{"id":56101,"date":"2025-07-17T12:25:28","date_gmt":"2025-07-17T19:25:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.evergreen.edu\/mesweekly\/?p=56101"},"modified":"2025-07-17T12:25:28","modified_gmt":"2025-07-17T19:25:28","slug":"fellowship-usda-fs-fellowship-in-forest-restoration-modeling-u-s-department-of-agriculture-remote","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.evergreen.edu\/mesweekly\/fellowship-usda-fs-fellowship-in-forest-restoration-modeling-u-s-department-of-agriculture-remote\/","title":{"rendered":"Fellowship: USDA-FS Fellowship in Forest Restoration Modeling, U.S. Department of Agriculture (Remote)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

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USDA-FS Fellowship in Forest Restoration Modeling<\/h1>\n\n\n\n
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Participant Stipend:\u00a0<\/strong>The participant will receive a monthly\u00a0stipend commensurate with educational level and experience.\u00a0The anticipated stipend is $5,678 monthly.<\/strong>\u00a0Fellows receive an additional $680 monthly stipend for health, vision, and dental insurance. The fellow would also have a $500 budget for travel or local conference attendance, such as the California Society of American Forester’s Summer Meeting.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Anticipated Appointment Start Date: June 1, 2025.\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong>Start date is flexible and will\u00a0depend on a variety of\u00a0factors.<\/p>\n

Appointment Length:\u00a0<\/strong>The appointment will initially be for four months\u00a0but may be\u00a0extended\u00a0upon\u00a0recommendation of\u00a0USDA Forest Service\u00a0and is contingent on the availability of funds.<\/p>\n

Level of Participation:\u00a0<\/strong>The appointment is full time.<\/p>\n

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Organization:\u00a0<\/strong>U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA)<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Reference Code:\u00a0<\/strong>USDA-FS-PSWRS-2025-0059<\/div>\n
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Application Deadline:\u00a0<\/strong>7\/25\/2025 3:00:00 PM Eastern Time Zone<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Position Description & Apply<\/strong><\/span><\/a><\/div>\n
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Description<\/strong><\/div>\n
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*Applications will be reviewed on a rolling-basis.<\/strong><\/p>\n

USDA Forest Service\u00a0Office\/Lab and Location:<\/strong>\u00a0A fellowship opportunity is available\u00a0with the US\u00a0Department of Agriculture (USDA)\u00a0Forest Service (FS) within the\u00a0Pacific Southwest Research Station (PSWRS).\u00a0This opportunity is remote.<\/strong><\/p>\n

At the heart of the USDA Forest Service’s mission is their purpose. Everything they do is intended to help sustain forests and grasslands for present and future generations. Why? Because their stewardship work supports nature in sustaining life. This is the purpose that drives the agency\u2019s mission and motivates their work across the agency. It\u2019s been there from the agency\u2019s very beginning, and it still drives them. To advance the mission and serve their purpose, the USDA Forest Service balances the short and long-term needs of people and nature by: working in collaboration with communities and our partners; providing access to resources and experiences that promote economic, ecological, and social vitality; connecting people to the land and one another; and delivering world-class science, technology and land management.<\/p>\n

Research Project:\u00a0<\/strong>This research fellowship will\u00a0use long-term (2002-2019) experimental data from the Goosenest Adaptive Management Area, a study of fuels reduction and forest restoration alternatives for managing east-side ponderosa pine\/mixed-conifer forests. The treatments included group selection management to promote structural complexity, making them a useful test of different modeling approaches in the Forest Vegetation Simulator (FVS). Currently FVS users, which largely consist of federal land managers, have a few different way of modeling complex restoration treatments in the software. However there is not much guidance on which is most accurate, or how examples of calibrating the model to improve its performance This project will A) help calibrate the FVS growth and mortality models and b) advance the modeling of complex treatments to save agencies time and money.<\/p>\n

The research fellow’s main focus will be performing the FVS runs to compare observed vs. predicted values the 20 year span of the experiment. The fellow would contribute to completing a manuscript in preparation, have a chance to interact with regional land managers to share results, and pursue original research with this dataset. Possible independent research projects include quantifying the biomass benefits of proactive forest management, and quantifying how treatments improved outcomes after the 2021 Antelope Fire which burned over this study. Data are already proofed and formatted with a draft FVS workflow, preparing the fellow for success.<\/p>\n

The fellowship would run from June-September\u00a02025. Fellows are not U.S. government employees but instead paid interns through the Oak Ridge of Science and Engineering hosted by the USDA-FS. Due to the short tenure of the fellowship, remote participation is accepted\u00a0but depending on location the selected candidate may opt for office space in Placerville, Vallejo, Redding, Riverside, or Arcata, California.<\/p>\n

Learning Objectives:\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n