Precision Silviculture Analyst

Precision Silviculture Analyst

Westervelt Forest Resources is committed to providing the highest quality products and services to our customers. Everything we do is based on the forest, and we have an unwavering commitment to protect and conserve our natural resources.

Each of the businesses in our Forest Resources division is guided by the principles of stewardship, sustainability and safety, and every decision we make is driven by those values.

Whether it is timber management, wildlife services or real estate, each department operates by maintaining focus on protecting and managing forests and their environments. We manage more than half a million acres across the southeastern United States, and we continue to build on our legacy of stewardship.

The Precision Silviculture Analyst position will work in the Land Information Services (LIS) group in the Forest Resources Division and will focus on supporting the management of forest resources on company-managed lands by maintaining a high level of Southeast US silviculture knowledge and conveying this knowledge to others in the division for application in the field in an economically optimal manner.

We are looking for an experienced Precision Silviculture Analyst to join our team at our Headquarters facility.

Primary Duties and Responsibilities:

-Reports to leadership on planned silviculture activities and modeled/expected returns from the associated silviculture costs. This will be done at least once per year.

-Transfer technology and knowledge to field managers to promote cost-effective silviculture practices on company timberlands. Biannual meetings, at a minimum, will be held with research updates so foresters can be made aware of best practices.

-Participate in and eventually serve as TWC liaison to the Forest Productivity Cooperative (FPC at NC State and VT) as well as participate in Plantation Research Management (PMRC at UGA) meetings and convey pertinent Coop findings to managers.

-Create and help manage company forest management data to improve silviculture activity decision-making.

-Create and manage custom decision support tools written primarily in R, Python or other programming languages. These tools will not only look at stand-level decisions, but sub-stand-level decisions.

-Continuously improve processes and provide training and support to ensure the effective deployment and use of forest management data and tools.

-Support The Westervelt Company's conformance with certification requirements and support management systems that enable the advancement of TWC's stewardship efforts.

-Perform or aid in performing analyses with remotely sensed data (e.g. imagery, LiDAR, etc.) directly or in conjunction with the Forest Geospatial Analyst.

-Support other (mainly analytical) projects undertaken within the LIS group.

Required Qualifications:

• Bachelor's degree in Forestry, with a strong knowledge of Silviculture in the Southeast US
• 3 to 4 years relevant experience
• Strong organizational and analytical skills
• Ability to script or code
• Works well in teams, both as a support member and lead
• Highly motivated and strong verbal communication skills
• Problem solver with the ability to quickly troubleshoot complex problems
• Available for limited travel not to exceed 10% of time
• Advanced knowledge of silvicultural tools and practices commonly deployed in the Southeast US
• Understanding of statistical analyses and modeling to answer complex forest management questions
• Experience creating, managing and analyzing geospatial data (knowledge of ESRI, QGIS, GRASS, R spatial packages and other geospatial tools essential)
• Experience taking research study results, critically evaluating the underlying analyses and conveying the results to in-the-field managers
• Experience building creative decision support data sets or tools to support cost-effective management practices

Preferred Experience:

• MS or PhD in Forestry (Silviculture emphasis)
• Experience coding R, Python, and/or SQL
• Familiarity with Shiny web applications builder
• Knowledge of forest mensuration, timberland appraisal, growth and yield models, timber supply and demand modeling and forestry operations
• Experience in processing remote sensed data (imagery or LiDAR)

The base salary range for this position is $84,000 - $126,000. Actual base salary is based on the experience and qualifications of the selected candidate.  The Hiring Manager is budgeting a range of $84,000 - $90,000 for this role.

Equal Opportunity Employer: Minority/Female/Disabled/Veteran/Gender Identity/Sexual Orientation