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Agriculture, Horticulture, & the Outdoors - Careers

Agriculture, Horticulture, & the Outdoors

Forester

What Does a Professional in this Career Do?

A Forester manages large tracts of tree covered land, or manages trees in an urban setting. Directs tree harvests and plantings, develops plans for regenerating or protecting forest land, educates teachers and students about forest conservation. May inventory and appraise timber for sale by forest owners.

Job Outlook

There were 176 Forester job postings in North Carolina in the past year and 4016 in the United States.

In combination with other careers in the Forester industry, which includes the Forester career, the following graph shows the number of people employed for each year since 2015:

Salary

Many new Forester jobs have salaries estimated to be in the following ranges, based on the requirements and responsibilities listed in job postings from the past year.

National

The average estimated salary in the United States for this career, based on job postings in the past year, is $57,920.

State

The average estimated salary in North Carolina for this career, based on job postings in the past year, is $54,726.

Percentiles represent the percentage that is lower than the value. For example, 25% of estimated salaries for Forester postings in the United States in the past year were lower than $47,704.

Education and Experience

Posted Forester jobs typically require the following level of education. The numbers below are based on job postings in the United States from the past year. Not all job postings list education requirements.

Education LevelPercentage
Associate's Degree0%
Bachelor's Degree63.75%
Master's Degree9.59%
Doctoral Degree2.69%
Other10.53%

Posted Forester jobs typically require the following number of years of experience. The numbers below are based on job postings in the United States from the past year. Not all job postings list experience requirements.

Years of ExperiencePercentage
0 to 2 years68.57%
3 to 5 years26.18%
6 to 8 years3.22%
9+ years2.03%

Skills

Below are listings of the most common general and specialized skills Forester positions expect applicants to have as well as the most common skills that distinguish individuals from their peers. The percentage of job postings that specifically mention each skill is also listed.

Baseline Skills

A skill that is required across a broad range of occupations, including this one.

  • Management (65.79%)
  • Communication (38.15%)
  • Planning (32.17%)
  • Good Driving Record (31.7%)
  • Consulting (29.03%)
  • Microsoft Office (28.86%)
  • Operations (27.79%)
  • Detail Oriented (25.32%)
  • Computer Literacy (24.5%)
  • Problem Solving (24.35%)

Defining Skills

A core skill for this occupation, it occurs frequently in job postings.

  • Timber Harvesting (3.61%)
  • Forest Mensuration (9.59%)
  • Dendrology (7.17%)
  • Urban Forestry (29.99%)
  • Forest Management (26.93%)
  • Arboriculture (32.52%)
  • Horticulture (33.08%)
  • Environmental Science (23.81%)
  • Forestry (92.92%)
  • Land Tenure (33.99%)
  • Sandbag (11.25%)
  • Silviculture (15.02%)

Necessary Skills

A skill that is requested frequently in this occupation but isn’t specific to it.

  • Bilingual (Spanish/English) (9.67%)
  • Motor Vehicle Operation (13.26%)
  • Herbicides (16.32%)
  • Invasive Species Management (10.12%)
  • Auditing (12.79%)
  • Geographic Information Systems (50.85%)
  • Agriculture (18.72%)
  • ArcGIS (GIS Software) (8.57%)
  • Public Relations (15.19%)
  • Biology (19.76%)
  • Natural Resource Management (18.83%)
  • Construction (9.29%)
  • Data Collection (16.12%)
  • Landscape Maintenance (11.77%)
  • Environmental Studies (10.75%)
  • Geography (12.62%)
  • Geology (12.02%)
  • Global Positioning Systems (8.27%)
  • Land Management (9.34%)
  • Marketing (3.42%)
  • Pruning (17.48%)
  • Project Management (16.62%)
  • Resource Management (7.19%)
  • Medical Prescription (8.24%)

Distinguishing Skills

A skill that may distinguish a subset of the occupation.

  • Natural Resource Science (3.94%)
  • Forest Planning (1.21%)
  • Silvics (3.53%)
  • Timber Management (6.09%)
  • Forest Entomology (3.8%)
  • Forest Ecology (7.06%)
  • Agroforestry (2.21%)
  • Forest Genetics (3.06%)
  • Reforestation (9.56%)

Salary Boosting Skills

A professional who wishes to excel in this career path may consider developing the following highly valued skills. The percentage of job postings that specifically mention each skill is listed.

  • Forest Entomology (52.67%)
  • Timber Harvesting (50%)

Alternative Job Titles

Sometimes employers post jobs with Forester skills but a different job title. Some common alternative job titles include:

  • Consulting Utility Forester
  • Utility Forester
  • District Forester
  • Utility Arborist
  • Urban Forester
  • Production Supervisor
  • Urban Forestry Intern
  • Forest Supervisor
  • Procurement Forester

Similar Occupations

If you are interested in exploring occupations with similar skills, you may want to research the following job titles. Note that we only list occupations that have at least one corresponding NC State Online and Distance Education program.

Common Employers

Here are the employers that have posted the most Forester jobs in the past year along with how many they have posted.

United States

  • Acrt (395)
  • Asplundh Tree Experts (270)
  • Environmental International Consultants (215)
  • The Davey Tree Expert Company (213)
  • Davey Resource Group (168)
  • Cn Utility Consulting (167)
  • Sierra Pacific Industries (61)
  • Commonwealth Of Pennsylvania (56)
  • ACRT Services (52)
  • United States Forest Service (51)

North Carolina

  • State of North Carolina (36)
  • Environmental International Consultants (27)
  • Asplundh Tree Experts (21)
  • United States Forest Service (18)
  • Prf Forestry Specialists (13)
  • Cn Utility Consulting (13)
  • Acrt (7)
  • Weyerhaeuser (6)
  • Plank Road Forestry (3)
  • N.C Department Of Transportation (3)

NC State Programs Relevant to this Career

If you are interested in preparing for a career in this field, the following NC State Online and Distance Education programs offer a great place to start!