Forest management VS. Industrial operations

[celliott]

I am going to Paul smiths college, and am a freshman this year.  I am enrolled in the forestry program, in industrial operations.  Forest management is very similar, coursewise, and i am still not sure which one i want to do.  opinions, please.
Thanks.

[beenthere]

celliott
Welcome to the forum.

What is your understanding of the differences in the two options?  Are the two vastly different, or similar in the core courses?

Are you interested in being in the woods some, or being in a production plant?

Have you an idea what your aptitude tests show?

[celliott]

My understanding of the differences in the 2 is not great.  The core classes are very similar, that is why the switch between them is so easy.
I would like to be in the woods, as much as possible, but dont really have an interest in becoming a career logger.  As for my aptidtude tests, do you mean core classes? because thats all i have took for a placement type test.

[Ron Wenrich]

Maybe I can give you a little perspective.  I have a BS in Forest Management.  When I graduated back in 1970, we just had the first Earth Day, and we were in the middle of a recession.  I sent my resume to over 200 companies, and to every state and federal government agency in the US and Canada that appealed to me.  My summer employment included working for BLM in Oregon and a sawmill in PA.

It took me several years to get my foot in the door in the forest industry.  Government had no openings, unless you had a Master's degree and were willing to work at the technician level.  My first job was setting chokers on a logging crew in Oregon.  From there, I went to inspecting utility poles, and then back to sawmills in PA. 

The sawmill work started out as stacking lumber, but I worked up to mill foreman and log scaler.  When they expanded their procurement end, I finally got to do the forest management work.

Forest management on the east coast basically involves dealing with landowners.  It doesn't make a bit of difference if you are in procurement or logging.  You have to be able to sell your services to them. 

After the mill gig, I had my own consulting forestry service with a partner.  The 1982 recession and 18% interest rates pretty well did in the business.  I went back to doing some timber cutting, but settled back at the industrial end.  I've worked mills from stacking to grading to sawing logs.  I also am pretty good at figuring out grade in logs, and I do quite a bit of operations management. 

Bottom line for me is that the industrial operations pay for the forest management end.  If you don't know what happens to a log after its felled, you'll end up just doing cutting or marking trees.  Good loggers are those that can market the material.  That means knowing the industrial end.

I think you have to decide whether you want to work in the woods or in the mill setting.  Industrial operations would also include buying or selling products.  There are lots of log buyers and lumber buyers. 

I'm biased.  I think every logger or forester should spend at least 6 months at the mill level before they ever get to the woods. 

What makes one course different from the other?  Can you blend both courses?

[celliott]

hey, thanks. that was helpful.  Like i said, i am a freshman, i'm still not sure, but i agree with you on the part about having to work in the woods for a while. you need to know both ends of the spectrum.  I am also looking to get a GIS certificate, which may help.

[WDH]

If you want to work for the Government, state or federal, Forest Management is probably the best way to go.  If you want to work in the Private Sector, the Industrial Operations route may make you more marketable.  Also, get whatever experience you can over the summers.

It boils down to your own preference for what you want to do.

[VT_Forestry]

I think it's been pretty well summed up but I'll toss my 2 cents in.  I just graduated with an industrial forestry operations degree, and for awhile I was going for both FRM and IFO.  The difference in the two was very little, just a few classes that were required for IFO that were just regular electives in FRM.  The major difference in those extra classes was that IFO was more business/law oriented.  IFO added the business and economic aspect of forestry as opposed to focusing strictly on management.  A lot of the people in IFO were interested in going into the procurement sector. 

[Restoman]

Minor in one, that will solve your problems right there and it will probably just take one extra semester to accomplish.  I'm 6 hours from a minor in Sociology, but I just wanted to get out.