Regional Supervisor/Coastal Region Steward – Division of Natural Heritage – Position 00910 (VA Eastern Shore)

The Coastal Region (CR) consists of the Virginia Eastern Shore (Lower Delmarva Peninsula) including Northampton and Accomack counties, plus the cities of Virginia Beach, Chesapeake, Portsmouth and Norfolk in Tidewater Virginia. The region is one of seven Stewardship Regions designated by DCR’s Virginia Natural Heritage Program. The CR is bordered by Maryland on the north, the Atlantic Ocean on the east, the Chesapeake Bay and Suffolk City to the west, and North Carolina on the south. The 20-mile long Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel connects the northern and southern portions of the region. The Coastal Region contains 12 state natural area preserves. Ten of these are owned and managed by DCR, with the remaining two owned by The Nature Conservancy and co-managed with DCR. Most CR preserves have either Atlantic Ocean or Chesapeake Bay water frontage. Two are Atlantic barrier islands and two are Chesapeake Bay marsh islands, with all four of these requiring boat/water access. False Cape is a state park that has also been dedicated as a state natural area preserve, but is primarily managed by DCR’s Division of State Parks. Four land-accessible preserves on the Eastern Shore have public access facilities. Important natural heritage resources protected by CR preserves include habitat for federally-listed animal species, shorebird breeding habitat, migratory songbird stopover habitat, and exemplary coastal natural communities. As of January 1, 2021, CR preserves encompass a total of 22,554 acres. The Regional Supervisor/Coastal Region Steward position office is located in the Virginia Dept. of Agriculture and Consumer Services Regional Office, located in Melfa, VA on the Eastern Shore.

The Regional Supervisor/Coastal Region Steward is responsible for a wide range of management activities on NAPs in the Coastal Virginia Region, with a special focus on providing Division leadership and expertise with coastal resource issues. In the role of Regional Supervisor the position oversees and facilitates natural areas management in the Coastal Region by supervising the Coastal Operations Steward, the Coastal Region Stewardship Technician (wage), as well as other wage positions and volunteers. The Regional Supervisor role oversees development and revision of preserve public access plans and oversees operations projects including public access facilities improvement and maintenance. In the Coastal Region Steward role, the position writes and updates preserve management plans, conducts biological monitoring including element occurrence updating, initiates invasive species control projects, coordinates volunteer stewardship teams to accomplish various aspects of natural areas management and serves as naturalist and interpreter at a variety of Eastern Shore and Tidewater preserves. The position also provides biological resource management expertise to benefit natural heritage resources on non-DCR lands on the Eastern Shore and in Tidewater, and provides technical consultations for natural area stewardship issues to a range of clients including federal, state, local, and private land managers and owners. The candidate must be able to work independently in remote areas.