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Botanist (Plant Propagation Specialist)

Department of the Interior
National Park Service
Olympic National Park
This job announcement has closed

Summary

This position is located located in Olympic National Park, in the Resources Management Division.

Open to the first 50 applicants or until 12/25/2020 whichever comes first. All applications submitted by 11:59 (EST) on the closing day will receive consideration.

Overview

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Hiring complete
Open & closing dates
12/14/2020 to 12/25/2020
This job will close when we have received 50 applications which may be sooner than the closing date. Learn more
Salary
$64,009 to - $83,210 per year
Pay scale & grade
GS 11
Location
Port Angeles, WA
1 vacancy
Telework eligible
Yes—as determined by the agency policy.
Travel Required
25% or less - You may be expected to travel for this position.
Relocation expenses reimbursed
Yes—Travel, transportation, and relocation expenses will be paid if the selectee lives outside of the local commuting area and is otherwise eligible for reimbursement of relocation expenses in accordance with the Federal Travel Regulation.
Appointment type
Permanent
Work schedule
Full-Time
Service
Competitive
Promotion potential
11
Job family (Series)
Supervisory status
Yes
Security clearance
Not Required
Drug test
No
Position sensitivity and risk
Non-sensitive (NS)/Low Risk
Trust determination process
Announcement number
PW-1545-OLYM-21-10980283-MP
Control number
586980600

This job is open to

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Clarification from the agency

Federal employees with status; Career transition eligibles; Veterans Employment Opportunities Act (VEOA eligibles), or who are 30% or more disabled; Land Management Workforce Flexibility Act eligibles; applicants eligible under special appointing authorities such as certain overseas employees or military spouses, Former White House staff; Peace Corps & AmeriCorps Vista; Foreign Service officers and employees; Schedule A; OPM Interchange Agreement or other noncompetitive authority.

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Duties

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The purpose of the position is to direct the park's plant propagation program, overseeing production of native plant materials to protect the ecological integrity of parklands. Interacts with enterprises and agencies producing native plants for the park under contracts or agreements; on-site planning and implementation of revegetation projects; monitoring of revegetated sites; and assistance in other projects related to vegetation and soil ecology and management, including evaluation of hazard trees. The position is supervised by the park's Supervisory Botanist.

Duties of the position include:

  • Director of the park's plant propagation program. Researches, develops, and documents plant propagation techniques through experiments, review of published information, and discussions with experts in restoration ecology and horticulture.
  • Plant Propagation Facility Operation and Revegetation Program Support
  • Recruits, supervises, and reviews work of nursery staff and volunteers.
  • Advises park staff concerning park revegetation projects and development of contract specifications, including project timing, optimal plant size or age for plantings, and locations for collection of genetically appropriate propagation material.
  • Acquires and maintains Washington State Certification as a Public Pesticide Applicator. Acquires and maintains certification as a Hazard Tree inspector. Collaborates with Supervisory Botanist
    and other park staff to carry out the park's hazard tree management program.



Requirements

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Conditions of employment

  • U.S. Citizenship required.
  • Appointment subject to background investigation and favorable adjudication.
  • Meet Selective Service Registration Act requirement for males.
  • Selectee will be required to participate in the Direct Deposit Electronics Funds Transfer Program.
  • You will be required to operate a government (or private) motor vehicle as part of your official duties; a valid driver's license is required. You will be required to submit a Motor Vehicle Operator's License and Driving Record. You must also submit (within a State sealed envelope or submitted directly by the State authorities), and at your own expense, all certified driving records from all States that disclose all valid driver's licenses, whether current or past, possessed by you.
  • You will be required to wear a uniform and comply with the National Park Service uniform standards. A uniform allowance will be provided.
  • You may be required to work on-call, evenings, weekends, holidays, overtime and shift work.
  • If you are a new employee or supervisor in the Federal government, you will be required to complete a one-year probationary period.
  • You may be required to travel overnight away from home up to 5 nights per month. You must obtain a government charge card for travel purposes.
  • You may be required to complete training and obtain/maintain a government charge card with travel and/or purchase authority.

Qualifications

All qualifications must be met by the closing date of this announcement-12/25/2020-unless otherwise stated in this vacancy announcement.

Credit will be given for all appropriate qualifying experience. To receive credit for experience, your resume MUST clearly indicate the nature of the duties and responsibilities for each position, starting and ending dates of employment (month/year), and the resume must reflect full and/or part-time or total number of hours worked (i.e., work 40+ hours a week, rather than indicating full-time). If part-time, the hours must be annotated to be able to pro-rate the amount of qualified specialized experience.

Basic Education Requirement:

  1. Degree: botany; or basic plant science that included at least 24 semester hours in botany -OR-
  1. Combination of education and experience: courses equivalent to a major in botany or basic plant science that included at least 24 semester hours in botany, as shown in A above, plus appropriate experience or additional education.
Candidates who do not meet this requirement by close of this announcement will receive no further consideration for this position.
- AND -
To qualify for this position at the GS-11 grade level, you must possess at least one of the following minimum qualifications by close of the announcement:

EXPERIENCE: At least one year of specialized professional experience equivalent to the GS-09 level in the Federal Service. Specialized experience is experience that equipped the applicant with the particular knowledge, skills, and abilities needed to successfully perform the duties of this position. Examples of qualifying specialized experience include duties such as: such as: (1) Propagating native plants in a greenhouse; (2) Familiarity with the flora and ecology of the Pacific Northwest; (3) Preparing written restoration or revegetation plans. You must include hours per week worked.
-OR-
EDUCATION: Successfully completed three years of progressively higher level graduate education leading to a Ph. D. degree or Ph. D. or equivalent doctoral degree in an accredited educational institution concentrated in a field that is directly related to the work of this position, such as in biological sciences, agriculture, natural resource management, chemistry, or related disciplines appropriate to this position.. You must include transcripts.
-OR-
Successful completion of a combination of education and experience as described above. For example, six months of the specialized experience equivalent to GS-09 (50 percent of the experience requirement for GS-11) and 30 semester hours or 45 quarter hours of appropriate directly related graduate education (50 percent of the education requirement). Add the percentages together. The total must equal at least 100 percent to qualify. You must include hours per week worked and transcripts.

