How to become Forest and Conservation Worker in 2024

Forest and Conservation Worker Under supervision, perform manual labor necessary to develop, maintain, or protect areas such as forests, forested areas, woodlands, wetlands, and rangelands through such activities as raising and transporting seedlings; combating insects, pests, and diseases harmful to plant life; and building structures to control water, erosion, and leaching of soil. Includes forester aides, seedling pullers, tree planters, and gatherers of nontimber forestry products such as pine straw.

Forest and Conservation Worker is Also Know as

In different settings, Forest and Conservation Worker is titled as

  • Christmas Tree Farmer
  • Conservation Officer
  • Field Laborer
  • Forest Ranger
  • Forest Resource Specialist
  • Forestry Support Specialist
  • Park Maintainer
  • Reforestation Worker
  • Tree Farmer
  • Tree Planter

Education and Training of Forest and Conservation Worker

Forest and Conservation Worker is categorized in Job Zone Two: Some Preparation Needed

Experience Required for Forest and Conservation Worker

Some previous work-related skill, knowledge, or experience is usually needed. For example, a teller would benefit from experience working directly with the public.

Education Required for Forest and Conservation Worker

These occupations usually require a high school diploma.

Degrees Related to Forest and Conservation Worker

Training Required for Forest and Conservation Worker

Employees in these occupations need anywhere from a few months to one year of working with experienced employees. A recognized apprenticeship program may be associated with these occupations.

Related Ocuupations

Some Ocuupations related to Forest and Conservation Worker in different industries are

What Do Forest and Conservation Worker do?

  • Check equipment to ensure that it is operating properly.
  • Confer with other workers to discuss issues, such as safety, cutting heights, or work needs.
  • Fight forest fires or perform prescribed burning tasks under the direction of fire suppression officers or forestry technicians.
  • Perform fire protection or suppression duties, such as constructing fire breaks or disposing of brush.
  • Select or cut trees according to markings or sizes, types, or grades.
  • Identify diseased or undesirable trees and remove them, using power saws or hand saws.
  • Spray or inject vegetation with insecticides to kill insects or to protect against disease or with herbicides to reduce competing vegetation.
  • Drag cut trees from cutting areas and load trees onto trucks.
  • Thin or space trees, using power thinning saws.
  • Maintain tallies of trees examined and counted during tree marking or measuring efforts.
  • Erect signs or fences, using posthole diggers, shovels, or other hand tools.
  • Prune or shear tree tops or limbs to control growth, increase density, or improve shape.
  • Select tree seedlings, prepare the ground, or plant the trees in reforestation areas, using manual planting tools.
  • Provide assistance to forest survey crews by clearing site-lines, holding measuring tools, or setting stakes.
  • Explain or enforce regulations regarding camping, vehicle use, fires, use of buildings, or sanitation.
  • Operate skidders, bulldozers, or other prime movers to pull a variety of scarification or site preparation equipment over areas to be regenerated.
  • Examine and grade trees according to standard charts and staple color-coded grade tags to limbs.
  • Maintain campsites or recreational areas, replenishing firewood or other supplies and cleaning kitchens or restrooms.
  • Sort tree seedlings, discarding substandard seedlings, according to standard charts or verbal instructions.

