Forest Service, Department of Agriculture

Gunnison, CO | #government

This position is located in Region 2, State and Private Forestry/Tribal Relations, duty station in Gunnison, CO.

This position serves as the Forest Health Protection Group Leader, providing long-range planning, program direction, coordination, evaluation of program activities and staff supervision.

For additional information about the duties of this position, please contact Todd Neel at 406-396-6078 or todd.a.neel@usda.gov.

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.

This is an interdisciplinary position and may be filled in any of the job series listed below.nGS-0414nGS-0434 Basic Requirement:nEntomologist GS-0414:nDegree: entomology; or a related discipline of the biological or physical sciences that included at least 16 semester hours in entomologynORnCombination of education and experience: courses equivalent to a major that included course work as shown above, plus appropriate experience or additional education.

Applicants with major fields of study in biology, zoology, or invertebrate zoology may fully meet the basic educational requirements if their academic preparation included substantive instruction (including appropriate laboratory and field work) in basic general entomology, taxonomy, physiology, ecology, general and organic chemistry, general physics, and mathematics or statistics that provided some training in the analysis of variables.

Plant Pathologist GS-0434:nDegree: plant pathology; or a related scientific discipline that included at least 20 semester hours in basic botany or plant science, and 10 semester hours in plant pathology.

Graduate Education: must have been in plant pathology, or in one of the recognized subject-matter fields of plant pathology, or have followed a curriculum or pattern of training that placed major emphasis on plant pathology or one of the recognized subject-matter fields of plant pathology, such as those dealing with particular types of pathogens, diseases of particular kinds of crops, or chemical or biological controls.

Graduate study in related fields such as microbiology, entomology, plant physiology, genetics, agronomy, horticulture, forestry, or chemistry may also be qualifying, provided it placed a sufficient amount of emphasis on plant pathology.

Evaluation of Education: courses in botany, plant physiology, plant taxonomy, plant pathology, agronomy, forestry, horticulture, or similar subjects may be used to meet the 20-semester-hour requirement in basic botany or plant science.

To meet the specific 10-semester-hour requirement in plant pathology, the courses must have been in plant pathology, or have dealt with specific subject matter areas of plant pathology such as those concerned with viruses, fungal or bacterial diseases, host-plant relationships, biotic or chemical controls, environmental or physiological diseases, parasitic diseases, etc.

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: You must have one year specialized experience equivalent to at least the GS-12 in the Federal service.

Examples of specialized experience include: Provided analysis of unusual or complex forest health condition situations and developing appropriate innovative forest health protection management alternatives; Served as a scientific expert in forest health protection, e.g.

directing projects in forest insect and pathogen detection, evaluation, prevention and control; Developed forest health training programs for cooperators such as federal, state, or private land managers.

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.

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.