Forestry Technician (Wildfire Monitoring)

Type: Full-time, Temporary, On-site

Location: Redding, CA

Starting Salary: $21.14 - $21.14 per hour

Deadline: 12/06/2024

The Northern Research Station (NRS) is seeking skilled and qualified candidates to fill one seasonal Forestry Technician position (Research – Wildfire Monitoring)(GS-0462-6) within the NRS Fire Team with a duty location of Redding, CA. The position, funded by a CAL FIRE grant, will support the Fire Behavior Assessment Team (FBAT) for one season.

The position is currently open and will close on December 6th, 2024.

You can apply at: https://www.usajobs.gov/job/815537700.

If you have questions, please contact Matt Dickinson, FBAT Lead (matthew.b.dickinson@usda.gov).

The Forestry Sciences Laboratory in Redding, CA, will be the duty station to support FBAT wildfire monitoring activities in northern California and surrounding regions. Learn more about the Northern Research Station by visiting https://www.fs.usda.gov/research/nrs. See the FBAT website for more information on wildfire monitoring (https://www.frames.gov/fbat/home).

The position works within the Northern Research Station’s (NRS) Fire Team (NRS-06) and, specifically, supports FBAT. FBAT is a unique module that collects pre-fire fuels and vegetation, active-fire behavior, and fire effects information on wildfires. FBAT is currently focused on building the dataset in northern California. A specific focus is meeting the information needs of the Karuk Tribe Department of Natural Resources and the Klamath and Six Rivers National Forests. FBAT will also work outside of those Forests and outside of Northern California given opportunity to meet information objectives.

The successful candidate would join the FBAT before fire season 2025. The candidate would work through the fire season with the FBAT Program Lead and others to:

  • Prepare the team for wildfire assignments, including organizing equipment and preparing sampling materials.

  • Support FBAT while on wildfire assignments, including collecting fuels and vegetation data, setting up fire behavior instruments, collecting Terrestrial Laser Scans, re-sampling fuels after fire, recording fire effects, entering and analyzing data, and contributing to the report on the assignment.

  • Support FBAT after assignments, including data archiving, website updates, and gear rehabilitation.

  • Collect field data that supports FBAT objectives between incident assignments, including re-measuring FBAT and other plots.

Candidates with wildland fuels, fire behavior, and fire effects knowledge, skills, and qualifications are strongly encouraged to apply. Data collection will be done with Survey123 while data summary will be done with R statistical software. Experience with these platforms and ArcGIS or interest and ability to learn them will be highly valued. The employee will be required to travel domestically for field work and wildfire assignments. Fire training and qualification opportunities will be provided along with other training as needed. Transfer of Station (TOS) is not offered. The position is telework eligible but is not a Virtual/Remote position. Government housing is not available. This position is available to U.S. citizens only

Forest Service jobs are applied for through USAJOBS. It is important to use your personal email address when creating a USAJOBS profile. It is important to read and understand the vacancy announcement before clicking the “Apply” button. A key requirement is to select Redding as the duty location or indicate flexibility in duty location.

For more information on the application process on USAJOBS, visit https://www.usajobs.gov/Help/faq/application/process/.

AFE’s journal, Fire Ecology, publishes peer-reviewed articles on all ecological and management aspects relating to wildland fire. Freely access journal articles and get details about submitting a manuscript.