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Career Details

19-4071.00 - Forest and Conservation Technicians


Provide technical assistance regarding the conservation of soil, water, forests, or related natural resources. May compile data pertaining to size, content, condition, and other characteristics of forest tracts under the direction of foresters, or train and lead forest workers in forest propagation and fire prevention and suppression. May assist conservation scientists in managing, improving, and protecting rangelands and wildlife habitats.


Key Facts
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Bright Outlook
Career Details
Green Job
Career Details
Current Employment
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Forecasted Employment
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Change in Employment
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Change in Employment %
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Tasks
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Tasks
The tasks listed below can be performed to prepare you for a career in this field.
Core
  • Train and lead forest and conservation workers in seasonal activities, such as planting tree seedlings, putting out forest fires, and maintaining recreational facilities.
  • Thin and space trees and control weeds and undergrowth, using manual tools and chemicals, or supervise workers performing these tasks.
  • Patrol park or forest areas to protect resources and prevent damage.
  • Provide information about, and enforce, regulations, such as those concerning environmental protection, resource utilization, fire safety, and accident prevention.
  • Map forest tract data using digital mapping systems.
Supplemental
  • Monitor activities of logging companies and contractors.
  • Select and mark trees for thinning or logging, drawing detailed plans that include access roads.
  • Manage forest protection activities, including fire control, fire crew training, and coordination of fire detection and public education programs.
  • Survey, measure, and map access roads and forest areas such as burns, cut-over areas, experimental plots, and timber sales sections.
  • Keep records of the amount and condition of logs taken to mills.
  • Supervise forest nursery operations, timber harvesting, land use activities such as livestock grazing, and disease or insect control programs.
  • Issue fire permits, timber permits, and other forest use licenses.
  • Develop and maintain computer databases.
  • Measure distances, clean sightlines, and record data to help survey crews.
  • Plan and supervise construction of access routes and forest roads.
  • Provide forestry education and general information, advice, and recommendations to woodlot owners, community organizations, and the general public.
  • Perform reforestation or forest renewal, including nursery and silviculture operations, site preparation, seeding and tree planting programs, cone collection, and tree improvement.
  • Conduct laboratory or field experiments with plants, animals, insects, diseases, and soils.
  • Provide technical support to forestry research programs in areas such as tree improvement, seed orchard operations, insect and disease surveys, or experimental forestry and forest engineering research.
  • Inspect trees and collect samples of plants, seeds, foliage, bark, and roots to locate insect and disease damage.
  • Install gauges, stream flow recorders, and soil moisture measuring instruments, and collect and record data from them to assist with watershed analysis.
All data sourced from US Department of Labor, Employment & Training Administration O*Net Database.
Knowledge
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Knowledge

