Going into Forestry for college

[GlennPagano]

I have decided that I will be going to Penn State for forestry.  I was wondering what kind of job should I get for this summer?  Would it be best if I work for a tree service (www.rickstreeservice.com)?  Right now I am working at a funeral home and a surfshop and if I take this job I will be getting rid of the surfshop job.  What do you think? 

[ellmoe]

Glenn,

   You will learn more about trees with the tree service job. (Duh!) This is obviously an advantage. It also shows a future prospective employer that you are  serious about  your interest in forestry. I progressed through a series of forestry/wildlife related part-time and volunteer jobs through college. I met alot of industry people that way and was later asked by one to apply for a specific job. I was the successful candiate after the interviews. I would not have even known about the position without the contact. While it is "what you know" it is still often an infuence of "who you know".

Good luck.

Mark

[fencerowphil (Phil L.)]

Glenn,

One thing about the particular tree service link you listed
caught my eye.

He even does timber buying.   That is unusual in my part
of the country.  If you could hook up with a company like
that you could really explore the interest you have. 

[GlennPagano]

I just sent in an application and waiting for a response.

[ARKANSAWYER]

Just know that it is not personal, just business, but lots of places can not hire you if you are under 18.  There are OSHA rules and such.  I will not hire any one under 18 here at the mill.  So if they do not take you it may just be your age.

[Ron Wenrich]

Well, I'm a product of the Penn State forestry program, circa 1970.  Still the same football coach.  Which campus are you planning on going to?

For my summer jobs, I spent one in a chocolate factory, then I worked for the Bureau of Land Management in Oregon, and I put in a summer at a local sawmill.  There were benefits from each one of those jobs.

I found out I didn't want to work in a chocolate factory.   I found I could live quite well on my own and be 3,000 miles from home and that west coast forests are different than the east coast.  And I found that I liked working at the mill level.  I also got to see what government work was like as compared to industrial work.

I think every forester should spend time at a sawmill.  They should see what the insides of a tree looks like so they can learn how to figure out the different qualities in the timber they are managing.  They should also get a good grasp of lumber grades and lumber uses.

Tree service work is also a good option.  There seems to be quite a bit of work in urban forestry and utility forestry. 

[Kevin]

We prefer at least 2 years of experience in arborculture in addition to a clean and valid drivers license. CDL licenses are prefered. 

This could be a road block.

[GlennPagano]

We prefer at least 2 years of experience in arborculture in addition to a clean and valid drivers license. CDL licenses are prefered. 

This could be a road block.

Yea I know but hopefully they can hire me as like a helper/slave

[Dan_Shade]

motivation goes a long ways, good luck on getting a job!

[Ron Scott]

Don't pass up the idea of getting on a USDA Forest Service firefighting or hotshot crew for the summer.

Also check in with the nearby Allegheny National Forest in Warren, PA. They are often partial to Penn State forestry students. Penn State is a good forestry school.

[GlennPagano]

Don't pass up the idea of getting on a USDA Forest Service firefighting or hotshot crew for the summer.

Also check in with the nearby Allegheny National Forest in Warren, PA. They are often partial to Penn State forestry students. Penn State is a good forestry school.

I would love to do that but I usally go down the beach everyweekend

[beenthere]

...............

I would love to do that but I usally go down the beach every weekend

That says a lot about how your career in Forestry will turn out....IMO   

[GlennPagano]

Yea I know what you are thinking but what would you rather do when you were 17 work or go to the beach

[Ron Scott]

I went to the beach at 17. Joined the US Marine Corp. ;)

[Dodgy Loner]

It would be too late to get on a hotshot crew this summer anyway.  You might want to keep that in mind for a summer job once you get into college.

[johncinquo]

I went to the beach at 17. Joined the US Marine Corp. ;)

THATS the quote of the year right there! 


Besides the people on board here, I know 3 people with degrees in forestry.  1 is a bar owner. 1 is an insurance salesman.  1 is a game warden.   I think it must be a hard field to get into a secure job in that makes worthwhile money.  There has to be a lot said for being able to work out in the woods or field and enjoy the outdoors, but the pay seems to be low for what you spend getting the degree and education.  I still wish ya the best of luck in the field though. 

Your only 17 once, and so are the girls, enjoy the summer at the beach!  In a year or so all you'll have is work to look forward to.

