• Conduct and communicate research to advance understanding of relationships among people and forest and rangeland ecosystems.
• Improve knowledge of fundamental social and economic processes and their interactions with the natural environment.
• Examine the roles of policies, programs, and other institutions in interactions between people and natural resources.
• Describe and analyze the implications of changing demographics, socioeconomics, and technology on natural resources and their management.
• Conduct and use integrated multidisciplinary research to support development of management approaches accounting for socioeconomic, ecological, and biophysical interaction.
• Design a coordinated research effort that is responsive to the complexities of natural resource use and management in the Pacific Northwest.
• Describe the capacity of dynamic landscapes to provide for evolving human wants and needs.
• Research topics include: forest and rangeland restoration, wildland fire, community resilience, water and resource management, and collaboration and public engagement.

Your application and resume must clearly show that you possess the experience requirements. Transcripts must be provided for qualifications based on education. Provide university course descriptions as necessary.

Basic Requirement for Social Science series (0101):

Degree: Successful completion of a full 4-year course of study in an accredited college or university leading to a bachelor’s or higher degree that included a major field of study in behavioral or social science; or related disciplines appropriate to the position.

–OR-

Experience: Four years of appropriate experience that demonstrated that the applicant has acquired knowledge of one or more of the behavioral or social sciences equivalent to a major in the field.

–OR-

Combination of education and experience that provided the applicant with knowledge of one or more of the behavioral or social sciences equivalent to a major in the field.

In addition to meeting the basic requirement, you must also possess experience and/or directly related graduate education in the amounts listed below.

Specialized Experience or Graduate Education Requirement for GS-12 level:
At least one full year of specialized experience equivalent to the GS-11 grade level in the Federal service. To qualify at this grade level, your specialized experience for this position must include all of the following:

— Conducting the full cycle of scientific research (including identifying research topics, defining study objectives, organizing and conducting the research, interpreting the results, and presenting the findings in the form of reports, demonstrations, manuscripts, and other appropriate technology transfer activities) from in one or more of the following areas: community resilience and rural economies, tribal resource management, collaboration and public engagement, wildland fire social science, environmental policy, energy development, and management of water systems.

— Field-based sampling, social science data gathering, secondary data gathering, qualitative and quantitative analysis, participatory mapping (PGIS), socio-economic analysis, or demographic analysis using tools such as Census data, ARCGIS, statistics programs, databases, or qualitative analysis software.

— Demonstration of technology transfer abilities through methods such as training, developing step-by-step guides to monitoring, or guides to supporting land management planning requirements; and, disseminating research findings at conferences or scientific meetings and publishing results as primary author in peer-reviewed Sharing information with resource managers, practitioners, planners, policy-makers, or collaborative groups.

–OR-

A conferred Ph.D. in one or more research areas directly related to the work of the position which is sociology, anthropology, geography, political science, economics, psychology, natural resource management, public administration, rural development, planning, policy studies, and/or includes coursework in areas such as rural development, economic development, climate change, energy development, water management, wildland fire, rangelands ecology, or forest disturbance.

Specialized Experience Requirements for GS-13 level:

At least one full year of specialized experience equivalent to the GS-12 grade level in the Federal service. Graduate level education alone is not qualifying at this grade level. You must possess the specialized experience described to qualify.To qualify at this grade level, your specialized experience for this position must include all of the following:

— Conducting a diversity or body of research as a Principal Investigator or project member on multiple studies that include the full cycle of scientific research (i.e. identifying research topics, defining study objectives, organizing and conducting the research, interpreting the results, and presenting the findings in the form of reports, demonstrations, manuscripts, and other appropriate technology transfer activities) in one or more of the following areas: social-ecological systems research, community resilience, rural or rangeland ecosystems, collaborative governance or co-management, land management conflict, wildlands policy, human interactions with fire/smoke, water-based benefits from public lands, and/or natural resource conservation.

— Conducting social-ecological analyses of threats from a changing environment to the relationships between biophysical attributes of public lands and people, disseminating results in peer-reviewed journals or other appropriate outlets; AND

— Creating products or information with application for the management or planning of national forests, monuments and other public lands, through co-development of knowledge with managers and planners.

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.