The items listed below are organized into sections that contain knowledge useful for pursuing a career in this field. Each section also contains a "Percentage of Importance" statistic that shows how relevant an item is to the occupation.
 Public Safety and Security
  • 76%
    Knowledge of relevant equipment, policies, procedures, and strategies to promote effective local, state, or national security operations for the protection of people, data, property, and institutions.
 English Language
  • 74%
    Knowledge of the structure and content of the English language including the meaning and spelling of words, rules of composition, and grammar.
 Customer and Personal Service
  • 70%
    Knowledge of principles and processes for providing customer and personal services. This includes customer needs assessment, meeting quality standards for services, and evaluation of customer satisfaction.
 Law and Government
  • 69%
    Knowledge of laws, legal codes, court procedures, precedents, government regulations, executive orders, agency rules, and the democratic political process.
 Administration and Management
  • 67%
    Knowledge of business and management principles involved in strategic planning, resource allocation, human resources modeling, leadership technique, production methods, and coordination of people and resources.
 Geography
  • 67%
    Knowledge of principles and methods for describing the features of land, sea, and air masses, including their physical characteristics, locations, interrelationships, and distribution of plant, animal, and human life.
 Mathematics
  • 66%
    Knowledge of arithmetic, algebra, geometry, calculus, statistics, and their applications.
 Education and Training
  • 65%
    Knowledge of principles and methods for curriculum and training design, teaching and instruction for individuals and groups, and the measurement of training effects.
 Biology
  • 65%
    Knowledge of plant and animal organisms, their tissues, cells, functions, interdependencies, and interactions with each other and the environment.
 Mechanical
  • 65%
    Knowledge of machines and tools, including their designs, uses, repair, and maintenance.
 Computers and Electronics
  • 61%
    Knowledge of circuit boards, processors, chips, electronic equipment, and computer hardware and software, including applications and programming.
 Personnel and Human Resources
  • 61%
    Knowledge of principles and procedures for personnel recruitment, selection, training, compensation and benefits, labor relations and negotiation, and personnel information systems.
 Production and Processing
  • 57%
    Knowledge of raw materials, production processes, quality control, costs, and other techniques for maximizing the effective manufacture and distribution of goods.
 Communications and Media
  • 57%
    Knowledge of media production, communication, and dissemination techniques and methods. This includes alternative ways to inform and entertain via written, oral, and visual media.
 Telecommunications
  • 55%
    Knowledge of transmission, broadcasting, switching, control, and operation of telecommunications systems.
 History and Archeology
  • 53%
    Knowledge of historical events and their causes, indicators, and effects on civilizations and cultures.
 Engineering and Technology
  • 53%
    Knowledge of the practical application of engineering science and technology. This includes applying principles, techniques, procedures, and equipment to the design and production of various goods and services.
 Transportation
  • 52%
    Knowledge of principles and methods for moving people or goods by air, rail, sea, or road, including the relative costs and benefits.
 Psychology
  • 52%
    Knowledge of human behavior and performance; individual differences in ability, personality, and interests; learning and motivation; psychological research methods; and the assessment and treatment of behavioral and affective disorders.
 Physics
  • 52%
    Knowledge and prediction of physical principles, laws, their interrelationships, and applications to understanding fluid, material, and atmospheric dynamics, and mechanical, electrical, atomic and sub- atomic structures and processes.
 Clerical
  • 52%
    Knowledge of administrative and clerical procedures and systems such as word processing, managing files and records, stenography and transcription, designing forms, and other office procedures and terminology.
 Design
  • 51%
    Knowledge of design techniques, tools, and principles involved in production of precision technical plans, blueprints, drawings, and models.
All data sourced from US Department of Labor, Employment & Training Administration O*Net Database.
Tools
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Tools
The tools listed below include machines, equipment, tools, and software that is useful for individuals who are interested in this career.
 Igniters
  • Terrain torches
 Dispersing and spraying appliances for agriculture
  • Gunjets for pressurized sprayers
  • Sprayers
  • Fertilizer spreaders
 Forestry machinery and equipment
  • Girdling tools
  • Clearing hooks
  • Grass whips
  • Brush hooks
  • Plug spades
  • Tree planter spades
  • Pruning saws
  • Increment borers
  • Tree corers
 Commercial fishing equipment
  • Frame nets
  • Gill nets
  • Seines
  • Trawls
 Aquaculture equipment
  • Macroalgae harvesters
 Earth moving machinery
  • Front end loaders
  • Backhoes
  • Aquatic weed harvesters
  • Hydraulic dredges
  • Track bulldozers
