Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
Sierra Institute for Environment and Community, and Humboldt State University.
We are grateful to the many members of the North Coast restoration community
whose willing participation made this study possible. State, federal, and local agency
staffs were also invariably supportive of this project and contributed toward it in many
ways.
Notes
1. Employment information was collected in 2003 and again in 2008. Phone surveys with
more than seventy Humboldt County organizations, businesses, agencies, and tribes provided
the original data set for 2002, and the same methods were used to collect updated data for
2007. Information gathered in the phone surveys was used to determine the number of restora-
tion jobs and to calculate the full-time equivalents (FTEs) these jobs represented for each em-
ployment sector. There are three categories of restoration jobs: full-time, part-time, and sea-
sonal. Seasonal jobs are short duration (usually two months), full-time positions. Full-time and
part-time jobs are year round. Phone survey information concerning restoration job category,
duration, and number of hours was used to determine FTEs. For consulting firms and non-
profit organizations, we assumed that one FTE is the equivalent of forty-eight 40-hour weeks
(fifty-two weeks minus two weeks paid leave and two weeks holiday) or 1,920 hours. Definitions
of full-time work (the amount required in order to qualify for an annual pension credit and
health benefits) for construction and trade workers varies from 1,200 hours per year for the Car-
penters Union to 1,320 hours per year for the Operating Engineers Union. Due to the season-
ality of heavy equipment work in this region (restoration and otherwise), most operators con-
sider 1,300 hours of work to be a good year (Brian Bishop, pers. comm.). Accordingly, we
converted the estimates of time spent on restoration work by equipment contractors into FTEs
at the rate of 1,300 hours per FTE. Full-time, part-time, seasonal, and temporary positions
were included in our job estimates. We did not include any volunteer or other unpaid work.
2. These numbers do not include employment provided by the California Conservation
Corps and the Americorps Watershed Stewards Program. These two programs, which con-
tribute greatly to restoration activities in Humboldt County, provided close to fifty-four FTEs
in 2007. They were not included in the public sector employment figures because Conserva-
tion Corps and Americorp participants receive stipends, not wages.
3. Excluded contributions may include grants from small foundations and other funders
that we were not able to capture; in-kind contributions from landowners, such as materials,
heavy equipment, and labor; and restoration work embedded in extractive resource manage-
ment regimes, such as forestry.
4. Decreases in funding for watershed education are attributable in part to decreases in to-
tal DFG funding, as the pattern of education funding roughly parallels that of total DFG
funds.
References
Allison, S. K. 2007. “You Can't Not Choose: Embracing the Role of Choice in Ecological Res-
toration.”
Restoration Ecology
15 (4): 601-05.
California Employment Development Department. 2009. “Labor Market Information.” http://
www.labormarketinfo.edd.gov.
