “Living Downstream” was made into a film in 2010.
Her foray into illness and research sparked something in the tenacious scientist’s mind. Activism was unavoidable.
“I’m a scientist for the people — for activists but also the general public, who need an entry point,” she said.
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo in 2014 declared a statewide ban on fracking, in large part because of the efforts of the anti-fracking group she helped start. The group had produced a compendium of all the dangers and harm of fracking, which involves shattering shale bedrock to extract methane, of which most of natural gas is composed.
“Cuomo had to decide whether to dis the industry or dis his constituency,” she said. “I saw how science could be a really powerful tool.”
The organization had assimilated more than 500 groups, including churches, synagogues and politicians. Steingraber said she used $100,000 she received as an award from The Heinz Family Foundation as seed money to start the group. She was chosen for the award for her work in framing the environmental emergency as a hit on human rights.
Steingraber also knows how to get herself handcuffed for that cause.
She was arrested twice during a two-year fight over a Texas-based company’s plan to store methane gas in defunct salt mine pits near Seneca Lake, in New York State’s wine-making country.
The gas company called it quits after a big resistance, one that also saw the arrests of “93-year-old great-grandmothers.” But activists are still fighting the company, Crestwood, over their plans to store another kind of gas in the mines, which could leak and pollute the water source for 100,000 people and a massive wine tourism industry, she said.
Steingraber thinks it might have been the activism that stopped the methane plans. And she thinks activism might be the only leverage left to get an industry to change.
“People are resurrecting a tool deployed for civil rights and the rights of women to vote,” she said. “It’s being played out at every pipeline construction site. There are thousands of battlefields in the same war. How do we turn the fossil fuel industry story into the tobacco story? Kids don’t even know what ashtrays are anymore.”
Protecting Indigenous Sacred Stone Landscapes
Ninth Circuit To Hear Oral Arguments in Juliana v. United States
San Francisco - There has been a significant development in the constitutional climate change lawsuit so far successfully prosecuted by 21 youth plaintiffs: the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals has decided to hear oral argument over whether the Trump Administration can evade trial currently set for February 5, 2018. Oral arguments will be heard before the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco on December 11, 2017.
Arguments will begin at 10 am PST at the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals located at 95 7th St, San Francisco, CA. A press conference will follow oral argument.
The Court offers a live stream of all oral arguments: http://www.ca9.uscourts.gov/media/live_oral_arguments.php
The subject of oral arguments will be the Trump Administration’s extraordinary mandamus petition filed in June, which seeks the Ninth Circuit’s review of U.S. District Court Judge Ann Aiken’s 2016 denial of motions to dismiss in Juliana v. United States. In their petition, Trump, et al., claim irreparable harm for having to participate in the ordinary pre-trial discovery process and go to trial. The next step in the case would ordinarily be for the Trump Administration to face the youth and their scientific evidence at trial, and then later appeal an adverse ruling after a final judgement in the case.
Julia Olson, co-counsel for plaintiffs and executive director of Our Children’s Trust, said:
“We look forward to the opportunity to argue this case before the Ninth Circuit so that we can move quickly to trial. The Trump Administration should not be able to dodge judicial review of such egregious constitutional infringements of these young people’s liberties. They are knowingly destroying our climate system and the healthy futures for our young plaintiffs. This Administration can respond to the limited discovery we seek, and put on its junk climate science at trial in a court of law. What it can’t do is shut the courthouse doors to real constitutional injuries brought by these young people. We believe the Ninth Circuit will be the bulwark against their dodge and evade tactics.”
Kelsey Juliana, 21-year-old named plaintiff from Eugene, OR, said:
“Every week, or even every day, that our trial is delayed is time I spend further worrying about the stability of our climate system and the security of my future. I’m excited for the Ninth Circuit judges to hear from my lawyers, and to have our case in front of them. Another step forward, onwards to climate and constitutional Justice!”
Levi Draheim, 10-year-old plaintiff from Satellite Beach, FL, said:
“We can’t delay anymore because climate change is an ongoing problem. We need to deal with it right now and start reducing the things that are causing it. When we win the oral arguments, we can move on and start talking about how to fix the problem not just talk about it.”
