What Makes You?

[jon12345]

What do you consider makes you a forester, other than job title??  :P

[Ron Scott]

A college degree in forestry and 45 years experience in applying forest land and resource management, and being recognized by my peers as having the knowlege, skills, and ability to be certified to practice forestry and being a member of professional forestry societies and organizations and completing continuing education credits annually to maintain the current state of the art with the advances in the science of forestry and its practices.
:P

[jon12345]

I was getting the impression that it is something similar to what you've stated.  Just graduating from college I've found it hard to find anything that doesn't require years of experience, or wants an employee with college level education to accept peanuts for wages. 

[Tom]

Jon,
I say this half-way in humor, half-way seriously and 90 percent honestly.

The only way anyone gets paid what they are worth is if they own the company.

If you will talk to any experienced college grad, you will find that they were under-paid when they got out of school.  Some stuck it out, learned their trade and recovered.  Some did not.

The Sciences, agricultural sciences especially, are notorious for having new folks earn their wings. 

While a college education teaches a lot of the book, it is a door opener at best.  But, it is a necessary key to being accepted as a professional in the fields.

This new world where it is advertised that computer programmers make big bucks isn't quite holding true.  There are some people with a silver spoon in their mouth, but most have to pay their dues and prove their worth. 

Education is a continuing effort.

[Jeff]

What do you consider makes you a forester, other than job title??  :P

Here is a thread where I posed that very question after dealings with a timberbuyer calling himself a forester.

https://forestryforum.com/board/index.php?topic=9965.0

[jon12345]

Simply put, I think of a forester as someone who can meet landowner objectives, while keeping the health of the forest intact.  ???

[Ron Wenrich]

Yes, but you must also help the landowner define those objectives.  Most landowners don't really know enough about forests to really form well thought out objectives.  Most think too short term, and not enough long term.

[SwampDonkey]

Yes, but you must also help the landowner define those objectives.  Most landowners don't really know enough about forests to really form well thought out objectives.  Most think too short term, and not enough long term.

That's for sure. I experience the same here. Some even have a logger con them into getting a subsidized management plan done so he knows what stumpage to pay as he goes about flattening the woodlot. Don't get any more short term than that. You find out about these when the landowner/logger complains about a poorly estimated volume. 'We clearcut that lot and there was no where near as much wood as this guy cruised.' That helped us weed out the poor timber cruisers among the foresters and also led to the demise of subsidized management plans. Why bother writing plans when most use them to clearcut. Then there is the other extreme with the guy shelfing the management plan and taunting all the harvest contractors in the area with head games.  :

[estiers]

I was getting the impression that it is something similar to what you've stated. Just graduating from college I've found it hard to find anything that doesn't require years of experience, or wants an employee with college level education to accept peanuts for wages.

What do you consider peanuts?

[snowman]

   On the plus side, foresters know things i don't , every species of beetle and their latin names, stuff like that. On the minus side, they sometimes can be so incredably stupid i want to wring their skinny necks.Tree marking comes to mind, it' my pet peeve. I know you guys want certain trees to go and certain trees to stay but when you mark one scraggly fir in the middle of several big pine and it's like a criminal offense to cut or even damage a leave tree, do you ever wonder just how a man with a chainsaw is going to make this happen?????????

[jon12345]

peanuts = makin the same wage non-educated entry level positions are making

[SwampDonkey]

peanuts = makin the same wage non-educated entry level positions are making

I seen that with several consultants who would hire highschool students to pull chain and compass, then call them engineers and pay them almost equal to graduates with 3 or more years experience.  All along sending them into norther communities to live out of ATCO trailors on 20 + day shifts, no days off. :

[Mr Mom]

     do you need to go to school or is the 45 years enough??





     Mr Mom

[Ron Scott]

Continued education is required to retain ones cerification among their peers. Forestry is not an exact science and there is always more to learn. 45 years is not enough to "know it all" and to apply forestry under changing laws, rules, regulations, technology etc. ;).

[Tillaway]

I seen that with several consultants who would hire highschool students to pull chain and compass, then call them engineers and pay them almost equal to graduates with 3 or more years experience.  All along sending them into norther communities to live out of ATCO trailors on 20 + day shifts, no days off. :

Hey... I know those guys. ;D

20 years + for me and I am still learning.  I go to training sessions all the time.

Snowman... sounds like a Forest Service sale, marked trees with no way to get them out.

[SwampDonkey]

Hey... I know those guys. ;D

I know you do :D :D :D :D

[bcraw98]

When I first introduced myself to the forum, I stated that I was a Rancher and a Forester. I thought that I was both by experience and didn't realize that a degree was needed to be either one. I thought a Forester was someone who preserved and left the woods better than they found them while making a living from them at the same time.  My Dad received a plaque from the State for being the top Forestry Conservationist in region 4 in 2000. He gave the award to me because I do most of the Forestry work and it hangs next to a similar plaque I received from the county on my office wall.   I would like to amend my being a Forsester to being a Forestry Conservationist and didn't intend to mislead anyone.

Barry Crawford Forestry Conservationist by family decree  :D

[Cedarman]

The one thing that I learned immediately after graduating from college and going to work for a major oil well servicing company was that my education was about to begin in earnest.  The company told me that my degree from Purdue only indicated that I had the ability to learn everything they were going to teach me. Also that 100 per cent was the only passing grade when it came to dealing with high radioactivity, high gas pressure, shaped charges and blasting caps and drilling rig safety.  Also that our customers did not think that 90% was a passing grade in other areas. Again, 100% was the only passing grade in their eyes. It took 6 months before I earned the company a dime.

That said, I think it is important that a person goes through an apprenticeship type program whether formal or informal to get the additional education and experience necessary to perform well in the career of their choice.

When I use a forester, I want to know that they have the mental ability, experience and ethics to help me achieve my goals.

This is where their credentials and referral lists are important.  If I am going to entrust someone with 100,000's of thousands of dollars worth of my future I want to make sure they are a true forester and have my best interest at heart.