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National Park Service is Hiring a Forester Near Hopkins, SC

Qualifications:

All qualifications must be met by the closing date of this announcement-01/23/2024-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 Requirements for the 0460 series:

A. Degree in forestry; or a related subject-matter field that included a total of at least 30 semester hours in any combination of biological, physical, or mathematical sciences or engineering, of which at least 24 semester hours of course work was 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

B. 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. You must provide transcripts.

In addition to meeting one of the basic qualification requirements listed above, applicants must also have specialized experience and/or directly related education, as outlined below:

Experience: At least one full year of specialized experience comparable in scope and responsibility to the GS-07 grade level in the Federal service (obtained in either the public or private sectors). This experience includes activities such as performing forestry and ecology duties for the protection, conservation, use, and management of natural and/or cultural resources in park areas or similar operations, which involved the application of forest management practices to protect natural resources. You must include hours per week worked.

OR

Education: Successful completion of at least 2 years of progressively higher-level graduate education leading to a master's degree or master's or equivalent graduate degree. You must include a copy of your transcripts.

OR

Combination of Education and Experience: Successful completion of a combination of education and experience as described above. To combine education and experience, first divide the total months of qualifying experience by 12. Then divide the number of completed progressively higher-level graduate education (that are in excess of 36 semester hours) by 36. Add the two percentages together; the total percentage must equal at least 100 percent to qualify. You must include a copy of your 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.

Responsibilities:

As a Forester, you will perform the following duties:

• Develops and prepares segments of the resource management plan dealing with forest management.
• Prepares specific resource action plans needed to manage the forest component of natural systems and managed landscapes, and controversial, sensitive, endangered or exotic species.
• Assists with the coordination of the park's forestry strategies and programs.
• Develops, tests, and implements scientific monitoring protocols to identify, evaluate, and do monitoring and management of forest vegetation and related resources (e.g. insects and diseases that affect forest health).
• Applies silviculture, arboriculture or forest management prescriptions to affect forest species or communities.
• Carries out statistically valid data collection protocols for the monitoring of forest systems.
• Prepares management and scientific reports.
• Prepares and maintains plant specimens for forestry in park herbarium.

Job Summary