Skip to main content
U.S. flag
Back to results

Biological Science Technician (Insects and Disease)

Department of Agriculture
Forest Service
This job announcement has closed

Summary

This position is located within a National Forest. The primary purpose of this position is to perform a variety of complex and recurring duties supporting Forest Health Protection/Pest Management Program implementation.

Overview

Help
Hiring complete
Open & closing dates
11/05/2021 to 11/12/2021
Salary
$18.90 to - $18.90 per hour
Pay scale & grade
GS 5
Locations
Few vacancies in the following locations:
Anchorage, AK
Fairbanks, AK
Juneau, AK
Telework eligible
No
Travel Required
25% or less - You may be expected to travel for this position.
Relocation expenses reimbursed
No
Appointment type
Temporary
Work schedule
Full-time
Service
Competitive
Promotion potential
None
Supervisory status
No
Security clearance
Other
Drug test
No
Announcement number
22-TEMP3-R10-2518-5DT-BG
Control number
620731100

Duties

Help
  • Performs a variety of routine and frequently complex tasks involving forest pest/forest health protection in order to support field projects and program planning activities.
  • Collects insect and disease samples and makes determinations, such as defoliation estimates, tree tallies, tree species injured, and insect identification to taxonomic order and occasionally to family.
  • Makes qualitative observations of injury associated with pathogens and other biotic and abiotic disease factors.
  • Assists in aerial/ground surveys to collect forest insect, disease, tree, and stand data for use in the evaluation of insect and disease outbreaks.
  • Participates in developing new or improved prevention or suppression practices such as pilot testing of various pesticides and dosages.
  • Assists in layout of field experiments, pilot projects, impact evaluations, and suppression projects.
  • Assists in determining validity of survey or evaluation techniques, amount of damage being caused by an insects or disease, and the effectiveness of a suppression project.
  • Suggests improvements of methods and techniques. Is fully responsible for compliance with safety rules and regulations.

Requirements

Help

Conditions of employment

  • You must be a US Citizen or US National.
  • Males born after 12/31/1959 must be Selective Service registered or exempt.
  • Subject to satisfactory adjudication of background investigation and/or fingerprint check.
  • Direct Deposit Per Public Law 104-134 all Federal employees are required to have federal payments made by direct deposit to a financial institution of your choosing.
  • Must be 18 years of age.
  • Must be fully vaccinated against COVID-19. If selected, must submit proof of vaccination or request a religious or reasonable accommodation.
  • Successfully pass the E-Verify employment verification check. To learn more about E-Verify, including your rights and responsibilities, visit e-Verify.

Qualifications

In order to qualify, you must meet the eligibility and qualifications requirements as defined below by the closing date of the announcement. For more information on the qualifications for this position, visit the Office of Personnel Management's General Schedule Qualification Standards.

Your application and resume must clearly show that you possess the experience requirements. Transcripts must be provided for qualifications based on education. Provide course descriptions as necessary.

GS-05: Applicants must have one year of specialized experience equivalent to at least GS-4 grade level; OR a bachelor's degree or 4 years of successfully completed education above high school (120 semester/180 quarter hours) with major study or at least 24 semester hours in any combination of courses such as biology, chemistry, statistics entomology, animal husbandry, botany, physics, agriculture, or mathematics and at least 6 semester hours of courses must be directly related to the position to be filled.; OR combinations of successfully completed post-high school education (in excess of the first 60 semester/90 quarter hours) and specialized experience. The education must have been obtained in an accredited business, secretarial or technical school, junior college, college or university.

Examples of specialized experience include: Participating in plant-related projects by assisting with measurements, recording observations, and assisting with the collection of biological and vegetation specimens.

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.

To receive consideration for this position, you must provide updated required documents and meet all qualifications by the closing date of this announcement.

Additional information

PLEASE NOTE: This vacancy is being used to fill positions for FY2022 Temporary Employment Hiring season. The expected start date for this position will be between April 10, 2022 and June 5, 2022.

This position is temporary, has a Not-to-Exceed date and will be filled for up to 6 months or as a not to exceed (NTE) 1 year, however an extension of the appointment may be possible without further competition. The appointment may also end early due to lack of work or lack of funds.

Applicants who apply under this job opportunity announcement agree to have their application, associated documents and applicable personal information shared with other groups within the Region who have vacancies within the same occupational series, grade, full performance level and in any of the geographic location(s) listed on the announcement. Applying to this announcement does not replace the need to apply to other job opportunity announcements for which you wish to receive consideration.

The duty station for this position will be at one of the duty locations listed in this announcement. Salary range as shown is the locality pay Rest of U.S. (RUS). Pay rates vary by location. Please visit the Office of Personnel Management's website for additional information on pay rates.

The USDA Forest Service has legislative authority to recruit and fill Permanent (Career/Career-Conditional), Temporary, and Term Appointments under the USDA Demonstration Project. Under this authority, any U.S. citizen may apply.

Career Transition Assistance Plan (CTAP) or Interagency Career Transition Assistance Plan (ICTAP): To exercise selection priority for this vacancy, CTAP/ICTAP candidates must meet the basic eligibility requirements and all selective factors. CTAP/ICTAP eligible must meet the agency's definition for a quality candidate as provided in the How You Will Be Evaluated section of this announcement to be considered.

If you are retired from the Federal Government and are selected for this vacancy, your retirement annuity may be offset from your pay.

This position is not eligible for telework.

Bargaining Unit Status: Eligible - Coverage is dependent upon unit location.
Availability of government housing and federal day care facilities will vary by location.

How you will be evaluated

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

You will be evaluated in accordance with the category rating procedure as defined in the USDA Demonstration Project Plan. Applicants who meet the basic minimum qualification requirements established for the position will be placed in the Eligible category. Eligible applicants will be further evaluated against criteria for placement in the Quality category. This evaluation is based on the level of your experience, education, and/or training as determined by your responses to the Assessment Questionnaire. Applicants with veterans' preference are listed ahead of applicants who do not have veterans' preference within each category.

Note: If, after reviewing your resume and/or supporting documentation, a determination is made that you have inflated your qualifications and or experience, your score may be adjusted to more accurately reflect your abilities, or you may be found ineligible. Please follow all instructions carefully. Errors or omissions may affect your rating. Providing inaccurate information on Federal documents could be grounds for non-selection or disciplinary action up to including removal from the Federal service.

Your session is about to expire!

Your USAJOBS session will expire due to inactivity in 8 minutes. Any unsaved data will be lost if you allow the session to expire. Click the button below to continue your session.