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Forester

Department of Agriculture
Forest Service
This job announcement has closed

Summary

These positions are located in the Pacific Northwest Region, on the Fremont-Winema National Forests.

Incumbent has primary responsibility for the preparation, implementation and administration of the timber management program as the Timber Management Assistant and Silviculturist.

For additional information, please contact:
Silver Lake / Paisley: Douglas McKay, 541-880-6268 or doug.mckay@usda.gov
Lakeview / Bly: Mike Ramsey, 541-219-2062 or michael.ramsey@usda.gov

Overview

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Hiring complete
Open & closing dates
07/16/2020 to 08/07/2020
Salary
$52,905 to - $83,210 per year

Salary wage as shown is for Rest of the U.S. For more information, refer to the Office of Personnel Management, Salary and Wages web page.

Pay scale & grade
GS 9 - 11
Locations
2 vacancies in the following locations:
Bly, OR
Lakeview, OR
Paisley, OR
Silver Lake, OR
Telework eligible
Yes—as determined by the agency policy.
Travel Required
Occasional travel - You may be expected to travel for this position.
Relocation expenses reimbursed
Yes—- Relocation expenses may be reimbursed at the discretion of management in accordance with agency policy.
Appointment type
Permanent
Work schedule
Full-Time
Service
Competitive
Promotion potential
11
Job family (Series)
Supervisory status
Yes
Security clearance
Other
Drug test
No
Position sensitivity and risk
Non-sensitive (NS)/Low Risk
Trust determination process
Announcement number
20-R6-GVA-10865661-G-RK
Control number
573642000

This job is open to

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Clarification from the agency

Current permanent federal employees with competitive status, Land Management Workforce Flexibility Act, CTAP/RPL/ICTAP and VEOA eligibles, Farm Service Agency permanent county employees, 30 percent or More Disabled Veterans, Certain Former Overseas and Foreign Service Employees, Military Spouses, Interchange Agreement and Other Miscellaneous Authorities, People with Disabilities, Peace Corps and VISTA, Reinstatement, Public Land Corps, Resource Assistant Program, and VRA eligible candidates.

Duties

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  • Duties listed are at the full performance level.
  • Document work progress and accountability of the timber program.
  • Analyze timber management operating plan to determine financial need of the program.
  • Administer timber management program and establish production goals.
  • Recommend budgetary requirement of equipment, material, and personnel and document progress.
  • Oversee timber sale preparation program to determine access routes, cutting units, ensure logging methods are consistent with plans.
  • Determine areas which require short- or long-range cultural treatment in terms of the total ecosystem.
  • Plan and coordinate the timber stand improvement program.
  • Maintain liaison with employees of Federal and State governments, local officials who are affected by, or have a shared interest in, the Forest land management practices and problems in the forest area.
  • Coordinate silvicultural needs with other resource specialist.
  • Plan the work to be accomplished by assigning work to employees and establishing production or quality standards for the unit's work.
  • Prepares or participates in the preparation of draft environmental impact statements or environmental analysis reports.

Requirements

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Conditions of employment

  • Must be a U.S. Citizen or 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.
  • Successful completion of one year probationary period, unless previously served.
  • Per Public Law 104-134 all Federal employees are required to have federal payments made by direct deposit to their financial institution.
  • Successfully pass the E-Verify employment verification check. To learn more about E-Verify, including your rights and responsibilities, visit e-verify.gov

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.

Basic Requirement: Forestry Series, GS-0460
Degree: Successful completion of a full 4-year course of study leading to a bachelor's or higher degree in forestry; or related field that included at least 30 semester hours in any combination of biological, physical, or mathematical sciences or engineering, of which at least 24 semester hours were in forestry. The curriculum must have been sufficiently diversified to include courses in each of the following areas:

  • Management of Renewable Resources -- study of the science and art of managing renewable resources to attain desired results. Examples of creditable courses in this area include silviculture, forest management operations, timber management, wildland fire science or fire management, utilization of forest resources, forest regulation, recreational land management, watershed management, and wildlife or range habitat management.
  • Forest Biology -- study of the classification, distribution, characteristics, and identification of forest vegetation, and the interrelationships of living organisms to the forest environment. Examples of creditable courses in this area include dendrology, forest ecology, silvics, forest genetics, wood structure and properties, forest soils, forest entomology, and forest pathology.
  • Forest Resource Measurements and Inventory -- sampling, inventory, measurement, and analysis techniques as applied to a variety of forest resources. Examples of creditable courses include forest biometrics, forest mensuration, forest valuation, statistical analysis of forest resource data, renewable natural resources inventories and analysis, and photogrammetry or remote sensing.
-OR-

Combination of education and experience: courses equivalent to a major in forestry, or at least 30 semester hours in any combination of biological, physical, or mathematical sciences or engineering, of which at least 24 semester hours were in forestry. The requirements for diversification of the 24 semester hours in forestry are the same as shown in A above, plus appropriate experience or additional education.

In addition to meeting the basic requirement, you must also possess experience and/or directly related education in the amounts listed below.

Specialized Experience Requirement:


For the GS-09 level: You must have one (1) year specialized experience equivalent to the GS-07 level in the Federal service. Specialized experience is defined as meeting at least one of the following: assisted with timber sale contracts, ensuring that all contract provisions were enforced in accordance with contract objectives; conducted cruises of timber stands to determine volume of merchantable timber, species composition, accessibility, and environmental constraints; performed related timber sale preparation, timber stand improvement, and reforestation duties; and/or collected timber compartment and stand prescription, or presale information data;
OR
a master's or equivalent graduate degree or two (2) full years of progressively higher level graduate education leading to such a degree or LL.B. or J.D., if related;
OR
an appropriate combination of specialized experience and education (only graduate education in excess of 18 semester hours may be used to qualify applicants for this grade level).

