Forester (GS-0460-9)

Forest Inventory & Analysis Program: This position is under the oversight of the Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA) unit of the Southern Research Station. The McSweeney/McNary Forestry Research Act of 1928 established FIA by directing the Secretary of Agriculture to make and keep current a comprehensive inventory and analysis of the Nation’s Forest resources. Nationally speaking, FIA is a comprehensive field-based inventory of all forest ownerships for each of the 50 states, affiliated Pacific Islands, Puerto Rico, and the US Virgin Islands and we conduct extensive collaborative research to develop and use the latest technology in remote sensing and field measurement. Currently, we collaborate with more than 550 federal, state, university, and other professional staff to efficiently deliver the FIA program. We provide public access to current and historic resource data through online tools with more than 100,000 data accesses annually. For a more comprehensive look at the national FIA program, you can go to the following website: Forest Inventory and Analysis National Program (usda.gov)

The southern region provides a wide diversity of ecological communities. For more information about the SRS FIA unit, you may go to the following website: SRS - Forest Inventory and Analysis-4801 - Welcome! (usda.gov)

About This Position: This position performs quality assurance (QA) on assignments pertaining to the multiple-use management of an area of forest land. The main duties include, but are not limited to, conducting extensive and intensive cruises of timber stands and woodlands to determine the accuracy of such things as volume of merchantable timber, species composition, accessibility, and environmental constraints. They will examine the accuracy of collected data that includes the count and measurement of the number, species, size, quality, cull, and other characteristics of sample trees; examines the classified ownership, forest type, stand size, stocking, cover class, condition, and other items for accuracy as specified in the FIA national/regional field guide. They provide on the job training of FIA field personnel (contractors, state cooperators, and other federal personnel) in the gathering of multi-resource information as specified in the FIA national/regional field guide.