Supervisory Forestry Tech. (Fire)

Duties

This position is organizationally located within the Department of the Interior, Bureau of Indian Affairs, Rocky Mountain Region, Northern Cheyenne Agency, Branch of Forestry & Fire. This position reports to the Fire Management Officer of the Northern Cheyenne Agency.

This position serves as the Wildland Fire Operations Specialist. Major duties include, but are not limited to:

• Performs and supervises employees in a variety of fire management positions such as: fire prevention, preparedness, detection, resource rehabilitation, mobilization, prescribed fire, aviation operations, and training programs.
• Ensures preparedness of wildland fire suppression equipment and personnel. Provides oversight and management for fire facilities within the zone/area.
• Provides oversight during initial and extended attack fires, directs fireline activities and tactics of dispersed firefighters, resources, equipment, and aircraft.
• Provides leadership and direction to subordinates in the recognition and mitigation of environmental and workplace hazards of the wildland fire environment following applicable laws, policies, and guidelines.

Qualifications

Basic Requirements:

Firefighting Experience: Applicants must have prior wildland firefighting experience (90 days) on the fireline, as gained by substantial service in a primary/rigorous firefighter position, or equivalent experience outside the Federal government. Wildland firefighting experience is defined as on-the-line wildland firefighting experience gained through containment, control, suppression, or use of wildland fire. Two distinct types of wildland fire have been defined and include Wildfires – Unplanned ignitions or prescribed fires that are declared wildfires, and Prescribed Fire - includes only fireline experience on a prescribed fire and does not include experience in the planning stages. Prescribed Fire experience must be supplemented by fire suppression experience in order to be creditable as previous wildland firefighting experience. This is a MANDATORY qualification prerequisite to qualify for this position.

ADDITIONAL EXPERIENCE REQUIRED: In addition to meeting the basic entry level qualification requirements, applicants must have the following:

SPECIALIZED EXPERIENCE:

GS-09: Applicants must possess 1 year of specialized experience equivalent to the GS-8 level; or its non-federal equivalent. Examples of specialized experience are located below. To qualify for the GS-9 the experience must show the applicant performed these duties independently and without specific instruction.

GS-08: Applicants must possess 1 year of specialized experience equivalent to the GS-7 level; or its non-federal equivalent. Examples of specialized experience can be evidenced by:

Experience that demonstrated understanding of fire effects on cultural and natural resources. The assignments must have shown participation in activities such as:

• developing fire management plans to ensure plan objectives can be met from a fire management standpoint
• conducting field inspections before and/or after prescribed fires or wildland fires to determine if objectives have been met

In addition appropriate experience must have included prescribed fire/fuels management & fire management operations as described below:

Prescribed fire/fuels management - experience in activities such as:

• inventory methods and procedures.
• fuel treatment methods and programming.
• evaluating prescribed burn plans or fire management plans to ensure containment is possible and identify contingencies if containment is not obtained.

Fire management operations - analyzing and applying fire management strategies, plus experience in at least four of the following activities:

• mobilization and dispatch coordination.
• fire prevention.
• training & logistics.
• equipment development and deployment.
• fire communication systems.
• suppression and preparedness.

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EDUCATION AND TRAINING

For GS-9: Successful completion of 2 years of progressively higher level graduate education leading to a master's degree or master's or equivalent graduate degree in biological sciences, agriculture, natural resource management, chemistry, or related disciplines appropriate to the position.

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COMBINATION OF EXPERIENCE AND EDUCATION

For GS-9: Only graduate education as described above is credible towards meeting the specialized experience requirements. Convert the education to a percentage by dividing the amount of credits by 36. 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%.

Selective Factors:

The applicant must have all of the following National Wildfire Coordinating Group (NWCG) incident management qualifications and training requirements to be considered eligible for this position:

1. primary core qualification: Pathway 1: Task Force Leader (TFLD) Pathway 2: Helibase Manager Type 1

2. secondary core qualification: Pathway 1: Incident Commander Type 3 (ICT3) or Prescribed Burn Boss Type 2 (RXB2)

Pathway 2: Incident Commander Type 3 (ICT3)

Selectees for IFPM positions requiring currency will be required to maintain currency for the NWCG qualifications listed above.

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.