How is the job market in forestry?

I work in the forest products utilization field. Specifically, forestry probably isn't the best if you're looking for lots of opportunities (and "good" pay). But, if you're passionate about it, it may be worth it.

I'm getting my PhD in forestry and natural resources at warnell at UGA. My best advice is to research your dream job career much further before you make any commitment or inquiries about grad school. It's a big commitment. Find something you LOVE. do that.

In general, the natural resources fields like forestry, ecology, and wildlife pay very, very low salaries. Even with a MS, you will find the pay astonishingly low. PhD's make a decent living, but jobs are a harder to find because you are so specialized by then. But their salaries are still well below PhDs in other scientific fields.

Find some job boards and start looking at qualifications & salaries and see if any of them interest you. That will give you some idea of the real world in these professions.

it's pretty good if you like cutting them down.

Definitely agree with Renewed's and Bullet's posts.

From my vantage point as a Great Lakes' state natural resources employee (both BS and MS fisheries/wildlife), our department's Forestry bureau is down in both staff and funding, largely because of the decline in demand for paper/pulp.

Presently a lot of retired/attrition positions aren't being filled here. There will be a need to replace (most of) positions, but it's dependent on funding/will of the politicians/people. Compared when I started (25+ years ago), natural resources funding at my state level is less and comes with more strings attached (i.e. directed at specific areas/projects). Right now, it's toward invasive species, such as gypsy moth/emerald ash borer etc.

My opinion is that areas of forestry dealing with impacts (climate change, invasive pests, city/community forester) will have more potential than the traditional management positions. There's been interest in, but not much forward movement, in looking at biofuels (e.g. ethanol) production from forests, so that area has potential if the energy-source situation elicits funding.

future is good. knock on wood.

Wildland firefighter.

Of course, be prepared to abuse your body physically for a few years as a grunt, maybe you can parlay it into a fire management position.

You had really better like manual labor though.

PS: GAC Rulz.

Good to see another wildland firefighter on the board. Hard to get into if you dont have minimal experience/veteran status/minority status though

When we've started making our forestry business in Quebec, we've faced investing and financing problems.

But few weeks after we've started searching of investors, we found them and could be able to pay loggers for their forestry business.

Where are you getting your facts?

OP, you could consider working for a paper/packaging company such as IP and Menasha. They have large forestry departments where your skill set is needed. There is now an increased focus on sustainable forestry coupled with huge demand for sustainable packaging - and the forestry side of the business being more visible due to environmental concerns - has opened up more demand for forestry skills. If you have an inkling of business experience and think you'd be good at managing people and working with the c-suite side of a company, you can go pretty darn far in the industry. Of course the downside is that the further you climb and the more money you make, the more time you spend behind a computer screen in an urban office building... Which sucks.

TL;DR is that the market is good as long as you are okay working for a corporation and understand that with success comes less time outdoors.

US paper companies are becoming increasingly conservation minded. All of the logging is planned and accounted for, this is not deforestation/clear-cutting. The larger companies have contracts with private farms and public lands (think fire prevention) and even grow their own trees a la Christmas tree farms. Recycling is a win-win and most US firms are on top of it. The mills are a problem, but there has been a lot of progress in the US over the past ten years. It is a different industry today. Big firms would rather recycle. It saves money and resources.

It's definitely not so easy as it seems, but when there was a chance to start our business, we could ask guys from Pivotal investing company ( their site: https://pivotalcapitalcorp.com ) , and they gave us all the guarantees we needed, as well as money for our heavy machinery needs, especially for forestry sphere of business.

This is an old thread.

BS (equivalent, earned the credits but not the degree; had previous degree); MS, PhD. in ecology/natural resources.

Getting toward the end of career, making 100K+ but it was a long slog and might be getting out a couple years earlier than planned. Agency work, now taken over by lawyers and project managers (both with little experience in science or the field, but good at wordsmithing and telling others what they should be doing/thinking and how). So it's kind of a nasty untenable situation. Imagine if the likes of jaminloper or rigged for gary-sally were your boss and bosses boss and bosses bosses boss.

Anyway the field jobs are more fun, but hard to get and the pay is low. As you move up you get better pay, but it's mostly office work, and the beancounters and likes of those described above get their claws into your work and you forget why you are even there anymore.

Private sector work has its pluses and minuses. More flexibility and get to do all sorts of great things, but pressure to get money and work billable hours can be high. So higher stress. The honchos might make a lot of money, regular workers about the same as an agency.

University research work might be the best but not many jobs out there.

Big difference between forest ecology and forestry as a commodity. Forest ecology, and ecology in general, don't have a lot of jobs and they don't pay well.

Not sure as the model number, but its small easily towable, one of the best power feed systems I've seen. Don't even mess with anything that does not have power feed BTW.

watch the auctions they come up fairly often as they are popular with rental companies

Barring that you should probably ask this question in the arborist 101 or pro climber forum, loggers tend to leave the brush behind or burn it.

I run a Vermeer bc 700xl amazing little machine will chip anything that fits. Small easy to maintain and light cheap repairs and is no slouch. Used low hours all day long 6000$ like new. Most come from rental agency used and are a steal. I have a bc 1800 and it sits more then anything the little 700 is amazing in cemeteries and anywhere you want to unhook and push around with a guy or two.