Question:
In Region 5 of the US Forest Service, TEAMS (Timber Experts And Measurements
Services) will be hiring both temporary and permanent positions this spring.
There will be several permanent seasonal GS-0462-5, 6, 7 appointments that
will be open to the public. This is a perfect position for a forestry grad
or a longtime temporary to get his/her foot in the door. Also, this position
will allow you to move up non-competetively when you meet the specs. Keep
watching the OPM website at http://www.usajobs.opm.gov/a6.htm to see when it
opens.
Answer:
I think there may also be a couple of professional Forester trainee
positions coming up as well. Temporary positions will be filled from the
Temp hiring system based in Boise. It is important that you put Sequoia
National Forest as your preference for temporary work. "Duty Stations" are
"virtual" in that you are almost always in travel status, getting "per diem"
and lodging paid for. Travel status policies are 21 work days on then, home
for a week. There is always plenty of overtime available, too.
TEAMS is a growing "Enterprise" within Region 5's "Reinvention Lab". We do
all kinds of natural resource projects, bidding on government projects and
operating like a private business with no funding from Congress. TEAMS has
both a Planning side and an Implementation side.
This is the biggest opportunity to come along in a long time within the
Forest Service. If you are highly skilled or educated in natural resources,
or just have a serious desire to get your boot in the door, apply to work
with TEAMS Enterprise this spring.
Actually, we do have to scam to get good applicants these days. "Pilferring"
good temporaries from Ranger Districts has been the best way , so far
(That's how I was hired). It does kind of anger me to see people getting in
permanent so easily when I had to toil for years and years. TEAMS actually
IS the cutting-edge of the USFS by implementing many of the Agency's newest
natural resource projects in the center of the public's attention. The
Bitterroot, QLG and the Clinton Northwest Forest Plan. Once they get through
the appeals, courts and drawing boards, we have to implement something on
the ground that has never been done before.
Hmmm but is "more fire resistant" necessarily a natural state? Is there
room for catastrophic fires in establishing a "pre-settlement fire
regime?" (Something that Covington and Moore et al have problems with)