[beenthere]

Yea I know what you are thinking but what would you rather do when you were 17 work or go to the beach

:D :D

I worked (about 90 hours a week at $1 an hour and gas was 1/3 of that wage), and had no beach to go to. Wanted to go to forestry school, and that is how I figured it would happen. But I do understand your pressure.....   But I still had time for girls...they are not all at the beach. 8) 8)

[GlennPagano]

I used to belive that I will be going to college for engineering and this is what I told everyone including family.  Now they ask me what I am studying in college.  I tell them forestry and they do not know fully what it is.  I try to explain it but there are so many parts to it.  What would be a good answer when someone asks me what forestry is and what will one do when it?

[Dan_Shade]

tell them it's kind of like a tree hugger with a brain. 

[Cedarman]

My son went to Purdue for a forestry degree.  After school an opportunity to open a cedar mill in Alabama came along.  He worked for me  at the Indiana mill during his time off during college.  He did his share of "playing" too.   He built the mill and ran it for 7 years and then he went to start a whole tree grinding operation in Ok.  He lives in a much better house, drives newer vehicles  and makes more money than I do.  Go figure.

He set the stage by learning to deal with equipment, sawmills, loggers, customers, logging, maintenance etc while he was in college.  If the Alabama mill did not work out, he could use his management experience to get another job.

Your future work will be predicated on the total preparation you do now including college.
My summer job for 3 weeks every summer for 5 years was to supervise 12 girls on a detasseling crew in the cornfield.  You can find girls in unexpected places.  One day they figured out a way to extend break.  They took a bet on who I would kiss the longest.  It took a while to kiss 12 girls.  I think you go to jail for doing that these days.  Crew boss taking advantage of pretty girls.  Ah, them memories.

[Dodgy Loner]

Besides the people on board here, I know 3 people with degrees in forestry.  1 is a bar owner. 1 is an insurance salesman.  1 is a game warden.   I think it must be a hard field to get into a secure job in that makes worthwhile money.  There has to be a lot said for being able to work out in the woods or field and enjoy the outdoors, but the pay seems to be low for what you spend getting the degree and education.  I still wish ya the best of luck in the field though. 

Practically everybody I graduated with is gainfully employed in the field of natural resources.  Jobs are easy to come by, if you're willing to relocate.  Sometimes you have to have some experience before you get a decent job.  That's what I did during the summers.  I had two internships with Weyerhaeuser - one in North Carolina and one in Mississippi.  I also spent a summer as an intern for Aracruz Celulose in Espirito Santo, Brazil.  If you want to stay close to home your whole life, you'll have trouble finding a decent job, but if you're willing to move around, you'll have no trouble.

[Ron Scott]

Ditto! One needs to be "willing to move" to keep their options open for available  forestry jobs. A breath of experience is also gained by working in different forest regions of the country.

[WDH]

I urge you to take your studies seriously.  A mediorce student may have a hard time getting a job.  If you perform well in school (make A's not C's in your courses), and if you work in the summers as an Intern to get experience, you can do well.  You have to be committed, and your performance in school will show that.  Have a good time, but make your studies your priority.  The best get the best, and the worst get the least.  Good luck!

[GlennPagano]

I am looking at forestry schools and I was wondering what are your opinon on University of Vermont, University of Montana and Penn State?  Are there any other good school I should be looking at?

[Tom]

The University of Georgia in Athens is a great school, in a good and centralized town with a reputation second to none.

[Ron Wenrich]

I think a lot depends on what type of forestry you want to go into.  Practices vary from area to area.  We didn't study too much plantation forestry at Penn State, and there was more emphasis on hardwoods.  Pine production isn't practiced much in our area.

If you're interested in southern or western forests, then choose a college that is in that area. 

Here's a list of accredited forestry schools:  http://www.bugwood.org/silviculture/forestryschools.html

Vermont's is not accredited by the Society of American Foresters.  Neither is Rutgers or Montana.  Being accredited carries a lot of weight in the hiring end and in some states, in the licensing end.

Instead of Vermont, think about Maine or Syracuse.  Instead of Montana, think Idaho or Oregon State.  Out of state is going to mean a lot higher tuition fee. 

[Dan_Shade]

also, don't overlook the networking potentials of schools in getting jobs after college.  Find out what the employment rates are of the different schools you are looking at after school.  be prepared at some college professor being offended at the idea of you going to school in order to prepare for a career, though.  You gotta look past them!

I had a few friends in Forestry at WVU way back when, and at that time, they were boasting a 100% employment rate (this is from memory, so don't beat me up if I'm wrong).

I second the making the most of school, I did pretty good in school, but I could have done better, I now somewhat regret not trying harder.  It looks impressive on a resume to have excellent grades.