Phil Gregory, co-counsel for plaintiffs and partner with Cotchett, Pitre & McCarthy, LLP, in Burlingame, CA, said:
“It is an extremely positive step that the Ninth Circuit has elected to hear oral argument. While there is no set timeline for the Ninth Circuit panel to issue a decision, we hope the urgency of the climate crisis is dictating this fast track briefing and argument schedule. Oral argument on these issues will make climate history. Our briefing in support of Judge Aiken’s order, as well as the amicus briefs, were powerful and persuasive. We remain hopeful that Judge Aiken’s order will be upheld.”
In July, a three judge panel of the Ninth Circuit, consisting of judges Alfred Goodwin, Alex Kozinski, and Marsha Berzon, placed a temporary stay on the district court proceedings and ordered briefings on the mandamus petition.
In September, legal scholars, religious, women’s, libertarian, and environmental groups, and legal nonprofits filed eight separate amicus curiae (friend of the court) briefs with the Ninth Circuit, displaying resounding legal support for denying the mandamus petition, and allowing the case to proceed to trial.
Judge Aiken and Magistrate Judge Thomas Coffin, of the District Court in Oregon, filed a letter with the Ninth Circuit in August, referring to the issues presented by the youth’s case as “vitally important,” and stating that they “do not believe that the government will be irreversibly damaged by proceeding to trial.”
Through Judge Aiken’s order last year, the young plaintiffs secured the following critical legal rulings:
- There is a fundamental constitutional liberty right to a climate system capable of sustaining human life.
- The federal government has fiduciary public trust responsibilities to preserve natural resources upon which life depends.
- The youths’ requested remedy (ordering the development and implementation of a national climate recovery plan based on a scientific prescription) is an appropriate remedy if the court finds a violation of the youths’ constitutional rights.
Among the facts to be determined at trial are whether the federal government’s systemic actions over the past decades enabling climate change have violated the young plaintiffs’ constitutional rights.
Jacob Lebel, 20 year-old-plaintiff from Roseburg, OR, said:
“What is urgently needed right now is a clear, scientific and constitutional discussion of the irreparable harm that climate change is doing to this nation’s youth and the ways we can hold our leaders accountable to begin serious climate recovery efforts.
I am glad that we will have the opportunity to hold this discussion before the Ninth Circuit and I look forward to moving towards a full trial.”
Aji Piper, 17-year-old plaintiff from Seattle, WA, said:
“I hope the Ninth Circuit will understand Judge Aiken’s reasoned judgment and understand that this case needs to go to trial for the good of the youth and the good of the country.”
Juliana v. United States was brought by 21 young plaintiffs, and Earth Guardians, who argue that their constitutional and public trust rights are being violated by the government’s creation of climate danger. The case is one of many related legal actions brought by youth in several states and countries, all supported by Our Children’s Trust, seeking science-based action by governments to stabilize the climate system. #youthvgov
Counsel for Plaintiffs include Philip L. Gregory, Esq. of Cotchett, Pitre & McCarthy of Burlingame, CA and Julia Olson, Esq. of Eugene, OR.
Our Children’s Trust is a nonprofit organization, elevating the voice of youth, those with most to lose, to secure the legal right to a healthy atmosphere and stable climate on behalf of present and future generations. We lead a coordinated global human rights and environmental justice campaign to implement enforceable science-based Climate Recovery Plans that will return atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration to below 350 ppm by the year 2100. www.ourchildrenstrust.org
Earth Guardians is a Colorado-based nonprofit organization with youth chapters on five continents, and multiple groups in the United States with thousands of members working together to protect the Earth, the water, the air, and the atmosphere, creating healthy sustainable communities globally. We inspire and empower young leaders, families, schools, organizations, cities, and government officials to make positive change locally, nationally, and globally to address the critical state of the Earth. www.earthguardians.org
Jobs
Environmental Justice Community Organizer
Arise for Social Justice
Arise for Social Justice, a member-led low-income rights community organization in Springfield, MA seeks a community organizer to oversee our Environmental Justice and Public Health work in Springfield.
