Sounds like the Forest Service is overstaffed and needs a little thinning
out like your trees, Smoke. Just kidding, of course, my fellow dedicated
public servant.

Given the number of acres the Forest Service manages (200 million or so),
it's actually a paltry few. By comparison, the National Park Service has
just about 200 permanent staff in the archeology job series nation-wide, as
I recall, for oversight of some 380 park units spread over nine regions and
about 80 million acres. Quite a few of those staffers are actually involved
with providing external technical assistance instead of cultural resource
management and research within our own park boundaries.

Perhaps a more interesting statistic is the projection I've heard that
about a third of the NPS archeologists will be eligible for retirement
within the next five years (not me, sad to say). So I suppose everyone
should start getting their applications ready now to avoid the rush. Of
course, when I was in graduate school 25 years ago they told us that all
the post-WWII-hiring-boom faculty at universities would be retiring by the
time we finished our degrees and there would be jobs aplenty for all. They
retired, sure enough, but most of the positions were then eliminated, and
every teaching position in archaeology that did open up had about 100
hopeful young applicants. So the eventual departure of current NPS staff
could bring about new job opportunities if their slots are back-filled or a
drastically reduced level of direct agency oversight if a substantial
portion of those positions lapse. Any bets?





                      Michael Pfeiffer
                      <[log in to unmask]        To:       [log in to unmask]
                      .US>                     cc:       (bcc: Vergil Noble/MWAC/NPS)
                      Sent by:                 Subject:  Re: Question Archaeologist in the USDA Forest
                      HISTORICAL                Service
                      ARCHAEOLOGY
                      <[log in to unmask]
                      >


                      09/09/04 12:27 PM
                      EST
                      Please respond to
                      HISTORICAL
                      ARCHAEOLOGY






Will Reed just did a query yesterday and the USDA Forest Service Heritage
program employs

333 professional archeologists (193 series) and
47 archeological technicians (102 series).
7 Historians (170 series)
7 Social Science Student/Trainees (199 series) and
2 "general Anthropologists" (190 series)

This is only permanent and not seasonal employees.

Smoke.


Smoke (Michael A.) Pfeiffer, RPA
Ozark-St. Francis National Forests
605 West Main Street
Russellville, Arkansas 72801
(479) 968-2354  Ext. 233
e-mail:  [log in to unmask]

It is easier to get forgiveness than permission.