Run a Preserve. Blaze Your Own Trails.  grandprairiefriends.org
PRESERVE MANAGER — Warbler Ridge Conservation Area Grand Prairie Friends | Charleston, Illinois | Full-time, year-round 
Salary: $49,000 – $52,000, depending on experience  

Grand Prairie Friends is looking for someone to take the lead on the ground at Warbler Ridge Conservation Area — our largest preserve in East-Central Illinois. 
This is not a role where you carry out someone else's plan. You will set the burn schedule, direct the crew, decide where the herbicide goes and where it doesn't, and answer for what the land looks like in five years. About 80% of your time is at Warbler Ridge. The rest takes you across our ten-county service area, working prairie remnants, savanna, and bottomland forest that most people in Illinois will never see. If you are a crew lead or land manager who is tired of bouncing between contracts and wants one landscape to be genuinely responsible for, this is that job. 

What you'll do 

• Lead stewardship operations at Warbler Ridge: prescribed fire, invasive species control, seed collection and planting, tree-thinning, monitoring
• Supervise and develop seasonal staff, interns, crews, and volunteer stewards; run safe, competent field days
• Serve as burn boss or key burn crew leadership on GPF prescribed fire operations
•Work with the Natural Areas Manager to translate management plans into a real annual work calendar
• Operate and maintain the equipment fleet: tractors, UTVs, brush cutters, sprayers, fire gear
•Track and report management outcomes to inform the next season's decisions
•Represent GPF with neighbors, agency partners, contractors, and volunteers

What we're looking for 

Required: 

• Two or more years of hands-on natural areas management, including at least one year directing the work of others: crew lead, foreman, supervisor, or equivalent
• Broad Prescribed Fire experience
• Illinois pesticide applicator license, or the ability to obtain one within 3 months
• Working knowledge of prairie, savanna, and woodland systems and their management is preferred
• Comfort with field equipment, trailers, and the maintenance that keeps them running
• Valid driver's license and willingness to work outdoors in Illinois weather, including some weekends

Nice to have: 
• Burn Manager certification
• Illinois flora identification skills
• Experience with volunteer stewardship programs
• Chainsaw certification
• GIS or field data collection experience

We are more interested in someone who has done this work than in a specific degree. If you came up through crews rather than a graduate program, apply. 

Compensation and benefits 

• Salary $49,000 – $52,000, depending on experience
• Qualified Small Employer Health Reimbursement Account available
• SIMPLE IRA with employer match up to 3%
•Generous paid time off, paid holidays, bereavement and parental leave
• Paid office closure December 24 through January 1
• Dedicated professional development budget: training, certifications, conferences
•Annual safety equipment allowance and cell phone stipend
•Relocation assistance may be available

About living here 

Charleston is a college town of about 17,000 in East-Central Illinois, home to Eastern Illinois University. Housing costs a fraction of what it does in Chicago, Madison, or 
Minneapolis. You are ten minutes from the preserve you manage; one hour from Champaign/ Urbana University of Illinois and three hours from Chicago, St. Louis, and 
Indianapolis when you want a city. If you have been priced out of the metro conservation job market, the math works differently down here. 

About Grand Prairie Friends 
GPF is an accredited land trust protecting prairie, savanna, wetland, and forest remnants across ten counties in East-Central Illinois. We are small, which means less bureaucracy and more ownership. The land we protect is protected permanently. Our team is genuinely good to work with.