Responsibilities include working with community members to address ongoing sources of pollution, partnering with local and statewide organizations to develop and advocate for socially justice policy and solutions, and advancing the mission of our organization. Our Environmental Justice Organizer also coordinates the Springfield Climate Justice Coalition, an alliance of over 45 community organizations, faith based groups, civic organizations, and businesses working together for Climate Justice.
Qualified candidates will have some community organizing experience, familiarity with environmental and/or public health issues, a flexible work schedule, an understanding of the political processes and government structures, strong communication skills, the ability to manage multiple projects, and a commitment to community and social justice.
Additional preferred qualifications are experience in grant writing, researching, and reporting, experience in using social media as an organizing tool, and a familiarity with the Springfield, MA region.
Applicants should submit a cover letter and resume to AriseForSocialJustice@gmail.
This is a 1099 consultant position, based on 30 hours a week at $20/hr ($600 a week). Benefits include some paid time off and sick time.
Conservation Agent
Town of Becket
The Town of Becket is seeking qualified applicants for the part-time (average seventeen (17) hours per week) non benefited position of Conservation Agent Working under the direction of the Town Administrator and general guidance of the Conservation Commission Chairman, the Conservation Agent is to provide technical and administrative assistance to the Conservation Commission. Required tasks include administering the Wetlands Protection Act and associated laws and town by-laws. The Conservation Agent to the Becket Conservation Commission will need to attend Conservation Commission Meetings, which are normally held on the 3rd Tuesday of the Month at 6:30 PM in the Becket Town Hall. Applicant must be able to develop draft and final permit approvals, orders of conditions and other Commission-issued permits as needed as well as set agendas and provide file maintenance. Must perform on-site inspections, verify wetland resource boundaries and review applications. Will need to maintain office hours for the public, day and time are negotiable but need to be consistent.
Qualifications: college degree in environmental science or other appropriate field with two or more years’ experience in wetland resource administration, or any equivalent combination of education and experience are highly desirable. Position requires sustained periods of walking and hiking, sometimes in construction zones, knowledge of Massachusetts Wetlands Protection Act, and ability to communicate clearly orally and in written form. The Agent must be familiar with Conservation Commission procedures and will need to interface with the public, volunteers, and various other departments in town.
Please mail or e- mail a cover letter and resume to Edward Gibson, Town Administrator, Becket Town Hall, 557 Main Street, Becket, MA. 01223; Administrator@townofbecket.org. Applications will be accepted until the position is filled. Becket is an EEO/Affirmative Action Employer.
Executive Coordinator & Trustee Liaison
Massachusetts Chapter of the Nature Conservancy
The Massachusetts Chapter of The Nature Conservancy is recruiting for an Executive Coordinator & Trustee Liaison to be responsible for supporting the State Director, Assistant State Director, and Massachusetts Board of Trustees. S/He provides high-level administrative support and manages the operations of the Board of Trustees. For more information and to apply, visit www.nature.org/
Fee Stewardship Coordinator
MA Dept. of Fisheries & Wildlife | Westborough, MA
The Department of Fish and Game, Division of Fisheries and Wildlife is accepting resumes and applications from applicants for the position of Fee Stewardship Coordinator. The Fee Stewardship Coordinator is the primary overseer and manager of the realty aspects of MassWildlife’s fee-owned properties, which include 167,000 acres assembled over the last century. The individual will have a thorough understanding of real estate terminology and research techniques and become familiar with the entirety of the agency’s portfolio of properties, in order to advise staff on matters of acquisition and stewardship.
The Fee Stewardship Coordinator will maintain realty records, coordinate boundary-marking efforts, survey contracts and other services, and manage selected boundary disputes and encroachment issues. He or she will conduct deed research and provide advice regarding property interests as necessary in support of agency stewardship, acquisition, and public enjoyment of agency lands. This effort will include periodic monitoring and site visits, collaboration in implementing the agency’s Land Information System, procuring signage, assisting in the development of agency land-use policies, and being a good colleague for the other members of the Realty Section (Chief, CR Coordinator, Realty Specialist, and interns).
To learn more and to apply, click here.
Hilltown Families Is Hiring
Hilltown Families is hiring an Interpretive Writer and Development & Sales Officer, as well as an Executive Director.
