Fellow, River Restoration for Wildfire Resilience

Description

ABOUT TROUT UNLIMITED

Trout Unlimited (TU) brings together diverse interests to care for and recover the rivers and streams on which we all depend. We are a national organization with 300,000 members and supporters organized into over 400 chapters and councils nationwide. Our dedicated grassroots volunteers are matched by a respected staff of organizers, lawyers, policy experts, and scientists, who work out of more than 25 offices across the country.

Position Summary

Trout Unlimited (TU) is seeking a highly motivated Fellow to provide essential internal coordination and support for our growing river restoration efforts aimed at building wildfire resilience across the Western U.S. This fellowship offers a unique opportunity to play a role in advancing and scaling nature-based solutions—such as low-tech process-based restoration—that enhance watershed moisture retention, reduce burn severity, mitigate post-fire erosion, and deliver co-benefits like improved water quality, flood risk reduction, and ecosystem health.

The Fellow will focus on behind-the-scenes coordination to ensure effective organization, knowledge sharing and the successful launch of new initiatives. Key responsibilities include reviewing and finalizing documents, tracking new science and research publications, maintaining contact lists, occasionally drafting internal and external communications, scheduling and organizing meetings and workshops, supporting convenings, sharing lessons learned, and helping to build a new Community of Practice’s online presence. This role demands strong communication skills, exceptional organization, and the ability to collaborate across teams to help embed river restoration more deeply into wildfire mitigation, recovery, and funding frameworks.

The Fellow will report directly to the Vice President of the Rocky Mountain Region and collaborate closely with the National Restoration Director, Senior Scientist, and staff across conservation, government affairs, communications, science, and other teams. This is an exciting entry point into a high-impact, emerging space within a leading conservation organization driving solutions at local, state, and national scales.

Duties And Responsibilities

This fellowship will include a mix of short-term tasks and projects, including but not limited to:

Internal Coordination & Communications Support
• Serve as a key point of coordination for river restoration projects focused on pre- and post-wildfire resilience, tracking project development, implementation status, and milestones across teams and partners.
• Review, edit, and finalize a wide range of documents, including website copy, blogs, reports, proposals, and meeting summaries, ensuring accuracy, clarity, and alignment with TU standards.
• Occasionally draft emails, memos, updates, and other communications for internal staff, consultants, partners, and external audiences.
• Support the organization and facilitation of meetings, workshops, and convenings; prepare agendas, take notes, manage follow-ups, and help ensure effective participation.
• Create engaging content (text, summaries, visuals, posts) and help with posting/updates on an online "hub" to build and support the emerging Community of Practice for wildfire-resilient river restoration.

Conservation Metrics & Impact Tracking
• Assist with tracking and analyzing TU’s annual conservation metrics, with emphasis on projects delivering pre- and post-wildfire outcomes.
• Help develop improved methods for monitoring, reporting, and using data to communicate TU’s impact in this space.

General Support & Cross-Team Collaboration
• Collaborate with conservation staff, science team, and other programs to support wildfire-related work within TU.
• Support the Rocky Mountain Vice President and other team members with additional tasks as needed and capacity allows.

This is not an all-inclusive list of duties and responsibilities.

Requirements

Required:
• Graduate student pursuing an advanced degree in a relevant field OR a recent graduate (within the past 12 months).
• Excellent written and oral communication skills.
• Experience with qualitative and quantitative research, ideally in fields such as forestry, natural resources planning, wildfire management, or spatial analysis/GIS
• Strong analytical skills and attention to detail.
• Proficiency in Microsoft Excel and other data collection, tracking and analysis tools.
• Ability to work independently, set priorities, and meet deadlines.
• High energy and a passion for water, people and conservation.

Preferred
• Passion for wildfire, and an eagerness to learn more about the nexus between wildfire and river and floodplain systems.
• Knowledge of on-the-ground conservation and restoration.
• A love of rivers or fly fishing is a plus!

Salary And Benefits

Staff and leadership at TU understand that life outside of work is important to personal health, and we strive to create a healthy and family-friendly atmosphere. This is a part-time fellowship. Compensation is $20/hour for up to 500 hours. The fellow may work between May and December 2026, with a schedule of at least 16 hours per week between June and August (with hours outside of the summer months being highly flexible). The exact schedule will be determined by the successful candidate and TU supervisor.

At TU, we value diversity, and we actively seek candidates for this position who come from communities that have been historically underrepresented in conservation and those who have been most impacted by degraded rivers and streams. We are committed to building space for all people to participate in our work to care for trout and salmon and clean our shared waters.

How To Apply

The deadline for applications is Friday, April 10th.

Please upload a resume and cover letter using TU's Paylocity application system linked below.

Apply tot his job

Apply To this Job

Ready to Apply?

Don't miss out on this amazing opportunity!