Washington Department of Natural Resources Seeks Post-Fire Recovery Program Manager

Recruitment #2022-8-A190

Full-time, Permanent, Represented position

Location: Natural Resources Building- Olympia, WA

 

The Department of Natural Resources (DNR) has an exciting opportunity within our Forest Resilience Division’s Post-Fire Recovery Program.

Are you someone who loves the outdoors? Do you have significant wildland fire, community engagement, and/or program management experience? Do you enjoy collaborating with others and working with partner organizations to build programs? As the Post-Fire Recovery Program Manager you will be on the leading edge of a developing a new program to support communities and partners to improve forest health and resilience throughout the state after wildfire events. In this highly collaborative leadership role you will be guiding the agency and partners in planning and implementing post-fire recovery efforts that will improve ecosystem resiliency as we work towards our 20-Year Forest Health Strategic Plan: Eastern Washington, Forest Action Plan, and 10-Year Wildland Fire Strategic Plan goals.

 

The Post-Fire Recovery Program is an integral part of a team that directly delivers on the Department of Natural Resources mission to manage, sustain, and protect the health and productivity of Washington’s lands and waters to meet the needs of present and future generations. The program works across all lands to coordinate and support post-fire recovery efforts including assessment, mitigation, restoration and long-term monitoring to sustain and increase the health and resilience of our forests and forest ecosystems and the values they support for the well-being of people, communities, wildlife and landscapes today and into the future. The program provides expertise and coordination in post-fire recovery for forest resilience from an all-lands perspective and in close coordination with community resilience work. The work is collaborative and highly leveraged with a particular focus on the intermediate (weeks-months) and long-term (months-years) phases of the post-fire recovery continuum in complement to the agency’s wildfire preparedness work and with deference to emergency management in the immediate and short-term timeframe within days of a wildfire event.

 

As part of the Forest Resilience Division, you will work alongside a talented cadre of professional planners, scientists, and implementers providing service to state, private, tribal, and federal partners to increase resiliency and health of Washington’s forests and landscapes. Within DNR, this position will facilitate close coordination, information sharing, leveraging of resources and shared vision for post fire recovery across DNR programs and Divisions in the agency including Aquatics, Forest Regulation, Forest Resources, Geology, and Wildland Fire Management Divisions.

 

 

The Post-Fire Recovery Program Manager is responsible for the successful development and implementation of any necessary DNR Post-Fire Recovery Policy and Procedures, achieving annual post-fire recovery deliverables, and implementation of relevant strategies and goals in the Washington Forest Action Plan and 20-Year Forest Health Strategic Plan: Eastern Washington. This position is responsible for staying up-to-date on state and nationwide post-fire recovery funding opportunities, regulatory processes, policies, and advancement efforts. The Program Manager acts as the agency’s expert on post-fire recovery restoration, and coordinates projects with internal and external stakeholders.

 

**Overseeing successful implementation of DNR’s coordination and funding of post-fire recovery projects related to forest health and resilience.

**Development and implementation of DNR’s internal post-fire recovery policies and serving as the agency’s Subject Matter Expert for post-fire recovery.

**Developing overall post-fire recovery communications strategy.

**Organize and coordinate post-wildfire recovery assessment efforts.

**Coordinate and form agreements with local, state, and federal agencies to ensure the necessary skills and jurisdictions are represented in post-wildfire recovery efforts.

**Coordinate regular training and workshops to establish a common understanding of protocols for post-fire recovery work.

**Develop policies and procedures for dispatch, response, and reporting of post-wildfire recovery efforts.

**Collecting and tracking post-fire recovery project implementation and monitoring data.

**Communicating the results of post-wildfire recovery effort to affected communities, and local, state, and federal partners.

**Establish and maintain contracted service partnerships with local and state agencies, and formal agreements with federal partners.

**Utilize the skills and technical resources within local conservation districts, counties, and other state agencies to ensure an appropriate level of expertise is brought to each post-fire assessment.

**Formalize agreements with federal partners to address situations where fire perimeters cross boundaries between private, state, and federal property.

**Working with partners in DNR priority landscapes to implement priority, and as appropriate cross-boundary, post-fire recovery projects to improve forest and landscape resilience.