They also have openings for volunteers and interns. Take a look at their website here for all of the details.
MA Community Organizer
Mothers Out Front : Mobilizing For A Livable Climate | Worcester, MA
Position Summary: The Massachusetts Community Organizer builds and supports volunteer-led community teams to grow a diverse and powerful movement of mothers that develops and implements campaigns to achieve a swift, complete, and just transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy. Specifically, the Community Organizer works to:
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Identify mothers, grandmothers and other caregivers in Worcester and Central Massachusetts who share Mothers Out Front’s goals and are willing to take action to reduce climate change;
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Support the creation of member-led teams in diverse communities in Worcester and Central Massachusetts by helping to organize house parties and coaching team leaders and potential leaders;
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Support member-led teams to launch and carry out local Mothers Out Front campaigns;
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Connect local teams to state campaigns and national Mothers Out Front movement work across states; and
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Provide “in-the-background” support and training to team members to strengthen their leadership skills, including their use of data and technology to support organizing.
READ THE FULL JOB DESCRIPTION & APPLY HERE
Event Planner
Wild & Scenic Westfield River Committee | Westfield, MA
In 2018, the Westfield River will be celebrating its 25th Anniversary since being designated as a National Wild & Scenic River. This happens to coincide with the 50th Anniversary of the National Wild & Scenic Rivers Act. As we near a quarter century of protecting the Westfield River and half century of protecting some of the greatest rivers in the United States, we hope to celebrate the accomplishments of the National Wild & Scenic Rivers System with a series of events and promotional materials. The Wild & Scenic Westfield River Committee seeks an Event Planner to assist us with our 25th and 50th Wild & Scenic Anniversaries outreach and events in 2018. Proposals will be accepted until filled with an initial review to begin on September 28th, 2017. RFQ Details here.
Environmental Health Manager
Pioneer Valley Asthma Coalition | Springfield, MA
Primary Objective
Partners for a Healthier Communities (PHC)’ Environmental Health Manager (listed on the Baystate Health website (as “Community Health Planning/Environmental Health) is responsible for the planning, program development, and evaluation of environmental health and other projects, including assistance to subcontractors and community partners allied with the agency in this these efforts. The environmental health initiative will focus on a variety of types of projects, including the management of the Pioneer Valley Asthma Coalition, systems and policy change, and collective impact. The Environmental Health Manager will cultivate and strengthen strategic community partnerships and alliances between local, regional, and state-level coalitions and advocacy organizations; community-based nonprofit corporations; and business, social, educational, and health entities.
Role of the Environmental Health Manager
The position’s role typically involves grantwriting and reporting, leading environmental health projects, and convening as necessary community partners and clients to achieve the needed goals of projects. Partnerships could be with sectors such as faith, business, education, academic, healthcare, social sector entities.
In particular, the position implements programming for initiatives to improve the health of people enrolled in the project:
- Develops programs and services that promote best and emerging practices for the environmental health area. Designs and implements collaborative strategies with community partners and collaborators such as social organizations, faith communities, community-based organizations and so on;
- Assists in strategic thinking, research and evaluation and program planning to achieve the corporation’s strategic goals and objectives assigned to the Consultant. In this area, the Consultant is primarily responsible for implementing strategies such as providing training and technical assistance to help prioritize issues and develop community partnerships, utilizing data to execute new initiatives, evaluate results and communicate progress.
- Provides facilitative leadership to fellow community leaders, and offers opportunities and/or shares experiences, perspectives and expertise on issues such as partnership development, meeting planning, facilitation, and conflict management;
- Provides facilitative leadership to the project team in action planning including steps and/or activities to address the priority areas, and implementing actions with a timeline, identifiable milestones and evaluation measures;
- Oversee subcontractors when necessary and student interns;
Performance Expectations
It is expected that the Environmental Health Manager will work under the general supervision of the Director of Programs & Development.
The Environmental Health Manager’s work entails the day-to-day management (including planning, directing and organizing staff, programming and funding responsibility) of Environmental Health programs and activities.
- Programs will meet the objective of the strategic goals and objectives of PHC.
- Coalition-building activities will adhere to PHC standards.
