Forestry Technician (Fire Dispatch)

Forestry Technician (Fire Dispatch)

Department: Department of Agriculture

Location(s): McCall, Idaho, Salt Lake City, Utah, Seattle, Washington, Phoenix, Arizona, Los Angeles, California, San Francisco, California, Denver, Colorado, Washington, District of Columbia, Miami, Florida, Atlanta, Georgia, Chicago, Illinois, Indianapolis, Indiana, New Orleans, Louisiana, Boston, Massachusetts, Minneapolis, Minnesota, Kansas City, Missouri, Albuquerque, New Mexico, New York, New York, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, Portland, Oregon, Austin, Texas

Salary Range: $25.12 - $25.12 Per Hour

Job Summary: This position is located within a National Forest. The position is located on a fire crew as a crewmember within the fire management organization. The primary purpose of this position is to serve as a fire dispatcher in support of fire suppression activities.

Major Duties:

• Serves as a dispatcher, receiving, filling, and tracking resource requests for fire and other emergency incidents.
• Follows established procedures to perform a variety of technical duties common to the dispatch of personnel, equipment, aircraft and/or supplies according to pre-defined plans or in response to resource orders from the field.
• Initiates requests to higher organizational levels for additional resources as needed. Maintains resource status and tracking systems and operates telecommunications systems.
• Collects, processes, collates and submits incident information to support fire operations (e.g., fire reports, smoke permits, spot weather forecasts, prescribed fire burn requests).
• Organizes and reviews completed records of all orders placed and actions taken to ensure adherence to established operating procedures.
• Processes and interprets weather information (e.g., spot weather forecasts, weather station observations, current and forecasted weather, lightning detection, and fuel moisture levels).
• This information is used to determine burning indices, preparedness levels and staffing levels for suppression and aviation resources.
• Inputs data into a number of fire-related computer applications (e.g., incident qualification records, fire reporting systems, and automated dispatch systems) and makes the initial assessment of outputs.
• Provides critical logistical support information to supervisor and makes recommendations concerning the efficient uses of available resources.
• Records and maintains communication logs. Coordinates and may assist with fire and aviation operational-type training/simulations and orientation in addition to initial attack dispatch and aviation dispatch training.
• Gathers information for the development and maintenance of the dispatch mobilization guide and internal dispatch operating guides. Shares information with cooperators and other interested entities.

Qualifications: 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: GW-05: Applicants must have one year of specialized experience equivalent to at least GS-4 grade level; OR a bachelor's degree or 4 years of successfully completed education above high school (120 semester/180 quarter hours) with major study in forestry, range management, agriculture, or a subject-matter field directly related to the position, or that included at least 24 semester hours in any combination of courses such as forestry, agriculture, crop or plant science, range management or conservation, wildlife management, watershed management, soil science, natural resources, outdoor recreation management, civil or forest engineering, or wildland fire science (no more than 6 semester hours in mathematics is creditable); OR combinations of successfully completed post-high school education (in excess of the first 60 semester/90 quarter hours) and specialized experience. The education must have been obtained in an accredited college or university. Examples of specialized experience include: Filed and retrieved documents in a dispatching office; assisted in preparing various maps, plans, guides, analyses, and special reports for dispatch use and /or; received and processed requests for equipment, personnel, and supplies in conjunction with wildland fire and emergency incidents. 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. In accordance with USDA Department Regulation 4430-792-2, this position is a Testing Designated Position (TDP) under the USDA Drug Free Workplace Program and subject to pre-employment drug testing. All applicants selected for this position will be required to submit to a urinalysis to screen for illegal drug use prior to appointment. Incumbents of this position will be required to submit to a urinalysis on an ongoing random basis, after appointment as directed. To receive consideration for this position, you must provide updated required documents and meet all qualification requirements by the closing date of this announcement.

How to Apply: Please view Tips for Applicants - a guide to the Forest Service application process. Please read the entire announcement and all instructions before you begin. You must complete this application process and submit all required documents electronically by 11:59p.m. Eastern Time (ET) on the closing date of this announcement. Applying online is highly encouraged. We are available to assist you during business hours (7:00 a.m. - 3:30 p.m., Mountain Time Zone, Monday - Friday). If applying online poses a hardship, contact the Agency Contact listed below well before the closing date for an alternate method. All hardship application packages must be complete and submitted no later than noon ET on the closing date of the announcement to be entered into the system prior to its closing. Resumes must not exceed two pages. This agency provides reasonable accommodation to applicants with disabilities on a case-by-case basis; contact the Agency Contact to request this. To begin, click "Apply" and follow the instructions to complete the Assessment Questionnaire and attach your resume and all required documents. Please verify that documents you are uploading from USAJOBs transfer into the Agency's staffing system as there is a limitation to the number of documents that can be transferred. However, once in the Agency's staffing system, you will have the opportunity to upload additional documents. Uploaded documents must be less than 5MB and in one of the following document formats: GIF, JPG, JPEG, PNG, RTF, PDF, TXT or Word (DOC or DOCX). Do not upload Adobe Portfolio documents because they are not viewable. Encrypted documents will not be accepted. Failure to submit required, legible documents may result in loss of consideration. Please ensure your resume does not exceed two pages. Applicants who submit a resume that exceeds two pages will be removed from consideration. Our office cannot be responsible for incompatible software, your system failure, etc.

Application Deadline: 2026-01-14