Expired Announcements and Jobs

USGS Core Science Systems and Office of Enterprise Information leadership is excited to announce the FY20 USGS Community for Data Integration (CDI) Request for Proposals.

All interested scientists and staff are urged to consider participating in this opportunity to engage with a dynamic team that spans all mission areas and regions. With more than 1300 members, a major program goal is to support the advancement of USGS science through technical innovation and data integration. This year, CDI is encouraging proposals that produce building blocks for an Integrated Predictive Science Capacity with the following themes:

1. Projects that address one of the major components of the USGS Director’s vision to:
   a. Integrate USGS data into a comprehensive data lake;
   b. Develop, test, and apply an integrated predictive science capability (EarthMAP) that incorporates data, interpretations, and knowledge spanning discipline boundaries, geographies, and sectors;
   c. Provide actionable intelligence that can be used via dashboards and applications to enhance situational awareness, provide new operational capabilities, and inform decision making, using technologies such as artificial intelligence, machine learning, and high performance computing.
2. Tools and methods supporting wildland fire and water prediction, aligned with the EarthMAP (Earth Monitoring, Analyses, and Projections) vision (Jenni et al., 2018).
3. Producing FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable) data and tools for Integrated Predictive Science Capacity (see the Enabling FAIR Data site).
4. Reusing or repurposing modular tools such as those that were developed by previous CDI projects, including the CDI Risk Map

One-page statements of interest are invited for submission and are due by Friday, October 11, 2019 at 5 pm ET.

Refer to the Related Event link to the right (or below) regarding a webinar that will provide more information about the proposal process.
 

The Northwest Fire Science Consortium along with the DOI Office of Wildland Fire have worked together to create a Fire Ecology Module available online through the Wildland Fire Learning Portal. The Fire Ecology Module is based on Oregon State University’s Forestry & Natural Resources Extension’s Fire Science Core Curriculum’s Fire Ecology Module.
 
Natural resource managers, early-career fire professionals, and others wanting to learn more about fire ecology will benefit from this entry level Module.
 
The Fire Ecology Module is interactive and includes discussion boards, quizzes, videos, text, recorded interviews and more! The Module is scheduled to go live in December but before it does, we need your help!
 
We are seeking individuals to be part of a cohort to test the Module before it launches. The Module is expected to take 2-3 hours per week for three weeks. The cohort will start the Module on October 28 and end on November 15. Your time and input to this Module is greatly appreciated. We want to make the Fire Ecology Module the best it can be. Will you help?
 
Please contact Carrie Berger at carrie.berger@oregonstate.edu by October 9th if you are interested.

We seek a sincere, motivated, and creative individual to apply for an exciting PhD assistantship in Forest Ecosystem Dynamics at Washington State University. The successful candidate will work with Dr. Arjan Meddens to examine the spatial and temporal patterns of ecosystem dynamics across the western United States. You will work on highly relevant research which aims to improve ecosystem resilience to future disturbances across the larger landscape under rapidly changing climate conditions. Research topics of interest include: (1) the dynamics of fire refugia and utilization of fire refugia by plant or animal species, (2) spatial and temporal patterns of bark beetle outbreaks, and/or (3) the utilization of high-resolution (UAV) lidar applications for forest measurements. A genuine interest in teaching is required and an interest in natural resource management applications is highly desired. Two-year RA funding is available with more funding possible in year 3 and 4 of the Ph.D. The successful candidate will be housed in the School of the Environment at Washington State University, which has great collaborative faculty with expertise in both the social and biophysical sciences.

If you manage prescribed burns on Longleaf Pine units, we would appreciate your insights into the factors that influence burning practices.

We, myself and colleagues at the University of South Carolina, will use your responses to better understand the combinations of decision-making criteria and constraints to the use of prescribed burning in LLP management and concerns about future pressures on the use of fire across the LLP range. We will share the report with the Southern Fire Exchange, Tall Timbers Research Center, SERPASS and others interested in forest management. This survey is less than 10 minutes long and all responses are anonymous.

The Forest Steward's Guild is looking to survey organizations that either currently practice prescribed fire or would like to in the future. This will help better understand the insurance market across the country and work with brokers and underwriters to produce a better product. They would like as broad of a sample as possible, spanning all types of fire practitioner backgrounds in order to best understand what is needed!

How you can help: take the survey and forward it to practitioners who might want insurance to implement prescribed burns or better prescribed fire insurance coverage than they currently have.

Prescribed fire is vital to ecosystems and is becoming widely regarded as a cost-effective management tool with major benefit. However, even the most carefully planned burn comes with some risk. This is an incredibly large barrier to implementation due to the lack of high-quality liability insurance available. This problem continues to grow as more agencies pull their prescribed fire insurance plans from the market.

The Forest Steward’s Guild has struggled with this exact barrier and has uncovered some currently available options and potential long-term solutions. For more information on the background of this project and FAQs, please visit https://foreststewardsguild.org/prescribed-fire-insurance

Incumbent will be a member of Mountain Home Wildland Fire Support Module for the U.S. Air Force Wildland Fire Branch based at Mountain Home AFB, ID. The Wildland Support Module is responsible for implementing fuels treatments including prescribed burns and responding to wildfires on Air Force property throughout the area of responsibility.

