Example Career: Environmental Restoration Planners

Career Description

Collaborate with field and biology staff to oversee the implementation of restoration projects and to develop new products. Process and synthesize complex scientific data into practical strategies for restoration, monitoring or management.

What Job Titles Environmental Restoration Planners Might Have

• Coastal and Estuary Specialist
• Executive Director
• Project Manager
• Watershed Coordinator

What Environmental Restoration Planners Do

• Collect and analyze data to determine environmental conditions and restoration needs.
• Develop and communicate recommendations for landowners to maintain or restore environmental conditions.
• Plan environmental restoration projects, using biological databases, environmental strategies, and planning software.
• Communicate findings of environmental studies or proposals for environmental remediation to other restoration professionals.
• Conduct site assessments to certify a habitat or to ascertain environmental damage or restoration needs.
• Develop environmental restoration project schedules and budgets.
• Create habitat management or restoration plans, such as native tree restoration and weed control.
• Supervise and provide technical guidance, training, or assistance to employees working in the field to restore habitats.
• Apply for permits required for the implementation of environmental remediation projects.
• Create diagrams to communicate environmental remediation planning using geographic information systems (GIS), computer-aided design (CAD), or other mapping or diagramming software.
• Identify short- and long-term impacts of environmental remediation activities.
• Provide technical direction on environmental planning to energy engineers, biologists, geologists, or other professionals working to develop restoration plans or strategies.
• Conduct environmental impact studies to examine the ecological effects of pollutants, disease, human activities, nature, and climate change.
• Conduct feasibility and cost-benefit studies for environmental remediation projects.
• Review existing environmental remediation designs.
• Develop natural resource management plans, using knowledge of environmental planning or state and federal environmental regulatory requirements.
• Identify environmental mitigation alternatives, ensuring compliance with applicable standards, laws, or regulations.
• Inspect active remediation sites to ensure compliance with environmental or safety policies, standards, or regulations.
• Create environmental models or simulations, using geographic information system (GIS) data and knowledge of particular ecosystems or ecological regions.
• Notify regulatory or permitting agencies of deviations from implemented remediation plans.
• Develop environmental management or restoration plans for sites with power transmission lines, natural gas pipelines, fuel refineries, geothermal plants, wind farms, or solar farms.

What Environmental Restoration Planners Should Be Good At

• Oral Comprehension - The ability to listen to and understand information and ideas presented through spoken words and sentences.
• Written Comprehension - The ability to read and understand information and ideas presented in writing.
• Oral Expression - The ability to communicate information and ideas in speaking so others will understand.
• Written Expression - The ability to communicate information and ideas in writing so others will understand.
• Deductive Reasoning - The ability to apply general rules to specific problems to produce answers that make sense.
• Inductive Reasoning - The ability to combine pieces of information to form general rules or conclusions (includes finding a relationship among seemingly unrelated events).
• Problem Sensitivity - The ability to tell when something is wrong or is likely to go wrong. It does not involve solving the problem, only recognizing there is a problem.
• Information Ordering - The ability to arrange things or actions in a certain order or pattern according to a specific rule or set of rules (e.g., patterns of numbers, letters, words, pictures, mathematical operations).
• Near Vision - The ability to see details at close range (within a few feet of the observer).
• Speech Recognition - The ability to identify and understand the speech of another person.
• Speech Clarity - The ability to speak clearly so others can understand you.

What Environmental Restoration Planners Should Be Interested In

• Realistic - Realistic occupations frequently involve work activities that include practical, hands-on problems and solutions. They often deal with plants, animals, and real-world materials like wood, tools, and machinery. Many of the occupations require working outside, and do not involve a lot of paperwork or working closely with others.
• Investigative - Investigative occupations frequently involve working with ideas, and require an extensive amount of thinking. These occupations can involve searching for facts and figuring out problems mentally.
• Enterprising - Enterprising occupations frequently involve starting up and carrying out projects. These occupations can involve leading people and making many decisions. Sometimes they require risk taking and often deal with business.

What Environmental Restoration Planners Need to Learn

• Biology - Knowledge of plant and animal organisms, their tissues, cells, functions, interdependencies, and interactions with each other and the environment.
• English Language - Knowledge of the structure and content of the English language including the meaning and spelling of words, rules of composition, and grammar.
• Geography - Knowledge of principles and methods for describing the features of land, sea, and air masses, including their physical characteristics, locations, interrelationships, and distribution of plant, animal, and human life.
• Law and Government - Knowledge of laws, legal codes, court procedures, precedents, government regulations, executive orders, agency rules, and the democratic political process.
• Administration and Management - Knowledge of business and management principles involved in strategic planning, resource allocation, human resources modeling, leadership technique, production methods, and coordination of people and resources.
• Design - Knowledge of design techniques, tools, and principles involved in production of precision technical plans, blueprints, drawings, and models.
• Mathematics - Knowledge of arithmetic, algebra, geometry, calculus, statistics, and their applications.
• Computers and Electronics - Knowledge of circuit boards, processors, chips, electronic equipment, and computer hardware and software, including applications and programming.
• Engineering and Technology - Knowledge of the practical application of engineering science and technology. This includes applying principles, techniques, procedures, and equipment to the design and production of various goods and services.