Forestry Technician (FIRE)

Duties

This position is organizationally located within the Department of the Interior, Bureau of Indian Affairs, Western Regional Office, Branch of Forestry & Fire, Aviation Section. This position reports to the Flight Helicopter Crew Supervisor. This position serves as a Forestry Technician (Fire). Major duties include, but are not limited to:

• Serve as a skilled crew member on an engine, helitack, or hand crew.
• As an assistant on a wildland fire engine, works as a trainee engine operator driving the engine, operating the pump, and making hose lays under the direction of the engine foreman.
• As a helitack crew member, loads helicopters, determines weight calculations, completes crew manifests, and may rappel from a hovering helicopter near ground level in remote areas to construct helispots, attack small fires, hot spots, and spot fires.
• Utilize a variety of specialized tools, equipment, and techniques while actively suppressing wildfires, such as a Pulaski, shovel, McLeod, ax, and chainsaw to control the spread of wildfire.
• Performs basic fire line activities such as line construction, hose layout, operations of pumps and accessories, lopping and scattering of fuels using hand tools and holding, patrolling, monitoring, and mop-up operations.
• Independently or with one or two other crew members may be assigned to carry out specialized assignments such as tree falling, backfire and burnout, mobile and stationary engine attack, specialized helitack operations, and hover hook-ups.
• Serves as a skilled wildland firefighter on an organized crew during prescribed burns, monitoring and controlling the fire, collecting data on fire weather and fire behavior.

Qualifications

GS-4: 6 months of general experience and 6 months of specialized experience OR 2 years above high school with courses related to forestry, agriculture, crop or plant science, range management or conservation, wildlife management, watershed management, soil science, natural resources (except marine fisheries and oceanography), outdoor recreation management, civil or forest engineering or wildland fire science. No more than 3 semester hours in mathematics is creditable.

SPECIALIZED EXPERIENCE: A season of experience is considered to be a period of no less than 3 months of continuous employment on a seasonal basis. Shorter periods may be combined to make a season, provided a total of at least 3 months' experience is shown. For any period where the work exceeded 3 months, the excess work is credited towards an additional season of experience. 2 seasons of experience qualify for GS-3; and 4 seasons of experience qualify for GS-4. Examples of qualifying Specialized experience include:

• Forestry aid or technician work.
• Engineering, range, or soil conservation technician work that involved the application of cultural, resource conservation, or land management practices on non-forest or ranch lands when combined with knowledge of forestry operations and equipment.
• Farming or ranching work that involved application of cultural and soil and water conservation practices, including safety and use of equipment, and that provided a basic understanding of land use.
• Forest or range fire control, prevention, or suppression work.

GENERAL EXPERIENCE: (1) Any type of work that demonstrates the applicant's ability to perform the work of the position, or (2) experience that provided a familiarity with the subject matter or processes of the broad subject area of the occupation. Which can be evidenced by farming or ranching work that involved application of cultural and soil and water conservation practices, including safety and use of equipment, and that provided a basic understanding of land use; or forest or range fire control, prevention, or suppression work.

EDUCATION AND TRAINING

For GS-4: Successful completion of 2 years (60 semester hours) of study that included at least 12 semester hours in any combination of courses such as forestry, agriculture, crop or plant science, range management or conservation, wildlife management, watershed management, soil science, natural resources (except marine fisheries and oceanography), outdoor recreation management, civil or forest engineering, or wildland fire science. No more than 3 semester hours in mathematics is creditable.

COMBINATION OF EXPERIENCE AND EDUCATION

For GS-4: Only education (related to the subject matter) above high school from an accredited college is credible toward meeting the specialized experience requirements. Convert the education to a percentage by dividing the amount of credits by 60. Convert the experience to a percentage by taking the total months and dividing them by 12. Combine both the percentages and it must equal at least 100%.

NOTE: If you are not in the series for which applying, your application package must show evidence of meeting the OPM Qualification Standards; i.e., required course work (transcript/listing of courses); specialized experience; etc.

Part-Time or Unpaid Experience: Credit will be given for all appropriate qualifying experience regardless of whether compensation was received or whether the experience was gained in a part-time or full-time occupation. Full-time work is generally considered to be 35 to 40 hours of work per week. Part-time experience will be credited on the basis of time actually spent in appropriate activities. Applicants wishing to receive credit for such experience must indicate clearly the nature of their duties and responsibilities in each position and the number of hours a week spent in such employment.

Education

To qualify based on education, you must submit a legible copy of transcripts with your name, school name, credit hours, major(s), and grade-point average or class ranking. If transcripts are not included in your application package, education will not be credited. Transcripts do not need to be official but if you are selected for this position and you used your education to qualify then you will need to provide official transcripts before you enter on duty.

Evaluation of Foreign Education: Qualifying education from colleges and universities in foreign countries must be evaluated in terms of equivalency to that acquired in U.S. colleges and universities. Applicants educated in whole or in part in foreign countries must submit sufficient evidence, including transcripts, to an accredited private organization for an equivalency evaluation of course work and degree. You must provide a copy of the letter containing the results of the equivalency evaluation upon request. Failure to provide such documentation when requested will result in lost consideration.