This position requires work on active military training ranges with potential risk for unexploded ordnance and other related hazards. In addition, regular travel (up to 15 weeks per year) to other Air Force installations to perform similar tasks throughout the area of responsibility will be required. The position is to be located at Mountain Home AFB, ID.

Responsibilities:

• Follow instructions issued in a timber cruise plan.
• Conduct sample measurements of forest stands to estimate the amount of standing timber.
• Use standard forest measurement tools such as diameter tape, tree calipers, clinometer, angle gauge, prism, compass, and increment borer.
• Determine area of timber resources by traversing harvest unit boundaries and road locations.
• Assess quality and determine defects in timber.
• Complete assigned resource management support tasks within established deadlines.
• Prepare, process, and interpret reports of timber cruise data using a computerized system.
• Apply silvicultural prescriptions and marking guides to designate harvest timber.

We are seeking a motivated and independent postdoc to advance the state of the art in remote sensing and geospatial data integration in the field of ecosystem ecology. The successful candidate will work with the Landsat and Sentinel archive in conjunction with very high resolution drone acquired imagery to investigate how vegetation and topography govern microclimatic variability in post-wildfire landscapes. The objective of this project is to quantify influences on post-disturbance microclimatic variability and its effects on tree seedling survival.  The Earth Systems Ecology Lab (www.hurteaulab.org) is an interdisciplinary group of ecosystem ecologists in the Department of Biology at the University of New Mexico.  We work collaboratively to tackle a range of question related to global change and forest ecosystems.

The Crew Leaders will have leadership roles on prescribed burns throughout Southern Blue Ridge from November 7, 2019 through July 5, 2020. The Conservancy supports Southern Blue Ridge Fire Learning Network partners on multiple controlled burns each year.  Together with the 20-person as-needed burn crew, the crew leader helps fill a void of wildland firefighters for single or multi-day prescribed fire operations. These positions coordinate staff meeting times, oversee equipment preparation and rehabilitation, engine maintenance, radio programming, travel to burn sites and routinely has supervisory responsibility of crew during burns. Staffing needs for these positions could average 40-50 hours per operational period (bi-weekly) at the discretion of the Southern Blue Ridge Stewardship Manager. Operational periods are generally sporadic and clustered by opportune weather conditions, and no guarantee of a minimum number of opportunities is given or implied. The Burn Crew Leaders will participate on opportunities only as their own schedules will allow, and thus participation on any given opportunity is not required. 

Great Outdoors Colorado (GOCO) and the Colorado Youth Corps Association (CYCA) are pleased to announce the release of the 2020 Youth Corps grant cycle with up to $500,000 in funding for outdoor recreation, stewardship, and restoration projects completed by youth corps members. The goal of these funds is to employ youth and young adults (ages 14-25) throughout the state on critical outdoor recreation and land conservation projects using the network of youth corps accredited by CYCA.

APPLICANT ELIGIBILITY: This program is open to following entities eligible to receive GOCO open space and/or local government funds:

1. Colorado municipality or county
2. Political subdivision of the State of Colorado that includes in its mission the identification, acquisition, or management of open space and natural areas
3. Title 32 special district eligible to receive distributions from the Conservation Trust Fund
4. 501(c)(3) non-profit land conservation organization that includes in its mission the identification, acquisition, or management of open space and natural areas, e.g., land trusts

Air Resources Specialist (Physical Scientist)
GS-1301 -13
Bureau of Land Management
Alaska State Office
Anchorage, Alaska
 
A new air resource specialist position with the BLM in Alaska is now advertised and posted to USAjobs.gov for three weeks, August 27 to September 18.

This position will be located in the Alaska State Office, Division of Resources, in Anchorage Alaska. The employee serves in a professional capacity as a senior staff expert for air resource activities, providing advice and support to the State Directorate, Deputy State Directors and District and Field Managers. The employee is responsible for the technical adequacy of air resources program development and management, primarily for Bureau Land Use Plans and National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) related impact assessments, and serves as an expert consultant in coordinating activities between other agencies, universities, and research institutions.
 
The air resources specialist supports BLM’s multiple use mission by developing and implementing air resource projects to fulfill the full suite of the BLM activities and use authorizations. In Alaska, these actions and authorizations could include, but are not limited to, energy development, subsistence, recreation, forest management, noise impacts, and smoke management. Additionally, as the only US Arctic state, air quality issues in Alaska are different from the Lower 48 and offer unique challenges.
 
BLM Alaska is looking for someone with strong experience in conducting and reviewing air dispersion modeling, as well as thorough understanding and experience of technical 'state-of-the-art' advances in air resource and noise impact management. This position will present both challenging and rewarding opportunities in the great state of Alaska!
 
Since this is the first Air Resource Specialist for BLM Alaska, the incumbent has the opportunity to develop this position and demonstrate its importance and usefulness. The demand for air expertise has been growing steadily in recent years all across the country as well as Alaska, both due to increased workloads and the diversity of air resources related issues.

The Prescribed Fire Crew Manager coordinates day-to-day activities of the prescribed fire crew and participates in wildland fire operations which include ignition, control, mop-up, suppression, monitoring, etc. All TNC staff actively participating on a prescribed burn must be qualified as a FFT2. The Prescribed Fire Crew Manager will participate in preparing fire lines, maintaining equipment, post-burn monitoring and other tasks. May perform other preserve management duties when conditions are not conducive to prescribed fire.