Bridgeport/West Haven WildLife Guard Crew Leader

Position Summary

Bridgeport, CT is known as the Park City for its many public parks. Pleasure Beach, Seaside Park, and Beardsley Park are the largest and in addition to providing opportunities for city residents to enjoy the outdoors, are vital to birds. Pleasure Beach is a nesting site for the federally threatened Piping Plover and the state threatened Least Tern, as well as four CT state listed plant species. Beardsley Park provides important migratory songbird stopover habitat and Seaside Park provides resting and foraging opportunities to migrating waterbirds. Sandy Point Beach & Bird Sanctuary in West Haven, CT is one of the most significant mainland nesting areas in the state for Piping Plover and Least Tern, and the state threatened American Oystercatcher. It is a popular site amongst anglers and local residents looking for a beautiful walk along the shore. To ensure that these birds have the opportunity to nest successfully, rest, and refuel during migration, Audubon Connecticut, in partnership with the cities of Bridgeport and West Haven, created the WildLife Guards Program. The program trains, mentors, and employs crews of eight local high school students to monitor nesting shorebirds, restore habitat, and engage visitors, families, and friends about the parks and their wildlife.

This is a seasonal, full-time position (30-hrs/week) starting June 16th and going through August 22nd. Note: Audubon staff will provide two weeks of paid training to crew leaders at the beginning of the WildLife Guards program.

Compensation:

$18.50 / hour

Essential Functions

The WildLife Guard Crew Leaders, through training and supervision of high schools students participating in Audubon’s youth programs, will assist conservation scientists with the monitoring and stewardship of critical shoreline habitat. This position is ideal for an early career professional. Crew Leader duties include:

• Mentoring, motivating, and inspiring the students working as part of the employment program.

• Facilitating team building and helping students work through challenging situations.

• Developing and implementing public outreach programs (e.g., nature walks, seine netting, touch tank, scavenger hunt, arts and crafts, tabling).

• Creating a schedule of activities (e.g., outreach programs, bird monitoring, and habitat restoration work) to be performed weekly by students.

• Developing lessons and pre/post tests for students.

• Tracking program metrics (e.g., number of people engaged, materials distributed, pledges to protect birds signed and hours spent monitoring site.)

• Working with students to update and provide content for applicable Audubon CT social media.

• Collecting and entering data into online databases.

• Writing weekly reports detailing management activities at each site.

• Coordinating monitoring efforts with other Audubon CT staff and partners.

• Organizing and leading volunteer events.

• Additional duties may be assigned to support other aspects of the youth employment program.

Qualifications and Experience

• Desirable candidates will be available from June 16th through August 22nd, 2025.

• Crew Leaders must be responsible, mature, and able to serve as mentors to the students.

• Coursework in the active pursuit of a degree in biology, wildlife management, or related field preferred.

• Experience supervising high school aged students preferred.

• Experience leading environmental education and public outreach highly desirable

• Experience and ability to communicate clearly via written, spoken and graphical means along with responding to communications in a prompt and timely manner. Crew Leaders should be comfortable interacting with students, their families, the public, and project partners.

• Good planning skills and a flexible approach to work desired. In the event of poor weather, Crew Leaders will need to keep their teams informed and plan to work with them on a pre-determined rainy day location when fieldwork is not possible.

• Proficiency with Microsoft Office Suite software required.

• Weekend work will be required.

• Knowledge of waterbirds & native/invasive plant species found in CT is desirable.

• Knowledge of coastal ecosystems is desirable.

• Fluency in Spanish a plus.

• Must be physically fit, able to walk in a variety of coastal terrain and able to lift/carry at least 30lbs with or without accommodation.

• Crew Leaders are required to successfully complete an Audubon provided Basic First Aid/CPR certification course during the first week of training.

• Interest in conservation and commitment to the mission of the National Audubon Society.

EEO Statement

The National Audubon Society is a federal contractor and an Equal Opportunity Employer (EOE). All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability or protected veteran status. We are committed to a policy of nondiscrimination, inclusion and equal opportunity and actively seek a diverse pool of candidates in this search.

Accessibility Statement

The National Audubon Society endeavors to keep our careers site accessible to any and all users.  If you would like to contact us regarding the accessibility of our website or need assistance completing the application process, please contact Accommodations@audubon.org. This contact information is for accommodation requests only and cannot be used to inquire about the status of applications.