Editorial 
This page was last updated on January 06, 2009 .

Enviros Are Hiring
by: Larry Walker, 10/24/98

Maintaining a website such as the RangeBiome, RangeNet, Range Watch complex is no small chore, and I have been neglecting this editorials section for quite some time. Either that, or I did not have an opinion about anything.

Being opinionated (and proud of it), I attribute the neglect to working on other items. One of those other items is culling through news and alerts from various "lists" for material to repost to my RangeTree County broadcast list, and to A Public Rangeland Forum. This is where I noticed that environmental organizations are advertising a lot of job openings lately.

Just within my limited sphere of operations, I have posted fifteen job announcements from various organizations to A Public Rangeland Forum since September first. I did a quick check of another online listing of environmental jobs that Envirolink maintains, Green Dream Jobs. There too, it appears that the number of environmental job announcements posted during October has been considerably above normal.

Late winter or early spring are the normal hiring seasons for environmental jobs, not fall. "Self", I said to myself, "What is going on?" So I looked a little closer at the jobs I had been posting to the forum. Low paying jobs? No. Jobs with major national organizations? No. Office help? No.

Most of the jobs I have been posting are for management positions at salaries generally ranging from $35,000 to $50,000 plus benefits! While perhaps not up to corporate standards, these salaries are definitely not starvation wages and are similar to what could be expected for similar jobs in the government sector. And, the organizations that are doing this hiring are local and regional organizations or coalitions of local and regional organizations! Clearly, something is going on here.

What did I find at Green Dream Jobs? Well, the folks at Envirolink are heavy hitters playing in a global market, so I found a different mix of the kinds of folks who are listing jobs there including corporations, universities, and some international organizations. The interesting thing was the number of corporations one would not think of as being a natural resource based business that are hiring environmental people, usually with the words "risk" and/or "assessment" as part of the job description. One that I found particularly interesting was from the brokerage house of  Salomon Smith Barney:

                          Posted 10/13/98:

                           Salomon Smith Barney

                           Social/Enviro Researcher, NYC

                           The investment firm of Salomon Smith Barney in New York wishes to hire a social research
                           analyst for its Asset Management Division.

                           The successful candidate will have a Bachelor's degree (MBA or CFA) and a minimum of
                           five related experience, preferably with a background in social and environmental policy, and
                           in asset management. The person should have a firm understanding of corporate social
                           responsibility issues (particularly environmental concerns); excellent research, writing &
                           presentation skills; eager to work with creative team within a large corp structure.
                           Responsibilities include researching major corps' records on environmental and social issues;
                           supporting SBAM's marketing. team on key social investment concepts; making client
                           presentations.

                           Resume & cover letter to
                           Dept. DK-LL,
                           Salomon Smith Barney,
                           388 Greenwich Street, 7th floor
                           New York, N.Y. 10013
                           fax (212) 816-2458
                           Or Contact, Angie Rivera Corp. Recruiting
                           ph. (212)-816-2480

I think it is clear that an increasing number of employers and corporations are beginning to "get it", and that the future is bright for the environmental movement.

While the life-blood of environmental organizations is still volunteerism, this trend toward a core of permanent, well paid staffs of professionals at the local and regional levels cannot help but strengthen the movement.

So, where is the money to hire these folks coming from? Perhaps mobilizing the opposition is the one and only contribution the 105th Congress has made to the environment! Will the backlash continue into the voting booth? One can hope.............AND VOTE!