Outreach Notice USDA Forest Service

Tribal Liaison GS-0401/0460-12/13

Northeastern Area State and Private Forestry

Keshena, Wisconsin

The USDA Forest Service, State and Private Forestry - Northeastern Area (NA) will soon advertise the permanent, full-time position of USDA Forest Service Tribal Liaison to the College of the Menominee Nation (CMN) GS-0401/0460-12/13. The incumbent is to be located at the College of Menominee Nation, Keshena, Wisconsin campus. The position will be advertised on the OPM’s USAJobs website at: www.usajobs.opm.gov.

Additional information about NA and State & Private Forestry can be found at: http://www.na.fs.fed.us/. Your response to this outreach will help us determine the eventual geographic range, eligibility, and grade level of candidates to be considered.

Duties

The incumbent acts as tribal liaison from the USDA Forest Service to the College of the Menominee Nation (CMN). The incumbent is located at the CMN Keshena, WI, campus and works to advance a partnership among the Center for First Americans Forestlands (Center) and the following Forest Service units: Northeastern Area State and Private Forestry (NA), Northern Research Station (NRS), National Forest System Eastern Region (R- 9), and the Forest Products Laboratory (FPL). The focus, goals and description of the FS/Center partnership are contained in a FS/Center Memorandum of Understanding (MOU). The incumbent is responsible for a full array of research, education, and outreach activities to create and disseminate information and to work collaboratively in building partnerships with Center cooperators, stakeholders and other American Indian Higher Education Consortium (AIHEC) institutions, to leverage resources, and to speed implementation of new or improved practices nationwide.

The incumbent is responsible for education and outreach through participation and development of conferences and workshops on sustainable forestry and sustainable utilization and processing, including periodic participation in classroom activities. The incumbent helps disseminate best practice forest management and forest products utilization strategies to both tribal entities and private landowners.

The partnership is for continued development and operation of the Center at CMN. This Center

represents and embodies a synergistic partnering of Menominee traditional ecological knowledge (TEK) and expertise with Forest Service expertise in forest ecology and wood utilization. The Center synthesizes the best practices of forest ecology, utilization, and Native American expertise for sustainable development and serves as a model for university/federal partnerships in common cause for public good.

About the College of Menominee Nation  American Indian culture is at the heart of the College of Menominee Nation.

The history of the College of Menominee Nation is a recent chapter in the long story of the Menominee people. The tribe’s narrative spans thousands of years. Its land once encompassed a vast hunting, gathering and agricultural range from east of Lake Michigan to west of the Mississippi River. By the 20th Century, tribal land was reduced to a reservation of 235,000 acres. The College of Menominee Nation was chartered on March 4, 1993, and in 1994 began classes on its current site in the town of Keshena. At the request of the neighboring Oneida Nation, CMN began offering a small number of professional development courses nearby in the city of Green Bay. Today, CMN is an accredited Land Grant institution offering three Bachelors’ Degrees, more than a dozen Associate Degrees, and several technical diplomas. The flagship campus in Keshena serves two-thirds of CMN’s enrollment from nine major buildings. Students who comprise the remaining one-third attend classes in a leased building 45-miles east in the metro Green Bay area.

The College is proud to serve American Indian students from the Menominee, Oneida, Chippewa, Ho-Chunk, Navajo, Potawatomie, Mohican, and dozens of other tribes. CMN welcomes non-Indian students and celebrates a diverse student population at both campuses. CMN degree programs, research, and student activities are committed to addressing contemporary problems through modern science and methodologies that are informed by traditional knowledge. This is most evident in sustainable development programs at CMN that draw on resource management philosophies tested over centuries in the great Menominee forest. Native and non-native students and visitors from across the world come to CMN to pursue higher learning and to learn the history, systems and strategies of the Menominee and other First Americans. 

Campus LocationsThe College of Menominee Nation has two campus sites. Keshena CampusThe Keshena campus is located on Highway 47/55, in Keshena, Wisconsin. The campus, set in the tranquil forest of the Menominee People, offers students a unique learning environment. Close to the city of Shawano and Shawano Lake, students have access to many recreational attractions. The main campus of the College of Menominee Nation is located on the southern

border of the Menominee Indian Reservation in Keshena, Wisconsin. Its location is seven miles north of Shawano and approximately 35 miles northwest of Green Bay, Wisconsin.

Keshena campus directions and mapFrom Green Bay take State Hwy 29 west toward Shawano approximately thirty miles.Take the 47/55 N exit. Turn right onto 47/55. Proceed 5 miles on Hwy 47/55 until you reach the Menominee Reservation. The College of Menominee Nation is located on the southern edge of the Menominee Indian Reservation Green Bay/Oneida CampusLocated on Green Bay's south side in the suburb of

Ashwaubenon at 2733 South Ridge Road, Green Bay, Wisconsin, the Green Bay/Oneida campus offers many of the same courses as our main campus. While this campus is smaller in size, it offers students numerous educational opportunities. A Distance Education classroom increases the choices available by offering

classes delivered at the Keshena campus. The city of Green Bay, home of the Green Bay Packers, offers students many off campus activities.

Community Information

Menominee County is located about 45 miles northwest of Green Bay. The County is unique because it shares coterminous boundaries with the one Township of Menominee as well as the Menominee Indian Reservation.

The County borders three other counties: Langlade, Oconto, and Shawano. There are four main communities within the County: two main villages of Keshena and Neopit, a smaller village named Zoar, and a more scattered community called South Branch.