For the GS-11 level: You must have one (1) year specialized experience equivalent to the GS-09 level in the Federal service. Specialized experience is defined as meeting at least one of the following: performed timber management duties including harvesting, reforestation, timber stand improvement, and fuels management; assisted in analyzing technical issues and/or provided advice and assistance on forestry resource management policies and practices; and reviewed or developed standard plans for well-established programs or projects or recommending short-range plans for a component of a forestry resource management program;
OR
three (3) years of progressively higher level graduate education leading to a Ph.D. degree or Ph.D. or equivalent doctoral degree (coursework directly related to position being filled);
OR
an appropriate combination of specialized experience and graduate level education (beyond what is required for a master's degree, i.e., more than 36 semester hours leading to a Ph.D.).

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.

Work Experience: Your resume must clearly document the following for each block of work experience; the beginning day, month and year the work assignment started and ended; the hours worked per week; position title, and series and grade if applicable; and description of duties performed. This information must be provided for each permanent, temporary or seasonal appointment/work assignment or volunteer work and should be clearly documented as a separate block of time. Incomplete, inaccurate or conflicting work history may not be credited for qualifications purposes. This can result in an applicant not being considered for the position.

TIME IN GRADE REQUIREMENT: If you are a current federal employee in the General Schedule (GS) pay plan and applying for a promotion opportunity, you must meet time-in-grade (TIG) requirements of 52 weeks of service at the next lower grade level in the normal line of progression for the position being filled. This requirement must be met by the closing date of this announcement.

Education

See above for education that may be qualifying for the specific grade level.

Additional information

One position may be filled in either Silver Lake, Oregon or Paisley, OR.

One position may be filled in either Lakeview, OR or Bly, OR.

For the GS 11 level: Incumbent must be a certified silviculturist upon placement in this position OR attain certification within three years of that date.


Career Transition Assistance Plan (CTAP), Reemployment Priority List (RPL) or Interagency Career Transition Assistance Plan (ICTAP): To exercise selection priority for this vacancy, CTAP/RPL/ICTAP candidates must meet the basic eligibility requirements and all selective factors. CTAP/ICTAP candidates must be rated and determined to be well qualified (or above) based on an evaluation of the competencies listed in the How You Will Be Evaluated section. When assessed through a score-based category rating method, CTAP/ICTAP applicants must receive a rating of at least 85 out of a possible 100.

Veterans who are preference eligible or who have been separated from the armed forces under honorable conditions after three years or more of continuous active service are eligible for consideration under the Veteran's Employment Opportunity Act (VEOA).

Land Management Workforce Flexibility Act (LMWFA) provides current or former temporary or term employees of federal land management agencies opportunity to compete for permanent competitive service positions. Individuals must have more than 24 months of service without a break between appointments of two or more years. Service must be in the competitive service and have been at a successful level of performance or better. Part-time and intermittent service will be credited only for time actually worked. Non-pay status such as leave without pay is credited for up to six months in a calendar year; anything beyond six months is not credited. Applicants are responsible for providing sufficient information/documentation to determine if the 24 month criteria is met.

Farm Service Agency (FSA) County Employees: Permanent County employees without prior Federal tenure who are selected for a Civil Service position under Public Law 105-277 will be given a career-conditional appointment and must serve a 1-year probationary period.

For more information on applying under special hiring authorities such as the Veteran's Recruitment Act (VRA), 30 percent disabled veterans, certain military spouses, Schedule A Disabled, etc., explore the different Hiring Paths on the USAJOBS website

PROMOTION POTENTIAL: If you are selected for a position with further promotion potential, you will be placed under a career development plan, and may be non-competitively promoted if you successfully complete the requirements and if recommended by management. However, promotion is neither implied or guaranteed.

Selectee will be responsible for tax obligations related to payments for moving expenses - 2017 Tax Cuts and Job Act, Public Law 115-97. Questions should be directed to the Travel help Desk, 877-372-7248, Option 1, or email SM.FS.asc_tos@usda.gov


Recruitment or Relocation Incentive may be authorized. Final determination will be made at the time of job offer.

This position is eligible for telework and other flexible work arrangements.

This position performs limited supervisory duties.

We may select from this announcement or any other source to fill one or more vacancies.

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 based on your qualifications for this position as evidenced by the experience, education, and training you described in your application package, as well as the responses to the Assessment Questionnaire to determine the degree to which you possess the competencies listed below:

  • Administration and Management
  • Forest Management
  • Oral Communication
  • Project Management
  • Workforce Environment


Your application, including the online Assessment Questionnaire, will be reviewed to determine if you meet (a) minimum qualification requirements and (b) the resume supports the answers provided to the job-specific questions. Your resume must clearly support your responses to all the questions addressing experience and education relevant to this position.

If you meet the qualification requirements and are determined to be among the best qualified, you will be referred to the hiring manager for consideration. Noncompetitive candidates and applicants under some special hiring authorities must meet minimum qualifications to be referred.

Note: If, after reviewing your resume and/or supporting documentation, a determination is made that you inflated your qualifications and or experience, your rating may be lowered to more accurately reflect the submitted documentation. 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.

To view the application form, visit: https://apply.usastaffing.gov/ViewQuestionnaire/10865661

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