Forestry Technician (Lookout)

Forestry Technician (Lookout)

Department: Department of Agriculture

Location(s): Camp Verde, Arizona, Crown King, Arizona, Fredonia, Arizona, Mesa, Arizona, Prescott, Arizona, Tusayan, Arizona, Williams, Arizona, 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: $19.33 - $19.33 Per Hour

Job Summary: This position is located within a National Forest. The purpose of the position is to provide fire detection services to district fire suppression personnel.

Major Duties:

• Uses standard fire finders, compass, binoculars, protractors, and geographic maps to locate observed smoke.
• Estimates distance to smokes and probable size and characteristics of fires. Plots location of fires using specialized equipment.
• Reports azimuth, distance, location, volume, color, behavior of smoke, and other pertinent information by radio.
• Continues to observe the area and reports significant changes such as increased smoke, wind conditions, changes in color or volume of smoke, etc to dispatch.
• Evaluates changing conditions with the use of weather instruments to interpret fire weather data, then advises Fire Suppression personnel of those changes.
• Uses radio communications to warn personnel involved in the response to fires of changes that may affect them.
• Observes ground lightning strikes, reports resultant fires, and records storm path to assist in the observation for hold over fires.
• Records and reports daily weather observations and records. Maintains photo records and log books identifying the source and duration of smoke plumes.
• Makes minor adjustments to and maintains lookout equipment. Maintains station and grounds in a neat and orderly condition.
• Operates a radio communications center which connects to other lookout stations, lookouts, agencies, and two interagency dispatch centers.
• Receives and relays messages and information received relating to weather forecasts, fire hazard conditions, fire emergencies, accidents, and location of work crews and personnel.
• Communicates the location of known down strikes and fires to aircraft during recon activities.
• Serves as key contact at a lookout station visited by large numbers of people during the fire season.
• Promotes the fire prevention program by explaining State and Federal laws, policies, and regulations, as well as fire prevention methods and procedures and fire hazard conditions.
• Patrols district one day per week; maintains prevention signs; changes out prevention signs as needed; issues campfire permits; explains state and federal laws to visitors during patrol.
• Reviews documents and reports for completeness and enters pertinent information into an automated tracking system.
• Independently conducts the full range of database searches; reviews and processes documents and reports in accordance with established procedures.

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. GS-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: Maintaining records, log books and lookout equipment. Maintaining lookout station and grounds in a neat and orderly condition. Receiving and relaying a variety of fire and administrative data and keeping dispatcher/fire officials informed of current conditions. Promoting the fire prevention program by explaining State and Federal laws, policies, and regulations to visitors. 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. 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