Biological Science Technician (Wildlife)

Full Job Description

Explore a new career with the BLM - where our people are our greatest natural resource. We expect to fill many vacancies. This is a temporary appointment.

Appointment to this position will not convey permanent status and will be for a period not-to-exceed 1560 hours in a service year.

In order to be rated as qualified for this position, we must be able to determine that you meet the specialized experience requirement. Please be sure to include this information in your resume.

You must meet the qualification requirements to be found qualified. GS-5: Resume should demonstrate one (1) year of specialized experience equivalent to at least GS-4 level.

Examples of specialized experience may include banding, tagging, and releasing wildlife; inventorying rare and endangered species habitat based on guidelines; -OR- Successful completion of a full 4 year course of study leading to a bachelor's degree that included at least 24 semester hours in any combination of scientific or technical courses such as biology, chemistry, statistics, entomology, animal husbandry, botany, physics, agriculture or mathematics.

At least 6 semester hours of courses must be directly related to this position; -OR- A combination of experience and education to meet total experience GS-6: Resume should demonstrate one year of specialized experience equivalent to GS-5 level.

Examples of specialized experience may include surveying, mapping and documenting a variety of fisheries related species and habitat conditions; aquatic and riparian inventories, maps, and surveys; compiling of occurrence and distribution data, cover maps, and herbarium study mounts; assisting in performing fisheries or riparian studies and in constructing fish or stream/riparian habitat improvement structures; and compiling data obtained through soil inventory and assembling data into a logical sequence for review; -OR- Successful completion of one full year of graduate education directly related to the work of the position; -OR- A combination of experience and education to meet total experience.

GS-7: Resume should demonstrate one year of specialized work experience equivalent to GS-6 level.

Examples of specialized experience may include researching, compiling and tabulating a full range of fisheries related inventory data or aquatic and riparian inventory data; recommending aquatic and riparian enhancement projects or improvements in survey techniques and evaluation methods; leading or conducting field inventories of soil types to develop intensive soil information; and collecting ecological site information for sensitive, threatened or endangered plants to determine factors limiting distribution and potential for enhancement.

-OR- Successful completion of one full year of graduate education directly related to the work of the position; -OR- A combination of experience and education to meet total experience.

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. You must meet all qualification requirements by the closing date of the announcement.

Physical Demands/Work Environments: Work may be performed indoors or outdoors.

Work may occur in steep, wet and muddy terrain, in campgrounds, recreation sites, visitor centers, offices, fee booths, bathrooms, trails or remote areas requiring extended camping.

Positions may require physical exertions such as extended walking/standing, driving, stooping/crouching, digging, or lifting/carrying.

Individuals should be able to work alone or with people; during day/night/weekend/holiday hours. Major Duties:

• Biological Science Technicians (Wildlife) perform any or all of the following or similar duties: research, compile and tabulate wildlife inventory data i.e., population counts, reproductive performance, food habits, and prey densities.
• Conduct field surveys on proposed actions (timber sales, road construction proposals, land exchanges, etc.) for federally listed and sensitive wildlife species.
• Monitoring of known sites to ascertain site occupation and reproductive success; conduct habitat/vegetation monitoring; conduct inventories for specific species in potential habitat areas.
• Document locations using maps and GIS/GPS technology, enter data into databases and study files; interpret aerial photos, landsat imagery and topographic maps to determine land use and vegetation distribution and to plot nest/herd breeding sites.
• Monitoring wildlife species in specific locations to clear timber sales and provide baseline to assess management actions.
• In some Oregon locations there are special conditions: In these locations your primary duty will be to inventory and monitor marbled murrelets and spotted owls.