- In establishing community programs, planning will adhere to a community health planning methodology and the planning processes will result in high quality successful programs.
- Community programs and issues will undergo regular assessments and review based on published reports on internal and external environmental issues related to the corporations health priority areas.
Education and Experience
- Bachelor’s Degree in Public Health, Public Administration, Public Policy or related field required. Master’s level college degree in these areas is preferred.
- Applicant must have five years of relevant experience in a role of a program manager or supervisor in a public health or human service program. Five years of relevant experience in a role equivalent to a Program Director of a major public health program is preferred.
Core Competencies
The high visibility of this position, both internally and externally, requires that the Environmental Health Manager have
- Experience designing and implementing program and initiative planning;
- Highly proficient writing skills;
- Strong interpersonal, facilitation and collaborative planning skills;
- Proven abilities to work with and within teams;
- Strong written and oral communication skills; bilingual preferred
- A high degree of computer literacy;
- Demonstrated use of community problem-solving skills;
- Demonstrated facilitative leadership experiences in a community setting; and
- Strong understanding of the public health environment (including asthma and environmental health) and the healthcare environment.
- Strong public presentation skills
About Partners for a Healthier Community
Partners for a Healthier Community, the Public Health Institute of Western Massachusetts, provides skills, expertise and experience to create successful public health campaigns and sustainable system changes to improve health and well-being in Western MA. Through partnerships, we build on community assets and build community capacity to positively impact social determinants of health. Our services include Research and Assessment, Coalition-building, Program Evaluation and Health Policy Development. PHC is a 501 (c) (3) nonprofit with a 20 member Board of Directors and relies on state, federal and private grants and contracts. PHC contracts with Baystate Health for Human Resources services.
TO APPLY: Candidates for PHC’s Environmental Health Manager (Community Health Planning Consultant/Environmental Health) should apply through Baystate Health’s job portal at https://www.baystatehealthjobs.com/job/springfield/community-health-planning-consultant-environmental-health-full-time/156/5671580
Campus Organizer
PIRG Campus Action | Western MA
FULL TIME CAREER POSITION
At PIRG Campus Action, our full time organizers work on college campuses across the country to empower students to make a difference on critical environmental and social issues.
If we’re serious about climate change, we can’t afford to drag our feet—so we’re pushing cities and states to commit to 100% renewable energy, now. We rely on bees to pollinate our food, yet we’re allowing some pesticides to drive them toward extinction—so we’re working to ban these bee-killing pesticides. People in our communities and even students on college campuses are dealing with hunger and homelessness that affect their quality of life. We’re raising funds, toiletries, and food items for our local relief agencies – as well as holding fundraisers for Hurricane Relief for the communities in TX, FL, and the Caribbean who were hit from the recent natural disasters.
We’re looking for an individual who has the passion and the drive it takes to win positive change on these important issues, and who isn’t afraid of hard work. Ideally, this person has experience working on campaigns or with groups on campus. Our Berkshires organizer will mobilize a team of passionate students to run a campus chapter on two campuses in Western MA. You’ll recruit dozens of students to volunteer and get involved, and teach them how to plan and run effective campaigns through internships and on-the-ground training.
You’ll build relationships with faculty and administrators, while organizing news events and rallies, and generating the grassroots support it takes to win campaigns. During the summer, you’ll run a citizen outreach office, building the organization by canvassing and training others to canvass. And you’ll learn from some of the best organizers in the country—people who have been doing this work for more than 30 years.
Location: Western MA (organizing at Berkshire Community College and Mass College of Liberal Arts)
We’re also hiring organizers to work on college campuses in California, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Oregon and a few other states.
Pay & benefits
The target annual compensation for this position is $26,000 in the first year with room for advancement and salary increase with further commitment. We also offer a competitive benefits package including vacation days, health care, and undergraduate student loan repayment for those who qualify. We are unmatched in our entry-level organizer training program.
Apply here today or contact Samantha@masspirgstudents.org directly with any inquiries or recommendations for candidates.