[ellmoe]

   I'll say this about the process of obtaining a forestry/wildlife degree, in the experience of my classmates and I, the first two years were less than enjoyable, the last two, great! It's hard to sit through the humanities courses etc. you will have to take. Just stick with it and the years spent in the School of Forestry will make it worthwhile.

Mark

[Tillaway]

I am starting to see one heck of a allot of applicants from east coast schools.  In fact we have interns from, Michigan Tech and SUNY ( Northern Arizona University usually has at least one here but not so far this year).  Our past applicants for permanent forestry positions have been mostly from the east coast or the mid west.  We try to hire from Oregon State, University of Washington, or Idaho.  Humboldt is a California RPF prep school and we rarely get any applicants from there.

East coast degrees can travel west.  You have to show the ability to learn quick.  Our harvesting systems are different and the terrain here is... extreme.  We are some what reluctant to hire from out side the region due to the terrain.  We usually ask an applicant if they have been to western Oregon or Washington before so they have at least seen what they will be getting in to.

Do west coast degrees travel east?

[Ron Wenrich]

Sure they do.  I ran into a logger with a forestry degree from the west coast that was doing a seedling/sapling inventory under telephone utility lines.  He said that logging jobs were getting scarce, so he came east.

The knowledge transfers pretty well.  You just have to learn how things are done in each locale.  We don't have high lead logging and we don't have large clearcuts.  Our woodlots are mainly privately owned and they are much smaller.  We're heavy into selection cutting, and in some areas, pulpwood markets are slim. 

As for extreme terrain, I had a logger say to me just last week, that after watching the Axman series, he felt he could do that with a skidder. He didn't feel the terrain was any worse than what we find in the ridge and valley section of Pennsylvania. 

[BaldBob]

Although I was raised in Pennsylvania, I chose Colorado State University over Penn State. At the time (50 years ago) out of state tuition at CSU was less than in state tuition at PSU; that is not the case today.  However, I am pretty sure that out of state tuition at the University of Idaho ( an excellent forestry school from which I hired several graduates before I retired) is currently less than instate tuition at PSU, and out of state costs at Oregon State University ( another excellent school whose graduates I was quite pleased with) are very comparable with instate costs at PSU. My evaluation of Penn State graduates was that though they had less practical knowledge of western forestry than graduates of OSU, Uof I, Humboldt State, or even Cal or the U of W, the better students quickly caught up.
As was mentioned earlier, what school is best for you depends on what type of forestry career you want to follow.  If, for instance, you are interested in a career with  Government, then schools like CSU, Utah State, Penn State, N. Arizona U, U of Missouri, Purdue, etc. might be your best choice, while if you are interested in a career in the private sector then one of the Southern forestry schools would be your best choice for work in the South, and OSU, or the U of I would probably be your best choice for the West, for instance. Also which specialty you want to follow dictates which school is best. For instance one of the best schools for GIS is the Univ. of New Hampshire. Other schools may excel in forest biometrics, or silviculture, or Forest policy, or watershed management.  If, as I suspect, you have no idea of where you want to go (both literally and figuratively), you could do far worse than going to a good generalist school such as Penn State. and then, if you wish to specialize, go to a graduate school that excels in that specialty/region. 

[Cedarman]

BaldBob, I wish I were sitting across from you drinking a beer.  I would make you buy the next round for messing with my Purdue.  Other than messing with us, you make good points.

[BaldBob]

Yeah, I realized that I misspelled Purdue right after I hit "Post".  I couldn't find an edit function for this forum. Is there one?   Oops just found the edit function.

[GlennPagano]

Ok I narrowed my choices down to just two colleges for forestry.  University of Maine and Penn State.

[pappy19]

Don't overlook the south. Most of the real forest management started in the south, both pine and hardwood management. I went to Louisiana Tech in north Louisiana where timber is king and still is. Louisiana Tech is a hands on, field oriented university. It will make you an artist....like my old prof said many years ago " this school of Forestry is part of the Arts & Science Department, 90% art and 10% science. Some folks become better artists than others". You can go to the finest school and make the best grades and still not be worth a crap in the woods, dealing with others or supervising subordinates. You'll probably learn more from some old forestry tech the first 2 years after graduating than you learned in 4 years of college. Just think about it.

[Riles]

Each school does have it's own reputation as to their focus and what they excel at. There are two forestry schools in Lousiana, the other being at LSU, where the focus is more environmental. LaTech produces the timber beasts. My dendro professor would say "I want you to be able to identify the marketable species from a chain away."

[GlennPagano]

I know that I should look in the south but I want to stay in the northeast.  I want to be close to home