  • Bulldozers
  • Rubber-tired bulldozers
  • Amphibious excavators
  • Excavators
 Heavy equipment components
  • Fire plows
  • Slurry buckets
  • Snowplows
 Aerial lifts
  • Aerial bucket trucks
 Lifting equipment and accessories
  • Forklifts
  • Winches
  • Hydraulic truck-mounted cranes
  • Truck cranes
 Passenger motor vehicles
  • Pickup trucks
  • Trucks
 Product and material transport vehicles
  • Brush trucks
  • Dump trucks
  • Winch trucks
  • Water trucks
 Safety and rescue vehicles
  • Wildland fire pumper trucks
 Motorized cycles
  • Trail motorbikes
 Specialized and recreational vehicles
  • Farm tractors
  • All terrain vehicles ATV
 Commercial marine craft
  • Electroshocking boats
  • Tugboats
 Power tools
  • Chain saws
 Lenses and prisms
  • Basal area factor BAF prisms
  • Prisms
 Pumps
  • Truck-mounted water pumps
 Sampling equipment
  • Water monitoring samplers
  • Water samplers
 Length and thickness and distance measuring instruments
  • Hypsometers
  • Laser rangefinders
  • Altimeters
  • Relaskops
  • Laser tree measuring devices
  • Measuring wheels
  • Calipers
  • Mantax computer tree calipers
  • Wheeler pentaprism calipers
 Humidity and moisture measuring instruments
  • Moisture meters
  • Soil moisture meters
  • Watermark soil moisture data collectors
 Geophysical and geotechnical instruments
  • Geological compasses
  • Pocket transits
  • Crown densitometers
  • Magnetic locators
 Soil measuring equipment
  • Soil augers
  • Soil probes
 Land surveying instruments
  • Diameter tapes
  • Loggers' tapes
  • Stadia rods
  • Survey levels
  • Survey transits
  • Theodolites
  • Total stations
 Hydrological instruments
  • Stream flow gauges
  • Water level recorders
 Meteorological instruments
  • Electronic rain gauges ERR
  • Forestry rain gauges
 Light and wave generating and measuring equipment
  • Laser surveying equipment
  • Handheld refractometers
 Computers
  • Notebook computers
  • Desktop computers
  • Personal computers
 Computer data input devices
  • Leaf area meter scanning instruments
  • Field data recorders
  • Field personal computers PC
  • Global positioning system GPS data collectors
 Cameras
  • Digital cameras
  • Remote video cameras
 Fire fighting equipment
  • McLeod tools
  • Pulaski tools
 Audio and visual equipment
  • Global positioning system GPS receivers
All data sourced from US Department of Labor, Employment & Training Administration O*Net Database.
Technology
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Technology
The technologies listed below include machines, equipment, tools, and software that is useful for individuals who are interested in this career.
 Business function specific software
  • Assisi Software Forest Inventory
  • Haglof Sweden AB TCruise Forest Inventory
  • Microsoft OfficeHOT
 Content authoring and editing software
  • Computer graphics software
  • Microsoft WordHOT
  • Word processing software
  • Corel Presentation
  • Microsoft PowerPointHOT
  • FacebookHOT
  • Microsoft ExcelHOT
  • Spreadsheet software
  • Desktop publishing software
 Data management and query software
  • Assisi Software Compiler
  • Atterbury Consultants SuperAce
  • Database software
  • Forest EcoSurvey
  • JRP Consulting Plant Wizard
  • JRP Consulting Survey Wizard
  • LJI Technologies Lumberjack
  • Microsoft AccessHOT
  • PhoenixPRO Forest Activity Tracking
 Development software
  • Microsoft Active Server Pages ASPHOT
 Industry specific software
  • Autodesk AutoCAD LTHOT
  • Computer aided design CAD softwareHOT
  • Assisi Software Forest
  • Fire behavior modeling software
  • Forest Vegetation Simulator FVS
  • HARVEST
  • LoggerPC software
  • Remote sensing software
 Information exchange software
  • Microsoft OutlookHOT
  • Allegro Landmark
  • Ben Meadows Yeoman Expedition
  • ESRI ArcGIS softwareHOT
  • ESRI ArcView
  • Geomechanical design analysis GDA software
  • Leica Geosystems ERDAS IMAGINE
  • Photogrammetric software
  • RockWare ArcMap
  • Traverse PC
All data sourced from US Department of Labor, Employment & Training Administration O*Net Database.
Certifications
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Certifications
The certifications listed below are useful to pursue if you are interested in a career in this field.
No specific certifications are listed for this career
All data sourced from US Department of Labor, Employment & Training Administration O*Net Database.
Licensing
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Licensing
The licensing information below is organized into sections and is useful for pursuing if you are interested in a career in this field.
No specific licensing information is listed for this occupation in the area you have selected.
All data sourced from US Department of Labor, Employment & Training Administration O*Net Database.
Related Programs
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Programs related to this career, offered by participating institution(s), are listed below.

Clicking on the Degree programs in the list below will take you away from the Careers page.
INSTITUTION
PROGRAMS
Germanna Community College
Mountain Empire Community College
Mountain Gateway Community College
New River Community College
Paul D. Camp Community College
Virginia Highlands Community College
Virginia Western Community College
Jobs
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Jobs related to this career may be found on Indeed.com or on the Google Job Search page.