Regional Recycling Coordinator
City of Pittsfield | Pittsfield, MA
The Municipal Assistance Coordinator for the Western District (WE) provides technical assistance to municipalities to increase recycling, composting, waste reduction, household hazardous waste diversion and regional cooperation. The City of Pittsfield has been awarded a Host Community grant from the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection (MassDEP) to fund this position.
The Coordinator will act under the supervision of the MassDEP and will serve 100 municipalities in a district known as “Western”. The district extends from Ware to Richmond. For a map and list of communities in the district, please visit: http://www.mass.gov/dep/recycle/reduce/macmap.htm
This is an independent contractor position. The position is funded at 36 hours per week, with an annual ceiling of 1,800 hours. Annual compensation is commensurate with experience, starting at not less than $55,000. An additional $5,000 annual reimbursement is provided for self-employment tax (Social Security and Medicare). Use of personal vehicle is required. Vehicle mileage, tolls and parking =will be reimbursed. Limited funding for in-state professional conferences is also provided.
DEADLINE TO APPLY: Friday, September 8, 2017 @ 4:00PM
Full listing and application details here.
Conservation Projects Manager
Housatonic Valley Association | Cornwall Bridge, CT
The Housatonic Valley Association (HVA) is seeking a highly motivated, detail-oriented environmental professional to join our Watershed Conservation Team. The successful candidate will support all aspects of HVA’s conservation projects, which include (but aren’t limited to) environmental monitoring, regional road-stream crossing assessment and replacement planning, watershed management planning, stream corridor restoration, stormwater management through Green Infrastructure development, and environmental education. This position is based out of HVA’s Connecticut office.
This is only a part of the job description. To view the full descriptions and to apply, click here.
Director of Ecological Restoration
MA Department of Fish & Game | Boston, MA
The Division of Ecological Restoration is charged with restoring and protecting the health and integrity of the Commonwealth’s rivers, wetlands, and watersheds for the benefit of people and the environment. This mission is critical to the success of the Department of Fish and Game that manages, protects, and restores the natural resources of the Commonwealth.
The Division of Ecological Restoration works with community-based partners to restore aquatic ecosystems. The Division’s ecological restoration work brings clean water, recreation opportunities, and other ecosystem services to the citizens of Massachusetts.
The Director leads the Division of Ecological Restoration, one of three Divisions (and one Office) of the Department of Fish and Game. The Director is responsible for all functions and program performance ensuring that the Deputy Director is properly managing the day-today operations of the Division and the assistant director is administering annual budgets properly. The Director develops and makes sure the annual and five-year strategic plan goals are implemented and sets procedures and program priorities for the Deputy Director and Assistant Director to faithfully administer. The Director oversees development of the operational and capital budgets and manages a diverse staff.
This is only a small part of the job description. Click here to read the full description and to apply.
Various Positions at Co-op Power
Co-op Power in Florence, MA, is hiring for:
- Chief Executive Officer
- Energy Efficiency Program Manager
- Community Solar Program Director
- Energy Efficiency Intern
- Community Solar Interns
Full details and how to apply here.
2017-18 Position Openings with TerraCorps – Various locations
TerraCorps, formerly MassLIFT-AmeriCorps, is an innovative national service program helping communities conserve and secure land for the health and well-being of people and nature. This year we are looking for 36 members to serve in full-time, 11 month positions. Members will carry out capacity building projects; educate or train individuals; recruit, train, manage, and support community volunteers engaged in land-based activities; and identify new individuals and groups to participate in education, recreation, or service opportunities centered around land access and conservation.
Members serve as: Land Stewardship Coordinators, Regional Conservation Coordinators, Youth Education Coordinators, or Community Engagement Coordinators.
These 1,700 hour AmeriCorps positions receive a living allowance, education award, and additional AmeriCorps benefits. The 2017-2018 program will run from 8/28/17 – 7/27/18.
Application specifics, position descriptions, and information about organizations hosting TerraCorps members can be found at here.
Applications will be accepted until all positions are filled.
AmeriCorps programs provide equal service opportunities. TerraCorps will recruit and select persons in all positions to ensure a diverse and inclusive climate without regard to any particular status. We encourage applications from individuals with disabilities and will provide reasonable accommodations for interviews and service upon request. TerraCorps is a grant program of the Corporation for National and Community Service.