Timber Team Forester

The Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA), Central Office, Division of Forestry and Wildland Fire Management is advertising three permanent, full-time Forester positions based in Billings, MT. These positions are nonsupervisory, and the full performance level of these positions is GS-09. Employees are required to operate a government-owned or leased motor vehicle in the performance of duties and are expected to travel up to 75% of the calendar year for this position.

Timber Strike Team Mission: Create a motivated, proactive team that takes pride in fostering a professional organization that adheres to a high level of service, integrity, and respect. An essential role of the Timber Strike Team (TST) is to provide training opportunities for our team members and for the BIA as a whole. Our priority is to assist Agencies within the BIA across the nation with their timber sale program.

Duties of this position include: The incumbent of this position is responsible for performing functions relating to all aspects of forestry program administration including forest management inventory and planning, forest product sale preparation, forest product sale administration, forest protection, and forest development/

Specific duties:

• Performs field reconnaissance to identify forest stands needing treatment, determine harvest feasibility, and recommend appropriate logging system options.
• Designs timber sale layout including logging and transportation plans. Determines stand-level silvicultural treatments and timber marking guidelines. Identifies potentially important environmental issues or concerns.
• Designs and conducts timber cruises to estimate volume and grade of merchantable timber to be harvested. Compiles and stores field data into databases. Processes and summarizes cruise data using computer-based software applications.
• Assists agencies with GIS cover type mapping projects using ArcPro technology. Utilitizes GIS to create timber sale area maps, CFI/Stand Exam maps, and timber cruising maps with randomized plot allocations.
• Prepares Forest Officer’s Report that contains all pertinent information about the proposed sale including the project narrative, logging unit maps, cruise summary, appraisal, environmental assessment, required use permits, sample contract, advertisement, and prospectus. Assists in advertised sale bidding process and timber contract award.
• Monitors management units to detect potential damage and loss to forest resources from insects or disease. Conducts field reconnaissance or aerial detection surveys, reports findings and management recommendations, and implements prevention or suppression projects.
• Develops forest development plan to identify program goals and objectives and maintain current inventory of acres planned for silvicultural treatments.
• Performs field reconnaissance and stand examinations to determine current forest stand conditions and identify forest development activities to improve productivity of commercial forest land.
• Analyzes stand exam data and recommends appropriate silvicultural treatments such as reforestation and commercial forest stand improvement (thinning, pruning, and fertilization).
• Prepares commercial service contracts for projects as required. Conducts field inspections, monitors progress and performance of project work and prepares accomplishments reports.
• Conducts surveys to evaluate the success of silvicultural treatments and monitors treatments overtime.

Foresters will travel to different reservations and tribal lands across the entire continental US to perform such duties listed above. This is an excellent opportunity to sharpen field and office skills and also prepare foresters for upper management positions in the future.