Volunteer Experience: Experience refers to paid and unpaid experience, including volunteer work done through National Service programs (e.g., Peace Corps, AmeriCorps) and other organizations (e.g., professional; philanthropic; religious; spiritual; community, student, social). Volunteer work helps build critical competencies, knowledge, and skills and can provide valuable training and experience that translates directly to paid employment. You will receive credit for all qualifying experience, including volunteer experience.

Education

To qualify based on education, you must submit a legible copy of transcripts from an accredited institution with your name, school name, credit hours, course level, major(s), and grade-point average or class ranking. Transcripts do not need to be official, but if you are selected for this position and you used your education to qualify, you must provide official transcripts before you begin work.

If you are using education completed in foreign colleges or universities to meet qualification requirements, you must show that your education credentials have been evaluated by a private organization that specializes in interpretation of foreign education programs and such education has been deemed equivalent to that gained in an accredited U.S. education program; or full credit has been given for the courses at a U.S. accredited college or university.

Additional information

A selectee receiving a first appointment to the Federal Government (Civil Service) is entitled only to the lowest step of the grade for which selected The display of a salary range on this vacancy shall not be construed as granting an entitlement to a higher rate of pay.

This announcement may be used to fill additional positions if identical vacancies occur within 90 days of the issue date of the referral certificate.

Physical Demands: Work is divided between field and greenhouse (75%) and office (25%). Revegetation projectsinvolve coordination and supervision of employees and volunteers in the park wilderness and front country and may require driving to sites up to 150 miles from park headquarters. Wilderness work locations require hiking up to 12 miles per day to train and supervise staff or volunteers. Work in the plant propagation facilities require lifting plant flats and bags of soil and amendments (30 to 50 lbs.), periodic sterilization of greenhouse benches and tools, application of fertilizers, light carpentry, and outdoor plant maintenance work, often during inclement weather. Plant propagation often requires long periods of standing or sitting while placing cuttings or seeds in pots or flats. The greenhouse environment is frequently humid and temperatures range from 50 to 90 degrees (F). Control of pests in plant propagation facilities adheres to integrated pest management principles, which may involve application ofpesticides. Collection of material for plant propagation, and follow-up visits to revegetation sites will require field trips throughout the park.Field surveys and revegetation projects may require hiking or backpacking over steep terrain and work at high elevation, along the coast, or in lowland forest, sometimes in difficult weather. Overnight trips will be necessary. Approximately 25% of the work year will be spent working on the computer reading scientific and technical literature, analyzing data and/or writing reports and funding proposals. Office work will require long hours at a desk on a computer.

Working Conditions: Most work will occur within Olympic National Park, but some travel away from the park willoccur, for example to other parks or NPS offices, off-site meetings or conferences, commercial plant propagation facilities, universities, or offices of other agencies. Visits to the field may involve hot or cold and inclement weather and may require overnight camping. The incumbent will be required to operate motor vehicles, including pickup trucks and trailers. The incumbent may be required to assist in aviation activities for transport of plants, supplies, and tools to remote work sites.

The National Park Service has determined that the duties of this position are suitable for telework and the selectee may be allowed to telework with supervisor approval.

If you are unable to apply online or need to fax a document that you do not have in electronic form, view the following link for information regarding an Alternate Application. Click the following link for more information, https://help.usastaffing.gov/Apply/index.php?title=Alternate_Application_Information.

How you will be evaluated

You will be evaluated for this job based on how well you meet the qualifications above.

A review of your resume and supporting documentation will be made and compared against your responses to the Assessment Questionnaire to determine if you are qualified for this job. If your resume is incomplete or does not support the responses provided in the Assessment Questionnaire, or if you fail to submit all required documentation, you will be rated 'ineligible', 'not qualified', or your score will be adjusted accordingly. If a determination is made that you have inflated your qualifications or experience, you can lose consideration for this position. Please follow all instructions carefully; errors or omissions can affect your rating.

Candidates who apply under Competitive Merit Promotion procedures will undergo a quality review to determine if they are highly qualified based on the content of their resume and their responses to the questionnaire. Best qualified candidates will be referred if all required supporting documentation has been provided.

Candidates who apply under Noncompetitive Merit Promotion procedures will undergo a quality review to determine if they are minimally qualified based on the content of their resume and their responses to the questionnaire. Qualified candidates will be referred if all required supporting documentation has been provided.

You will be evaluated on the following competencies:

  • Botany
  • Ecology
  • Horticulture
  • Oral Communication
  • Partnering
  • Project Management


Please submit 1) a copy of your most recent performance appraisal/evaluation and 2) a list of any awards (e.g. superior performance awards, special act or achievement awards, quality step increase, etc.) you received in the last 5 years. Any performance appraisal/evaluation and award documentation you provide will be forwarded to the selecting official. The selecting official will review this documentation and give it due weight consideration during the overall selection process.

If you do not have your most recent performance appraisal/evaluation, please submit a statement as to why it is not available. Please indicate if any prior performance appraisals/evaluations were at an acceptable level.

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