The Watershed Conservation Resource Center, with help from the Illinois River Watershed Partnership, is leading a workforce development program to build a pipeline of conservation professionals. Ozarks at Large’s Jack Travis has more in Northwest Arkansas.
Numerous groups are dedicated to caring for the environment and making our existence more sustainable. Now, two of those organizations, the Watershed Conservation Resource Center and the Illinois River Watershed Partnership, are building pathways for those interested in pursuing the same goals to work with area nonprofits in a more professional capacity. IRWP Associate Director Morgan Keeling says a small coalition of nonprofits got an opportunity to see this through.
"So we're really excited to partner with the Watershed Conservation Resource Center, the Beaver Watershed Alliance, the NWA Regional Planning Office, Metroplan and other partners to support a workforce development initiative. Our goal here is to get a pipeline of conservation professionals, and this is funded through the Climate Pollution Reduction Grants. Some of that $30-plus million that's coming to Northwest Arkansas to help improve our carbon pollution uptake."
She says the program is geared toward folks who want to work in conservation, but aren't sure of how to kick-start their career.
"So think a high school student who is trying to figure out whether college is the right investment for them, and they want to go out and they want to meet some organizations. So not only are you able to network and to really build a strong understanding of conservation in Northwest Arkansas and locally, you are actually able to meet with the employers that would be employing you in this work. So that's one angle for this.
"Another might be if you're graduating, let's say, with your science degree or your ag degree, and you really need to get that ground truth, that field experience to work with these plants and to work under the conditions. That's another great opportunity for this Conservation Associate track, which is through the Conservation Training Program, the Workforce Development Program."
Keeling says that the program will include a lot, like opportunities for you to network with other conservation organizations.
"We have tons of workshops, tons of opportunities for you to come and deep dive. So even if you're thinking, well, that could be good for me, but it's not quite time right now, I would say sign up for a workshop just to get a feel for it. If you love it, if you love the people that you meet, if you love working with our teams, then sign up for the Conservation Training Program. There's no cost to do this as well. We have the funding to support this program. So yeah, there's really no harm if you're interested in this and want to dive in and taking the time out to do it."
Interested people can soon go to the Jones Center and take some first steps. Ozarks at Large has recently reported on the center's green infrastructure project, through which the IRWP is installing a network of native deep-rooted rain gardens.
"We are installing some updates to the Jones Center. The Center for Nonprofits’ landscape, the little courtyard. If you go to the community clinic there in Springdale, or if you hit the Jones Center, there's this beautiful courtyard that's between those buildings. We have several rain gardens or sort of landscape projects that we've been working on. We installed phase one in spring, this spring, spring of 2026, and this is phase two. So this is a bigger portion of the landscape.
"What we're doing is going in and removing traditional turf grass. And then we're installing native plants that have deep roots so that they uptake more stormwater. And our overall goal here and with downtown Springdale, because Springdale has been such a great partner as have many of the entities down there, is to create a very visible network of stormwater treatment where we can demonstrate that installing one rain garden is a great idea. But truthfully, when you can build a network of treatment, that's where we're going to get the most benefit for the investment made into the installation. And we're also going to see the most ability for these native plants to colonize in our urban areas."
On Sept. 16, the IRWP is hosting a workshop called Landscaping with Native Plants at the Jones Center. Keeling says partnership staff will walk you step by step through the process they use to restore or reinvent an urban landscape.
"The morning of this workshop will be doing a deep dive into what kinds of plants do you put where. What types of landscape changes do you try to initiate? And then we'll go through a design process and that design process, you'll work with our IRWP technical staff to think through how you might approach a piece of landscape. We will either assign one or we'll have you bring one in, and then we will have lunch, and then we'll go out and we'll actually plant one of these so you can see firsthand how to get these plants in the ground, what it takes to provide the right level of mulch to water them in.
"And then we'll talk through what it will take to make these exist in the ground forever and what to expect over time. It typically takes these installations three to five years to be fully installed and to see them in their full glory. So yeah, we're excited to see this landscape transform and to help steward it over the next few years with the Jones Center.
"You can visit watershedconservation.org for more information about how you can get involved in the workforce development program. There, you'll be able to see what courses are listed in the curriculum and also what elective opportunities are available. And then you can sign up through that form, through a Google form. You'd then be connected with Kelley Beth Paul at the Watershed Conservation Resource Center, who is going to help guide you through the back end of the program, how to log your credits, how to stay on track with the program, what the program requirements are."
You can visit watershedconservation.org for more information about how you can get involved in the workforce development program, and for more information about IRWP events, go to irwp.org. Keeling encourages anyone who loves working outside and protecting the environment to engage with them.
"I wish that something like this had been available when I started my career in conservation. It's been about six years on the job for me of learning this. And so I'm really excited to be able to bring this information in a structured way to the public and start getting more people in these jobs because truthfully, conservation is an incredibly rewarding career. And I think if more students, if more young people knew about it as an opportunity, that they would be all over trying to help us meet these missions to restore our landscapes and reduce nutrient pollution in the water. For us at IRWP, that's what we're working on."
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