Timber Resource Specialist

Your tasks

• Responsible for the complete and detailed administrative review of all portions of Forest timber sale packages, including the contract, appraisal, prospectus, and the advertisement for submission of bid forms from interested parties.
• Assures that appraisal procedures are followed for all offerings including environmental, catastrophic, damage, and redetermination appraisals. Participates in timber contract oral and sealed bid openings.
• Provides technical subject matter expertise, direction, and training to ensure that all business management features of the timber sale contract are adhered to and compliance is satisfactory throughout the life of the sale.
• Prepares bills for collection, statements of accounts, and various types of bonding procedures. Upon receipt of signed timber sale contract and performance bond, obtains signature of contracting officer and prepares sale folder.
• Incumbent has the responsibility to ensure that the Forest Products Financial Systems (FPFS) is applied in a manner to ensure accuracy and proper procedures.
• Primary contact on timber sale accounting issues and routinely works with FPFS and independent computer systems necessary for proper accounting on timber sales, stewardship contracts, and other forest product contracts and permits.
• Assists Contracting Officer (CO) and Forest Service Representative (FSR) in developing contract modifications, changes and revisions to legal standards. Reviews contract modifications, correspondence and other documents as requested.
• Assists in managing the distribution of NFF (National Forest Foundation), KV (Knutson-Vandenberg) and SSF (Salvage Sale Fund) timber sale trust funds by providing technical assistance to the District Ranger, staff, and Interdisciplinary teams.
• Coordinates the assembly of District stand records, field surveys, photos, prescriptions, and other pertinent information for processing. Generates reports for program areas.
• Uses ArcGIS with spatial data to generate maps for use in updating and maintaining Forest Service Activity Tracking System (FACTS) activities. Inputs the spatial component required by FACTS into corporate data layers.

Requirements

In order to qualify, you must meet the eligibility and qualifications requirements as defined below by the closing date of the announcement. For more information on the qualifications for this position, visit the Office of Personnel Management's General Schedule Qualification Standards. Your application and resume must clearly show that you possess the experience requirements. Transcripts must be provided for qualifications based on education. Provide course descriptions as necessary.

Specialized Experience Requirement: For the GS-09: You must have one year specialized experience equivalent to the GS-07 in the Federal service. Specialized experience is defined as one or more of the following: Ensured the correction of scale tickets and final corrections to edit files until all entries are valid; Tracked all timber sale financial collections and assured they were processed in databases such as Forest Product Financial System (FPFS), Timber Information Management (TIM), and Financial Management Modernization Initiative (FMMI); Performed work related to the input, output, review, and analysis, posting and adjustments of the accounts; Analyzed timber sale contracts and audited timber sale statements of account to assure documents comply with appraisal, current direction, procedures, laws, and regulations; Assisted in managing timber sale trust funds; drafted routine correspondence and modifications, and led bid openings. OR A master's or equivalent graduate degree or 2 full years of progressively higher level graduate education leading to such a degree or LL.B. or J.D., in accounting. OR An appropriate combination of specialized experience and education (only graduate education in excess of 18 semester hours may be used to qualify applicants for this grade level). The education must have been obtained in an accredited college or university and demonstrate the knowledge, skills, and abilities necessary to do the work.

Experience refers to paid and unpaid experience, including volunteer work done through National Service programs (e.g., Peace Corps, AmeriCorps) and other organizations (e.g., professional; philanthropic; religious; spiritual; community, student, social). Volunteer work helps build critical competencies, knowledge, and skills and can provide valuable training and experience that translates directly to paid employment. You will receive credit for all qualifying experience, including volunteer experience.

TIME IN GRADE REQUIREMENT: If you are a current federal employee in the General Schedule (GS) pay plan and applying for a promotion opportunity, you must meet time-in-grade (TIG) requirements of 52 weeks of service at the next lower grade level in the normal line of progression for the position being filled. This requirement must be met by the closing date of this announcement.

See above for education that is qualifying for the specific grade level.

Conditions of Employment: Must be a U.S. Citizen or National. Males born after 12/31/1959 must be Selective Service registered or exempt. Subject to satisfactory adjudication of background investigation and/or fingerprint check. Per Public Law 104-134 all Federal employees are required to have federal payments made by direct deposit to their financial institution. Successfully pass the E-Verify employment verification check. To learn more about E-Verify, including your rights and responsibilities, visit e-verify.gov The U.S. Government utilizes Trusted Workforce 2.0 to implement Continuous Vetting (CV) as a-whole-of government approach to personnel security. If selected for this position, you will be subject to continuous automated record checks of criminal, financial, and public record databases throughout your period of eligibility or employment, replacing traditional periodic reinvestigations. As a condition of employment for accepting this position, you will be required to serve a 1-year probationary period during which we will evaluate your fitness and whether your continued employment advances the public interest. In determining if your employment advances the public interest, we may consider: your performance and conduct; the needs and interests of the agency; whether your continued employment would advance organizational goals of the agency or the Government; and whether your continued employment would advance the efficiency of the Federal service. Upon completion of your probationary period your employment will be terminated unless you receive certification, in writing, that your continued employment advances the public interest.

Other

This position is located in Region 5 on the Lassen National Forest in Susanville, CA and serves as a Timber Resource Specialist administering the business management phases of the Forest-Wide Timber program primarily working with forest product contracting. For additional information about the duties of this position, please contact Jessica McMullen at jessica.mcmullen@usda.gov. USDA Employees: Please refer to the Next Steps section.