Full-time employment.
15.00 — 18.00 per hour + mileage reimbursements, phone reimbursements,
health insurance benefit optional; overtime for work more than 40 hours per week, ½ hour paid lunch for a six billable hour work day minimum. It is sometimes necessary, because we do contract and outdoor work, to work 9-10 hour days and/or weekends to meet deadlines in the high season.
This is a mid-level green industry position requiring either experience in the green industry or experience running a landscape crew and desire to be involved in green work. We have helped numerous employees advance their careers with people making moves from crew member/foreman/lead installer to designer in 4 years to moving on to habitat restoration, nursery operations, and non-profit stream/river/habitat restoration work after being with us for a number of years.
You would be improving water quality challenges facing the Chesapeake Bay by impacting the District watershed, planting native plants, encouraging pollinators, learning about our green industry and helping clean up the environment. You would also serve as a steward to those clients unfamiliar with the benefits of rain gardens and bayscapes. You would be working with a Chesapeake Bay Landscape Professional, and a certified installer of Interlocking Concrete Pavement. You could learn more/be involved in portable saw milling, the native plant nursery, landscape construction and/or maintenance.
Bona Terra is a small family run urban landscape design, maintenance, and installation business that specializes in bay-friendly rain gardens, conservation planting, growing and selling native plants, artistic installations, and careful maintenance. We prioritize organic, sustainable practices and protecting the local watershed. This would be a good position for people looking to expand their knowledge on conservation landscaping, sustainable construction and installation, native plant horticulture, ecology, and local ecosystem composition. We are expanding our business to now include a nursery, and starting in 2020, farmers market booths. Our team is small and friendly, our goal is quality rather than quantity.
Bona Terra is focused on providing a safe and healthy work environment for crew members and the foreman. Our training and work guidelines help everyone work in a safe and productive work style that minimized risk of injury due to the work that we perform. We are always looking for and are interested in our employees ideas and point of views when considering safe work practices.
We contract with The Alliance for the Chesapeake Bay and the District Department of Energy and Environment (DOEE) to install Rain Gardens and Bayscapes under the Riversmart Homes Program. These stormwater projects are designed and installed according to the DOEE requirements on residential properties that qualify for grants and rebate programs. As the foreman you will have to operate within DOEE, Alliance for the Chesapeake Bay, and Bona Terra guidelines.
You will be using email to schedule clients, submit photographs, talk about projects, and communicate with the designer. You would be working with 3 designers to lead installations of rain gardens, native plantings, light stonework, pavers, occasional wood work, nursery and maintenance. You must be able to drive and park large pickups in the city and large trucks with a dump bed. You will need to lead 1-2 crew members in loading trucks, pulling plants, reading designs, then installing them. Keep the site clean, neat and safe. Follow guides for proper installations. Keep crew safe including safe tool usage. Keep shop clean and do minor up keep of trucks and tools such as checking oil, keeping tires properly inflated, and ensuring hand tools, blowers and tillers are properly maintained.
You will be in charge of field work for up to two crews of two people each, 4- 5 days a week, for 10-12 months, with a weather dependent schedule in the winter. You will partner with designers and the office manager for scheduling, buying, and supplies.
On average, with assistance from the team, you will be doing 100-150 installations per year that are approximately 50-200 square feet in size. This would allow you to grow your skills as an installer at a much more rapid pace than a typical green job, making it ideal for someone who would value gaining experience quickly. Occasional office work is possible when the need arises. This could also be in the nursery, doing hardscape installation, at the farmers market booths or doing salvaged wood milling. Applicants with experience reading designs or experience leading crews will be given special consideration.
Applicants will be evaluated based on qualifications, and the person with the most qualifications will be offered the job.
You will have:
A clean driving record and experience driving for five years or more. A smart phone with sufficient data plan, we offer a phone stipend, so that you can use it for navigation, and taking before and after photos.
After training you will be able to:
On your own:
-Track and be responsible for personal hours.
-Measure a site, read a cross-section drawing and design.
-Be able to identify soil types and accurately assess amendments.
-Have a working assessment of water run-off and predictability.
-Know and use scientific plant names and common names and be familiar with their maintenance requirements.
-Be familiar with native plants and be interested in learning and memorizing the scientific names of plants, growing conditions, maintenance, division, re-seeding and common name of all the native plants on Bona Terra’s native plant list.
-Be able to park legally and in challenging circumstances for example parallel parking on busy streets and in tight alleyways.
-Must be able to present and maintain a professional appearance and communicate with clients, and vendors in a courteous, clear and timely manner.
In coordination with our designer and nursery manager:
-Be able to perform a perc test, or talk a client through the process of performing one, also with administrative manager.
-Be able to handle additional residential installations and work, with the help of the designer and upper management.
-Know how to install and maintain rain gardens and bayscapes, including downspout hook up, spillway, measuring berms, soil amendments, etc.
In coordination with our administrative manager:
Track and maintain files and paperwork.
We are a small tight-knit company and we work from a home office, you must be comfortable with a casual office environment, including a cat. We are an equal opportunities employer and will never deny someone employment based on sex, race, religion, gender-identity, age, marital status, abilities, pregnancy, or other applicable characteristics of self-identity. Bona Terra is a safe space, meaning we do not tolerate any level of harassment in our workplace and we treat our co-workers with respect and take action when boundaries have been crossed. We trust and use the scientific method to obtain verifiable facts in which we use to operate our business.
