Last night I started watching Planet Earth and ended up staying awake later than I intended. This morning the same channel was on, and I ended up watching documentaries on Yellowstone. There aren’t many things that I find more fascinating than nature, so it’s easy for me to get caught up in these kinds of shows. It’s also why I think the work of The Nature Conservancy is so important. They’re an international non-profit organization based in Arlington, VA that is “the leading conservation organization working around the world to protect ecologically important lands and waters for nature and people.” The Nature Conservancy was founded in 1951, and since then they have grown their membership to more than 1 million people. The organization’s huge size gives it a ton of power and has enabled it to do some really amazing work.

Nature Over Nurture

Everything that The Nature Conservancy does is rooted in science. They gather facts first, and then they take action on a local and a global scale. That’s why they’ve been able to protect “more than 119 million acres of land and 5,000 miles of rivers worldwide.” What strikes me most about The Nature Conservancy is that they take a “non-confrontational, pragmatic” approach that sets them apart from some other conservation organizations. This may occasionally limit their short-term effectiveness, but it ensures that in the long run The Nature Conservancy will have the respect and legitimacy to continue protecting ecologically important lands and waters. If you want to dig deeper into this topic, you should really check out The Nature Conservancy’s Why We’re An Effective Nonprofit page. There’s a ton more to check out on The Nature Conservancy’s website (like How They Work and Where They Work), but I’ll leave the rest of the research to you. If you like what the organization is all about, check out their Careers page. They have some great opportunities for new or recent grads including (sorry I can’t link to the postings, but it’s a bad applicant tracking system):

• Burn Crew Technician (Glyndon, MN or Karlstad, MN or Center, ND or Clear Lake, SD)
• Philanthropy Coordinator (San Francisco, CA)
• Preserve Management Assistant – Prairie Forest Border Ecoregion (Cushing, MN)
• Seasonal Field Representative (Keene Valley, NY)
• Human Resources Coordinator (Austin, TX)
• Stewardship Field Assistant (Brunswick, ME)
• Prairie Recovery Specialist (Watson, MN)
• Conservation Coordinator (Anchorage, AK)
• Preserve Management / Bison Research Technician (Leola, SD)
• Grassland Bird Technician (Minor, ND)
• Digital Marketing Programmer Analyst (Arlington, VA)
• Stewardship Assistant (Choteau, MT)
• Communications Coordinator (Oklahoma City, OK)
• Assistant Land Steward (Letts, IA)

If you love nature and want to work at a non-profit, it would be hard to beat a gig with The Nature Conservancy. So take a look at these positions, and see if any are a good fit.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

• Nature.org
• Jobs at The Nature Conservancy
• About The Nature Conservancy
• Where The Nature Conservancy Works
• How The Nature Conservancy Works
• The Nature Conservancy’s Annual Reports
• The Nature Conservancy’s Blog
• The Nature Conservancy News

What do you know about The Nature Conservancy?

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• human resources
• Iowa
• Maine
• marketing
• Minnesota
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• outdoors
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