This outreach is an early alert to inform potential applicants that the USDA Forest Service, Northeastern Area, State and Private Forestry will soon be advertising a permanent, full-time GS-0414 (Entomologist) or 0434 (Pathologist) -13 Group Leader, Forest Health position. The position is located at the St. Paul Field Office in St. Paul, MN. If you are interested in this position please respond, since the responses to this outreach notice will help managers decide how to advertise this position.
The vacancy announcement will be posted on USAJobs at www.usajobs.opm.gov in the near future. Interested individuals should respond to this outreach and will be contacted with specific vacancy announcement information when the job is advertised on USAJOBS.
Note of Clarification: the Position Description for this job indicates it is part of a Regional organization. The Northeastern Area organization is unique. Therefore, some differences apply. Specific information about the Northeastern Area State and Private Forestry can be found on our web page at: http://www.na.fs.fed.us/
The Forest Health Group Leader is responsible for supervising a team of Forest Entomologists, Pathologists and a Forester and coordinating all aspects of the Forest Health program for the St. Paul Field Office. The St. Paul Field Office is one of three Field Offices within Northeastern Area, State and Private Forestry (fsweb.na.fs.fed.us and www.na.fs.fed.us). The field office delivers both forest health and forest management programs (stewardship, watershed, urban/community forestry) to seven mid-western states. The Forest Health staff provides assistance to ten National Forests, one national tall grass prairie, and other federal sites managed by the National Park Service, Department of Defense, and the US Fish and Wildlife. Approximately 75% of the federally managed land within the Northeastern Area is located within the St. Paul Field Office. The office conducts annual insect and disease aerial surveys on about 18 million acres of federal lands, gypsy moth treatments on approximately 250,000 acres, and provides financial assistance through oversight of approximately 50 forest health grants/year.
The large diverse geographic area represented within the St. Paul Field Office is part of the challenge and the excitement of working in a productive and highly regarded State and Private Forestry unit. Forests within the Field Office area vary from northern boreal forests to southern hardwoods. Early detection and response to non-native insect and disease invasive species, cooperative pest detection surveys, urban forest health, and invasive plants are part of the workload in the Northeastern Area.
Some examples of the major complex of forest and shade tree entomology and pathology issues occurring within the St. Paul Field Office are beech bark disease, oak wilt, heterobasidion root disease, numerous declines, gypsy moth, spruce budworm, forest tent caterpillar, emerald ash borer, and hemlock woolly adelgid, as well as detection and survey efforts for walnut twig beetle and exotic/introduced bark beetles.
Responsibilities include development of forest health program direction in conjunction with Field Office and Northeastern Area staff. Following are some of the specific aspects of program implementation:
- Program delivery of technical assistance to state and federal resource managers. This includes oversight and budget management for insect and disease detection surveys (including aerial surveys), evaluations and recommendations to minimize impacts of insect and disease outbreaks, implementation of prevention and suppression projects, development of environmental analyses, and provision of training sessions.
- Coordination of the development of reports and publications such as insect and disease conditions, forest pest leaflets, and other special publications to meet state, private, and federal land manager’s needs; and responsibility for meeting national forest health program (FHP) reporting requirements.
- Delivery of the technology development phase of the program including pilot projects, impact studies, administrative studies and technology transfer projects. The group leader works cooperatively with Forest Service research, universities and federal/state resource managers to identify information and technology development transfer project opportunities.
- Development and monitoring of forest health related grants in the St. Paul Field Office, planning, budgeting and management of information to identify work force and organizational needs and staff priorities. The position is also responsible for ensuring program expenditures are legal, meet charged-as-worked and congressional intent, and remain within budget limits.
- Coordination with researchers to identify new findings and transfer this information to resource managers.
- Travel and occasional field work are required to accomplish these tasks. The Group Leader is responsible for promoting a culture of safety and facilitating safe practices for the Field Office’s forest health work.
Qualifications
The following link connects to a document that provides the basic requirements to qualify for the various grade levels in the professional and scientific series; http://www.opm.gov/policy-data-oversight/classification-qualifications/general-schedule-qualification-standards/#url=GS-PROF
These qualifications for an entomologist or pathologist can be met through a combination of education and experience.
About the Location
The St. Paul Field Office is located on the University of Minnesota, St. Paul Campus. In recent years Forbes ranked the St. Paul/Minneapolis metropolitan area as one of the nation’s healthiest cities and one of the best for business and careers. The area also has a lot to offer the outdoor enthusiast. With over 90,000 miles of shoreline and 929 metro area lakes, and some of the best urban biking and hiking trails, you can hike, bike, paddle, swim or stroll to your heart’s content. Ranked as America’s most bikeable city (as ranked by Bike Score in 2012), you can hop on a rental bike at one of over 140 stations throughout the city and experience award winning dining, high end shopping, world class museums, and our incredible trail systems in an environmentally sustainable way.
In addition to professional sports teams such as the Minnesota Vikings, the Twins, Minnesota Wild and the Timberwolves, the Twin Cities are known for being home to world-class educational institutions such as the University of Minnesota, Augsburg and Macalester Colleges, and the University of St. Thomas and University of St. Katherine. As a result of our emphasis on education, Minneapolis and St. Paul are often noted as having one of the most literate populations and one of the best metropolitan areas for raising children. In addition, the Twin Cities house some of the nation’s fastest growing companies and ranks second only to California for medical technology industry employment, with a concentration three times that of the nation.
The Minneapolis/St. Paul metropolitan area is the 16th largest metropolitan area in the US and is home to almost 3.5 million people. The median age of residents is 32 years. The racial/ethnic composition for those reporting to the Census (and identifying themselves in one category) is 80.6% Non-Hispanic Whites, 5.4% Black or African American, 3.7% American Indian and Alaska Native, 4.9% Asian, and 4.6% Hispanic and Latino.)
Minnesota is the 12th largest state in land area. The remainder of the state consists of western prairies that have largely been converted to intensive agriculture; deciduous forests in the southeast that have been partially cleared, farmed and settled; and the less populated North Woods, used for mining, forestry, and recreation.
Contact Information
To express interest in this position please respond directly through the Outreach system. This will insure that the hiring manager receives your response. If you need additional information please contact Michael Connor, Forest Health Group Leader or Carleen Yocum, Field Representative; by email mconnor@fs.fed.us, cyocum@fs.fed.us or by phone (651) 649-5180, (651) 649-5276, respectively.
When this job is announced the vacancy announcement for this position will be posted on the U.S. Government's official website for employment opportunities at: www.usajobs.com. Once the announcement is posted, all who responded to the outreach notice will be contacted by email to let you know the vacancy announcement number so individuals who are interested in this position can submit their applications.