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Rangeland Management Specialist

Department of Agriculture
Forest Service
This job announcement has closed

Summary

These positions are located in Region 6, in the Pacific Northwest, throughout Oregon.

Provides the technical knowledge and skill required for management of a complex range program. Is involved directly with the legal aspects of administering permits, resolving permittee/Forest Service disputes, and appeals of forest decisions.

For additional information about the duties of this position, please contact Joshua Giles at joshua.giles@usda.gov.

Overview

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Hiring complete
Open & closing dates
01/19/2023 to 02/01/2023
Salary
$69,107 to - $82,830 per year

Pay rates vary depending on location and the salary shown is for the Rest of the U.S. See OPM.gov for additional information on pay rates.

Pay scale & grade
GS 11 - 12
Location
MANY vacancies in the following location:
Location Negotiable After Selection
Remote job
No
Telework eligible
Yes—as determined by the agency policy.
Travel Required
Occasional travel - Travel may be required for site visits, training, and/or meetings.
Relocation expenses reimbursed
No
Appointment type
Permanent
Work schedule
Full-time
Service
Competitive
Promotion potential
12
Job family (Series)
Supervisory status
No
Security clearance
Other
Drug test
No
Position sensitivity and risk
Non-sensitive (NS)/Low Risk
Trust determination process
Announcement number
23-R6-GVA-11799704-DP-TR
Control number
700652100

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Duties

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  • Duties listed below are at the full performance level.
  • Review grazing permit applications, and ensure impartial consideration of applications, where requests for range use exceeds the available forage.
  • Administer term grazing permit issuance and manage a complex range program to include legal aspects, resolve permittee and agency disputes and decision appeals.
  • Provide technical advice and leadership to the vegetative management program, review activities to assure basic plant physiology principles are followed.
  • Establish and maintain close working relationships with internal and external agencies and partners to offer expert advice on rangeland resource problems.
  • Serve on interdisciplinary teams, evaluating rangeland resource and ecosystem impacts, identify alternatives, and trade-offs or results of various rangeland project proposals.

Requirements

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Conditions of employment

  • Must be a U.S. Citizen or National.
  • Males born after 12-31-59 must be registered for Selective Service 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.

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:

Degree: Successful completion of a full 4-year course of study in an accredited college or university leading to a bachelor's or higher degree that included a major field of study in range management; or a related discipline that included at least 42 semester hours in a combination of the plant, animal, and soil sciences, and natural resources management, as follows:

OR

Combination of education and experience: at least 42 semester hours of course work in the combination of plant, animal, and soil sciences and natural resources management shown in A above, plus appropriate experience or additional education.

  • Range Management - At least 18 semester hours of course work in range management, including courses in such areas as basic principles of range management, range plants, range ecology, range inventories and studies, range improvements, and ranch or rangeland planning.

  • Directly Related Plant, Animal, and Soil Sciences - At least 15 semester hours of directly related courses in the plant, animal, and soil sciences, including at least one course in each of these three scientific areas, i.e., plant, animal, and soil sciences. Courses in such areas as plant taxonomy, plant physiology, plant ecology, animal nutrition, livestock production, and soil morphology or soil classification are acceptable.

  • Related Resource Management Studies - At least 9 semester hours of course work in related resource management subjects, including courses in such areas as wildlife management, watershed management, natural resource or agricultural economics, forestry, agronomy, forages, and outdoor recreation management.

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-11: You must have one year specialized experience equivalent to the GS-9 in the Federal service. Qualifying specialized experience includes meeting two or more of the following: Analyzed environmental data and advised on conventional rangeland management issues and projects; Exercised independent judgment to perform recurring, well-defined, and moderately difficult range improvement projects such as preparing segments of land use plans under multiple-use yield concepts; Designing and implementing plant community changes, developing and implementing prescribed burns, or other initiatives of comparable scope and complexity; Prepared segments of conventional rangeland use plans under multiple-use sustained yield concepts or assisted in the development of activity plans that included range and watershed improvement;
OR
Three 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.).

For the GS-12: You must have one year specialized experience equivalent to the GS-11 in the Federal service. Qualifying specialized experience includes meeting two or more of the following: Prepared long and short-range plans based on rangeland resource needs/health/capability, available work force, equipment and budget, and public demands for rangeland resource uses; advised landowners and land lessees on principles of rangeland management and the laws, regulations, and policies governing management of range resources; Conducted inventories and annual monitoring of rangeland resource and activities to document degree of impacts occurring, plant community changes and trend of ecological status or diversity that results; Prepared and reviewed ecological assessments for inclusion in the environmental documentation record as a basis for rangeland project decisions.

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.

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

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

Additional information

Possible duty locations:
Burns, OR
Chemult, OR
Chiloquin, OR
Dufur, OR
John Day, OR
Pendleton, OR
Portland, OR
Prairie City, OR
Prineville, OR

Positions will be located at a designated Forest Service Office. Final duty station to be determined at time of selection. Positions may be filled at the GS-11 full performance level, or GS-12 full performance level. Some positions may also be filled at the GS-11 developmental career ladder with promotion to the GS-12.

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), 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 eligibles 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 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 not guaranteed.

This position may be eligible to telework up to four days per week, based upon the duties of the position. This position may also be eligible for flexible work arrangements as determined by agency policy and any applicable collective bargaining agreements.

This position is eligible for telework.

The Forest Service may use certain incentives and hiring flexibilities, currently offered by the Federal government, to attract highly qualified candidates. Additional information is available at https://www.opm.gov/policy-data-oversight/pay-leave/pay-and-leave-flexibilities-for-recruitment-and-retention/

This is a bargaining unit position and is represented by either NFFE, AFGE, or NAGE.

Forest Service daycare facilities are not available.

Government Housing is not available.

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 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. You 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. Individuals 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.

To view the application form, visit: https://apply.usastaffing.gov/ViewQuestionnaire/11799704

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