Qualities of Good Forest and Conservation Worker

  • Oral Comprehension: The ability to listen to and understand information and ideas presented through spoken words and sentences.
  • Problem Sensitivity: The ability to tell when something is wrong or is likely to go wrong. It does not involve solving the problem, only recognizing that there is a problem.
  • Oral Expression: The ability to communicate information and ideas in speaking so others will understand.
  • Static Strength: The ability to exert maximum muscle force to lift, push, pull, or carry objects.
  • Stamina: The ability to exert yourself physically over long periods of time without getting winded or out of breath.
  • Flexibility of Closure: The ability to identify or detect a known pattern (a figure, object, word, or sound) that is hidden in other distracting material.
  • Multilimb Coordination: The ability to coordinate two or more limbs (for example, two arms, two legs, or one leg and one arm) while sitting, standing, or lying down. It does not involve performing the activities while the whole body is in motion.
  • Dynamic Strength: The ability to exert muscle force repeatedly or continuously over time. This involves muscular endurance and resistance to muscle fatigue.
  • Trunk Strength: The ability to use your abdominal and lower back muscles to support part of the body repeatedly or continuously over time without "giving out" or fatiguing.
  • Near Vision: The ability to see details at close range (within a few feet of the observer).
  • Far Vision: The ability to see details at a distance.
  • Deductive Reasoning: The ability to apply general rules to specific problems to produce answers that make sense.
  • Written Comprehension: The ability to read and understand information and ideas presented in writing.
  • Depth Perception: The ability to judge which of several objects is closer or farther away from you, or to judge the distance between you and an object.
  • Speech Recognition: The ability to identify and understand the speech of another person.
  • Speech Clarity: The ability to speak clearly so others can understand you.
  • Control Precision: The ability to quickly and repeatedly adjust the controls of a machine or a vehicle to exact positions.
  • Finger Dexterity: The ability to make precisely coordinated movements of the fingers of one or both hands to grasp, manipulate, or assemble very small objects.
  • Manual Dexterity: The ability to quickly move your hand, your hand together with your arm, or your two hands to grasp, manipulate, or assemble objects.
  • Arm-Hand Steadiness: The ability to keep your hand and arm steady while moving your arm or while holding your arm and hand in one position.
  • Selective Attention: The ability to concentrate on a task over a period of time without being distracted.
  • Visualization: The ability to imagine how something will look after it is moved around or when its parts are moved or rearranged.
  • Inductive Reasoning: The ability to combine pieces of information to form general rules or conclusions (includes finding a relationship among seemingly unrelated events).
  • Perceptual Speed: The ability to quickly and accurately compare similarities and differences among sets of letters, numbers, objects, pictures, or patterns. The things to be compared may be presented at the same time or one after the other. This ability also includes comparing a presented object with a remembered object.
  • Information Ordering: The ability to arrange things or actions in a certain order or pattern according to a specific rule or set of rules (e.g., patterns of numbers, letters, words, pictures, mathematical operations).
  • Category Flexibility: The ability to generate or use different sets of rules for combining or grouping things in different ways.
  • Extent Flexibility: The ability to bend, stretch, twist, or reach with your body, arms, and/or legs.
  • Time Sharing: The ability to shift back and forth between two or more activities or sources of information (such as speech, sounds, touch, or other sources).
  • Written Expression: The ability to communicate information and ideas in writing so others will understand.
  • Fluency of Ideas: The ability to come up with a number of ideas about a topic (the number of ideas is important, not their quality, correctness, or creativity).
  • Visual Color Discrimination: The ability to match or detect differences between colors, including shades of color and brightness.
  • Response Orientation: The ability to choose quickly between two or more movements in response to two or more different signals (lights, sounds, pictures). It includes the speed with which the correct response is started with the hand, foot, or other body part.
  • Spatial Orientation: The ability to know your location in relation to the environment or to know where other objects are in relation to you.
  • Originality: The ability to come up with unusual or clever ideas about a given topic or situation, or to develop creative ways to solve a problem.
  • Hearing Sensitivity: The ability to detect or tell the differences between sounds that vary in pitch and loudness.
  • Gross Body Coordination: The ability to coordinate the movement of your arms, legs, and torso together when the whole body is in motion.
  • Reaction Time: The ability to quickly respond (with the hand, finger, or foot) to a signal (sound, light, picture) when it appears.
  • Auditory Attention: The ability to focus on a single source of sound in the presence of other distracting sounds.
  • Speed of Closure: The ability to quickly make sense of, combine, and organize information into meaningful patterns.
  • Peripheral Vision: The ability to see objects or movement of objects to one's side when the eyes are looking ahead.
  • Gross Body Equilibrium: The ability to keep or regain your body balance or stay upright when in an unstable position.
  • Memorization: The ability to remember information such as words, numbers, pictures, and procedures.
  • Speed of Limb Movement: The ability to quickly move the arms and legs.
  • Rate Control: The ability to time your movements or the movement of a piece of equipment in anticipation of changes in the speed and/or direction of a moving object or scene.
  • Mathematical Reasoning: The ability to choose the right mathematical methods or formulas to solve a problem.
  • Number Facility: The ability to add, subtract, multiply, or divide quickly and correctly.
  • Glare Sensitivity: The ability to see objects in the presence of a glare or bright lighting.
  • Explosive Strength: The ability to use short bursts of muscle force to propel oneself (as in jumping or sprinting), or to throw an object.
  • Sound Localization: The ability to tell the direction from which a sound originated.
  • Wrist-Finger Speed: The ability to make fast, simple, repeated movements of the fingers, hands, and wrists.
  • Dynamic Flexibility: The ability to quickly and repeatedly bend, stretch, twist, or reach out with your body, arms, and/or legs.
  • Night Vision: The ability to see under low-light conditions.

Tools Used by Forest and Conservation Worker

  • Backhoes
  • Backpack sprayers
  • Brush hogs
  • Chain saws
  • Claw hammers
  • Dibblers
  • Directional compasses
  • Dump trucks
  • Electronic measuring devices
  • Epicormic knives
  • Fire plows
  • Fire trucks
  • Four wheel drive 4WD vehicles
  • Geodetic ground global positioning system GPS receivers
  • Hand saws
  • Hard hats
  • Harvesting machines
  • Herbicide sprayers
  • Loppers
  • Mattocks
  • Measuring tapes
  • Motorboats
  • Multipurpose tractors
  • Personal computers
  • Phillips head screwdrivers
  • Planting drills
  • Portable data collectors
  • Portable ladders
  • Power drills
  • Protective ear muffs
  • Pruning saws
  • Riding mowers
  • Spades
  • Spray guns
  • Straight screwdrivers
  • Two way radios
  • Water pumps
  • Weedeaters

Technology Skills required for Forest and Conservation Worker

  • Database software
  • ESRI ArcGIS software
  • Geographic information system GIS software
  • Geographic information system GIS systems
  • IBM Lotus 1-2-3
  • IBM Lotus Notes
  • Leica Geosystems ERDAS IMAGINE
  • Microsoft Access
  • Microsoft Excel
  • Microsoft Office software
  • Microsoft Outlook
  • Microsoft PowerPoint
  • Microsoft Project
  • Microsoft Windows
  • Microsoft Word
  • Word processing software