Forestry Technician Sequoia National Forest: Hume Lake Ranger District

Position Description Summary:  

Hume Lake Ranger District Dunlap,CA SQF

USFS, California

The Great Basin Institute, in cooperation with the USFS, is recruiting Forestry Technicians to perform timber sale-preparation, vegetation management and restoration projects on the Sequoia National Forest - Western Divide Ranger District out of Springville, CA . These projects all serve the Basin & Range Forestry program’s greater mission of helping the USFS in their critical goal of improving forest resilience in the face of worsening climate conditions and increased wildfire threats. The work that you will do directly improves the quality of these forests helping ensure they continue to thrive for generations to come. Technicians will serve vegetation management and fuels reduction efforts, supporting initiatives for healthy, productive, and resilient forest landscapes and resources. Project work may include post fire recovery efforts.

A Temporary Special Assignment (TSA) employee is one who is hired for a specific temporary assignment external from the institute’s administrative operations with one of GBI’s partners for 52 weeks or greater or less than 52 weeks and may work full-time (30 or more hours per week) or part-time (less than 30 hours per week).

Essential Job Functions may include the following:

Forestry Technicians will perform a wide variety of activities to support all stages of project work. Forestry duties may include, but are not limited to: 

• Timber sale unit boundary delineation and layout (GPSing, flagging, painting); 
• Tree species identification; 
• Green and salvage timber marking and cruising; 
• Timber and biomass plot cruising; 
• Collection of stand examination data; 
• General silviculture data collection; 
• Identification of various resource concerns including hydrology, heritage, wildlife and recreation.

In addition to providing professional experience in natural resource management, this position provides opportunities to support stewardship of public lands and to contribute to the conservation, management and restoration of natural ecosystems and native wildlife in the southern Sierra Nevada. 

Requirements/Qualifications

To perform this job successfully, employees must be able to satisfactorily carry out each essential duty. The requirements listed below are representative of the knowledge, skill, and/or ability required. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable employees with disabilities to perform the essential functions.

Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities: 

1. Capacity to collect and maintain field data in an organized manner that is easily understood and accessible to other resources staff;
2.  Ability to communicate effectively, both written and orally, with a diverse audience;
3. Ability to navigate and collect data using handheld GPS units;
4. Experience using a compass and topographic map to navigate;
5. Possess a clean, valid, state-issued driver’s license;
6. Ability to live and work in rural and remote field and office setting;
7. Physically fit to work outdoors, carry up to 50 pounds of personal and/or field equipment, and withstand the rigors of a forested and/or high desert environment in all seasons.

At least one of the following:

1. Bachelor’s degree from an accredited university in forestry (preferred), natural resource management or related field, with coursework and experience that demonstrate understanding of the principles of forestry;
2.  Six months of professional fieldwork experience.

Preferred: 

• Familiarity with cruising and marking techniques;
•  Familiarity with, and interest in, resource management issues of western states and the ecology of the Sierra Nevada ecoregion;
• Familiarity with the mixed conifer forests typical of eastern California, including common plants (woody and herbaceous), wildlife,  geology and topography;
• Ability to safely operate and maintain a 4WD vehicle on and off paved roads;
• Ability to understand, implement and adhere to established data collection, inventory, assessment and monitoring protocols;
• Experience using ArcGIS to create maps is a plus.

LOCATION

In and around Sequoia National Forest; Hume Lake Ranger District, Dunlap, CA

The incumbents will be based out of the Hume Ranger District (Dunlap, CA) of the Sequoia National Forest (SNF), which is one of 19 National Forests in California and takes its name from the giant sequoia, the world's largest tree. The SNF's landscape includes soaring granite monoliths, glacier-carved canyons, roaring whitewater, and more than 30 groves of sequoia trees in the forest's lower elevation slopes. Elevations range from 1,000 feet in the foothill region to peaks over 12,000 feet in the rugged high country, providing visitors with some of the most spectacular views of mountainous landscape in the entire west.

WORK SCHEDULE

This position will begin in mid-May and end as late as mid-November. Season start and end dates are project and weather dependent and may change slightly. 

Forestry Crew positions follow 10 hour days, 4 days a week schedule. 

Temporary Special Assignment employees are eligible to receive holiday pay, if partner approved. TSAs working four (4) ten (10) hour days per workweek will be paid ten (10) hours for all holidays.  Same with other approved/allowable workweek configurations; these can be accommodated accordingly with Banked Holiday(s).

COMPENSATION AND BENEFITS

Wage: $21/hour with overtime at 1.5x hourly rate. Full time, average 40 hours per week

In addition to a competitive base salary, this full-time,onsite position includes company-paid comprehensive medical, dental (with option to upgrade in coverage), and vision insurance, as well as $25,000 Life/AD&D policy. Voluntary short-term and long-term disability policies are available, and voluntary Life/AD&D policies for family members.  Mental health support resources are employer provided, competitive PTO accrual, and paid holidays. This exciting role contributes to GBI’s significant positive impacts within the fields of environmental research, education, and conservation.

TSA employees who serve a term under 52 weeks in duration, and have a thirty (30) day or less break between terms, and then sign a second term that (cumulatively) becomes greater than 52 weeks of employment, will be eligible for the >1-year TSA benefits (equivalent to Regular full-time employees).

TO APPLY

Please submit an up-to-date resume, a one-page cover letter that details your interest in the position, and any qualifications not fully outlined in your resume, and contact information for three professional references to the unique application link __insert actual ATS link___.  Qualified applicants will be contacted to schedule an interview. For questions regarding this position, please contact kmckinnon@gbinstitute.org

PHYSICAL DEMANDS  

The physical demands described here are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of this job. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable employees with disabilities to perform the essential functions.

While performing the duties of this job, the employee is regularly required to sit, use hands, stand, walk, bend, and have specific vision abilities to include close and distance vision, and ability to adjust focus working with computer business equipment and other job/industry specific equipment. The noise level in the work environment is usually low.

NOTE:  This job description is not intended to be all-inclusive. Employees may perform other related duties as negotiated to meet the organization's ongoing needs.

Disclaimer: Although the organization has attempted to accurately and thoroughly describe this position, GBI reserves the right to change the same, including to change, add to or subtract from the duties outlined, within the sole discretion of the organization, at any time, with or without advance notice.