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THIS IS WHO WE ARE
Wilderness Workshop is a community-based organization working to protect the public lands of Colorado’s Western Slope and build an engaged constituency in support of public land conservation and stewardship. We rely on science, grassroots activism, communications, and law and policy as the primary tools in our toolbox. Our geography is centered on the White River National Forest and the Colorado River Valley, and from our office in Carbondale we work to defend and protect treasured landscapes such as the Thompson Divide, Flat Tops, Roan Plateau, and North Fork Valley.

Founded in 1967, Wilderness Workshop has earned a national reputation for passionate, strategic advocacy, effective grassroots activism and scientific authority. We are a trusted leader in the conservation community, and we work collaboratively with local, regional and national partners toward a shared vision for a healthy, ecologically intact planet.

We are committed to ensuring public lands are accessible and enjoyable for all, and that equity and justice are centered in public lands management. As an organization we are similarly working to become more inclusive and diverse and ensure we, and our work, are representative of the communities we serve.
We now seek a passionate, committed, dynamic Communications Manager to join our highly talented team.
Glen Randall Wilderness Workshop protects the wilderness, water, and wildlife of Western Colorado’s public lands. 

THIS IS HOW THE COMMUNICATIONS MANAGER MAKES A DIFFERENCE

Wilderness Workshop’s mission is to protect the wilderness, water, and wildlife of western Colorado’s public lands. At its core, our work consists of convincing land managers, Congress, local elected officials and the public to make conservation-minded decisions regarding our public lands. Strategic and effective advocacy communications are vital to advancing our conservation goals. The Communications Manager plays a leadership role at Wilderness Workshop, guiding and implementing our advocacy communications strategy and pursuing innovative strategies and tactics to benefit our mission-driven work.

The Communications Manager collaborates closely with Wilderness Workshop’s conservation team to strengthen our major campaigns and conservation efforts. A key part of this work is telling the story of our work, our community, and our landscape in the media to craft a compelling narrative for public land protection and build political power for conservation. In addition to leading our media strategy, the Communications Manager develops messaging for our priority campaigns and issues, engages with national coalitions to align communications strategies, creates content for our member communications, and manages our online assets.

THIS IS WHAT SUCCESS LOOKS LIKE AT WILDERNESS WORKSHOP

We engage in a wide range of issues to achieve our mission, and there’s no shortage of exciting efforts underway at any given time. Here are some of the things we’re particularly proud of right now:

Protecting the Thompson Divide
- After more than a decade of activism, our community secured a 20-year ban on new oil and gas leasing in the Thompson Divide in 2024. We’re now working to pass federal legislation to permanently protect the area through the Colorado Outdoor Recreation and Economy (CORE) Act.

Defiende Nuestra Tierra
- Seven years ago we launched our Defiende Nuestra Tierra (Defend Our Land) initiative to build relationships with the Roaring Fork and Colorado River Valley’s Latino
communities and partner with those communities to protect public lands. The initiative has achieved a number of successes, including launching the first ever Spanish-language map of public lands in region, working with the Forest Service to install 26 bilingual signs in the Maroon Bells Snowmass Wilderness, and receiving the Forest
Service’s “Cultural Diversity Award” for our annual ¡Celebremos al Aire Libre! event, which brings together large
numbers of participants from across the region to celebrate and experience our local public lands.

No dams in wilderness
- Our work continues to fight and organize against a proposal to build a dam that could inundate the Holy Cross Wilderness and divert Western Slope water to the Front Range. Each year we help host an event that documents the rich biodiversity in the area’s extensive wetlands.

Defending 2 million acres in western Colorado
- Oil and gas development needs to be on an equal footing with conservation. On roughly two million acres in western Colorado, from the Upper Colorado River to the Utah line, we fought for protections for iconic landscapes and ensured oil and gas development will be limited for the next 20 years.
Protecting wildlife Defending the North Fork Thompson Divide

Advocating for local wilderness

- We’ve galvanized a movement in our surrounding counties to designate new wilderness areas as well as increase protections for existing landscapes. We are actively working with stakeholders and local groups to ensure all voices are heard by our state legislators.

THIS IS WHAT IT TAKES TO DO THE JOB

We are a mission driven organization and believe communications is a critical strategy in achieving our goals. Qualified candidates will have a proven track record of utilizing advocacy communications to achieve an organization’s programmatic goals or campaign outcomes. Excellent writing and creative storytelling skills are critical to this job. Ideal candidates will have experience working with the media, expertise in advocacy campaign work, and knowledge of public land conservation. Sometimes the nature of our work demands rapid media response to events out of our control. A successful candidate can accommodate some flexibility for rapid response communications needs and is comfortable managing competing priorities. We strongly encourage candidates of all backgrounds who can fulfill the primary responsibilities of this position (listed below) to apply.

WORKING AT WILDERNESS WORKSHOP AND LIVING IN OUR REGION

Wilderness Workshop offers its staff a close-knit, relatively casual work environment that is focused on results and impact. We are passionate about our work, creative, and like to work collaboratively, both internally and externally. Successful members of the team are self-starters, life-long learners, community builders, and enjoy the nimbleness of a smaller organization that acts quickly to take advantage of new opportunities. English is the predominant language spoken around the office and in meetings both internally and with partner organizations.

The Roaring Fork Valley stretches from the top of Independence Pass, through Aspen and Carbondale to the confluence with the Colorado River at Glenwood Springs. The breadth and depth of recreation and cultural amenities found in our community are second to none. Every town in our region provides incredible access to public lands and nearly endless opportunities to ski, snowshoe, hike, bike, fish, camp, climb and kayak just out the back door. In addition to outdoor opportunities, nationally recognized art and cultural institutions, unique businesses, a mix of public and private educational institutions (public, private, and non-traditional for both K-12 and higher education), places of worship, and many nonprofits and volunteer opportunities are all found in the area.

Wilderness Workshop is headquartered in Carbondale, which offers a community-oriented, small-town feel, nestled in the larger Roaring Fork Valley. With many events and networking opportunities, the growing community extends visitors and new residents a hearty welcome. While finding housing can be challenging, there is a growing housing stock and a variety of options and opportunities, from downtown Carbondale to more rural settings or other towns within a 20-45 minute drive.