Forestry

Well, I've decided to go back to school (already have a BA in English) to get my Forest Ecology and Management degree...or forest fire management degree...

Anyone here work in forestry? What do you think of it? I think it'll be great!

 

Work for the Chattahoochee-Oconee NF in Georgia. Been there for 6 years and love every minute of it... Once you get past all of the bureaucratic gubment redtape that is haha!

My job title is a GIS Specialist, but I get to get my hands in a little bit of everything... Timber marking, fisheries/wildlife, and fire.

I didn't graduate with a forestry degree, I actually got my BS in Applied Environmental Spatial Analysis. The FS needed an intern and I ended up getting on full time after I graduated.

The GIS side of stuff is probably the least favorite thing I do lol. I really enjoy the fire management side of things. We p-burn around 30k-35k acres a year and usually a couple dozen wildfires as well. I'm also working on my Firefighter Type 1 task book and go out with our Type 2 IA handcrew in the summer.

It's a great way to travel to some beautiful parts of the country. In 2013 we got up to Alaska, Montana, and Idaho. Last summer we were all over California. Gearing up to head out here in the next week or two when our module comes back up on rotation.

The pay isn't that great, contrary to what some folks think. But the benefits are and best of all, I'm not stuck in a cubicle 40 hours a week!

If you can get over the bureaucratic side of things, it's an awesome gig!

With the FS, the hardest part is getting your foot in the door. My advice is to take whatever position you can find and be willing to move around. Once you're in, it's a lot easier to move around and work towards a position you really want.

Let me know if you need anything else...

 

Thanks for all of your information! As crazy as it sounds, I've already changed my plans..."just slightly."

I'm actually going to enroll in Industrial Safety now, instead. (I have a habit of switching around a few times before settling on something that makes sense for me.) My wife and I were talking, and it makes sense for me and us. There are what seems to be endless jobs across the US in that field. The pay is decent (I'm happy making over $40K a year), and we can pretty much try to pick an area of the country we want to try to move to.

I was always a stickler for the safety side of things while doing the heavier work when I worked at Lowe's. It'll be great!

We are still going to try to find somewhere mountainous. Wyoming, Idaho, Montana sort of area.