The County is approximately 234,355 acres or 360 square miles and contains roughly 223,500 acres of heavily forested lands, representing the largest single tract of actively managed timberland in the State of Wisconsin. The elevation of Keshena is 829 feet above sea level. There are four rivers flowing through the County, the Evergreen, the Oconto, the Red, and the Wolf. Housing

The nearby community of Shawano, Wisconsin provides several housing opportunities. Shawano is a city in Shawano County, Wisconsin, United States. The population was 9,305 at the 2010 census. It is the county seat of Shawano County.

Some Great Things about Shawano County...

If ever there was a true testimonial for the best quality of life, the people of Shawano County could give it. Surrounded by farms, lakes, streams and forests, the communities of Shawano County live in a very enviable area. Plenty of recreational opportunities, low cost of living, good education and health care, low crime rates and easy access to the world around them.

Recreation:

With a four season climate, variety in recreation is abundant. You can camp, hunt, fish (134 lakes and lots of streams), boat, sail, canoe, golf, downhill and cross country ski, hike and snowmobile.

High school sports play a large role in the communities and several boast of state championships. If professional sports are enjoyed, the Green Bay Packers are less than an hour away.

Shawano County maintains approximately 300 miles of marked snowmobile trails. These trails connect with Oconto, Waupaca, Langlade, and Marathon County trails. Within Shawano County, there are no less than 2 hiking/biking trails together combined nearly 100 miles.

The Navarino Wildlife area public hunting grounds in Southeast Shawano County is comprised of approximately 13,000 acres and covering parts of four town-ships.

Cost of Living:

Shawano County is one of the most affordable places to live. The cost of living is well below state and national averages. Housing is very affordable ($80,000 median value) and insurance and utility rates are well below national levels.

Education:

The primary and secondary education systems are very progressive and reflect the state of Wisconsin's commitment to excellence in education. Bonduel, Bowler, Clintonville, Marion, Tigerton, Wittenberg-Birnamwood and the Menominee Indian High Schools are connected together via a fiber-optics telephone system providing audio and visual communication. It also links these schools via satellite to thousands of other schools across the U.S., Canada and Mexico. It is the first Interactive Distance Learning Project in the nation.

College of the Menominee Nation (CMN) is an accredited Land Grant institution offering three Bachelors’ Degrees, more than a dozen Associate Degrees, and several technical diplomas. The College of Menominee Nation is an open enrollment institution.  Approximately 60% of those attending are American Indians from many different tribes.  The remaining student population is highly diverse, including Caucasian, Hispanic, Black and Asian students.  CMN is accredited and has transfer agreements with most University of Wisconsin campuses and many private institutions.

Just east of the county is the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay, a Division I college and Northeast Wisconsin Technical College with a satellite campus in Shawano. Northcentral Technical College serves the western part of the community with a campus in Wittenberg.

Health Care:

Primary and 24-hour emergency health care is available in Shawano at the Shawano Medical Center, with Green Bay, Wausau and Appleton medical and hospital facilities less than an hour away. The Green Bay and Appleton areas are regional medical centers with major hospitals offering specialization and advance care. Five nursing homes serve the county. Shawano County also boasts of clinics in Shawano, Stockbridge-Munsee Indian Reservation, Wittenberg, Birnamwood and Tigerton.

Transportation

Air Transportation - The Austin Straubel International Airport serves the citizens and business community of Brown County and Northeast Wisconsin by operating the facilities necessary to support commercial and general aviation activities. The Airport is located in the villages of Ashwaubenon and Hobart, just on the outskirts of the City of Green Bay. The Airport Code for the Austin Straubel International Airport is GRB. The Airport is currently served by five major airlines with six direct service cities making connections available to any destination in the world. In addition, the airport is host to a multitude of support businesses such as a parking facility, car rental agencies, restaurant/lounge, hotel, fixed based operators, gift shops, air freight companies, and customs house brokerage.

Weather and Climate

Keshena, WI, gets 31 inches of rain per year. The US average is 37. Snowfall is 46 inches. The average US city gets 25 inches of snow per year. The number of days with any measurable precipitation is 104.On average, there are 183 sunny days per year in Keshena, WI. The July high is around 82 degrees. The January low is 5. Our comfort index, which is based on humidity during the hot months, is a 50 out of 100, where higher is more comfortable. The US average on the comfort index is 44.

Contact Information

For additional information about this job and the duties, or about the Northeastern Area State and Private Forestry, please contact Tony Ferguson, Area Director (tferguson@fs.fed.us), or James Barresi, Deputy Director, (jbarresi@fs.fed.us) at 11 Campus Blvd., Newtown Square, PA (610) 557-4103.

The purpose of this early alert outreach is to maximize diversity of the pool of candidates. The USDA prohibits discrimination in its programs on the basis of race, color, national origin, sex, religion, age, disability, sexual orientation, and marital or familial status. The USDA Forest Service also provides reasonable accommodations to applicants with disabilities USDA is an Equal Employment Opportunity Employer.

OUTREACH NOTICE RESPONSE FORMUSDA Forest Service Tribal Liaison

NORTHEASTERN AREA, STATE AND PRIVATE FORESTRYU.S. Forest Service

Keshena, Wisconsin

Personal Information

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IF YES:Please provide a brief statement of (1) why you are interested in the job and (2) previous work experience that may qualify you for this position.