Forest / Conservation Technician

Career Area: Agriculture, Horticulture, & the Outdoors

Occupation Group: Rangers and Foresters

Salary

Percentile wages tell how much a certain percentage of an overall population in a geographic area or within a given industry or field makes. The percentile wage estimate is the value of a wage below which a certain percent of workers fall.

An example would be the 25th percentile, 25 percent of workers employed in that occupation earn less and 75 percent earn more than the estimated wage value. At the 75th percentile, 75 percent of workers employed in that occupation earn less and 25 percent earn more than the estimated wage value.

A typical Forest / Conservation Technician earns the following wages (national and state):

State

The average salary in North Carolina for those pursuing this career is $36,141

National

The average salary in the United States for those pursuing this career is $39,049

What Does a Professional in this Career Do?

Works with foresters and conservation scientists to help maintain forests and natural areas. Tracks data on water, soil, disease and insect damage in forest areas; tracks wildlife and maintain trails or campsites; monitors timber and logging activity; patrols and assists with forest fire prevention measures; provides information to the public on forest or natural areas conservation .

Employment Trends

The job demand and job growth statistics shown here were derived from job posts over the past year. Expected job growth projections are extrapolated from year-over-year job post listing history.

Job demand and job growth is expected at the following rates:

Skills

A professional in this position typically utilizes the following skills in the course of everyday work in this exciting and challenging field:

Baseline Skills

The following are baseline skills every Forest / Conservation Technician is expected to have in order to experience success in this field:

• Planning: Working experience with the process of thinking about and organizing the activities required to achieve desired goals.
• Physical Abilities: Physical Abilities, which refers to the ability to quickly and repeatedly bend, stretch, twist, or reach out with the body, arms, and/or legs. These abilities often require strength, endurance, flexibility, balance and coordination.
• Communication Skills: The ability to convey information to another effectively and efficiently.
• Organizational Skills: Experience with a systematic process of structuring, integrating, co-ordinating task goals, and activities to resources in order to attain objectives.
• Writing: Experience expressing business messages effectively in written form. This may include planning drafting and revising as necessary.

Specialized Skills

These skills are specific to working in this career:

• Natural Resources: Natural resources are resources that exist without actions of humankind.
• Fire Suppression: Fire suppression systems are used to extinguish or prevent the spread of fire in a building or vehicle.
• Personnel Management: Human Resource Management [HRM or HR] is the management of human resources.
• Range Management: Working experience of Range Management, which is a professional natural science that centers around the study of rangelands and the conservation and sustainable management for the benefit of current societies and future generations.
• Repair: Restoration of a broken, damaged, or failed device, equipment, part, or property to an acceptable operating or usable condition or state.

Distinguishing Skills

Any Forest / Conservation Technician that possesses the following skills will stand out against the competition:

• Fire Control: Fire controlis the practice of reducing the heat output of afire, reducing the area over which the fire exists, or suppressing or extinguishing the fire by depriving it offuel,oxygen, orheat
• Resource Management: In organizational studies, resource management is the efficient and effective development of an organization's resources when they are needed.
• Fire Trucks: A fire truck is a large vehicle which carries fire fighters and equipment for putting out fires.
• Natural Resource Management: Natural resource management refers to the management of natural resources such as land, water, soil, plants and animals, with a particular focus on how management affects the quality of life for both present and future generations (stewardship).
• Environmental Education: Environmental education (EE) refers to organized efforts to teach how natural environments function, and particularly, how human beings can manage behavior and ecosystems to live sustainably.

Experience

This position typically requires the following level of experience. The numbers presented in the pie charts below were derived from actual job posts over the past year. Not all job postings list experience requirements.

Common Job Titles

It is possible to find work in this field in positions commonly listed as the following job titles:

• Forestry Technician
• Forest Ranger
• Forestry Technician Recreation
• Information Gatherer In
• Forestry Technician Fire

Similar Occupations

If you are interested in exploring similar occupations, you may want to research the following job titles:

• Conservation Scientist / Park Ranger
• Soil / Plant Scientist