Fire management officer vs forest technician

The differences between fire management officers and forest technicians can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. It typically takes 6-12 months to become both a fire management officer and a forest technician. Additionally, a fire management officer has an average salary of $77,536, which is higher than the $36,614 average annual salary of a forest technician.

The top three skills for a fire management officer include logistics, financial reports and BLM. The most important skills for a forest technician are GPS, data collection, and harvest.

Fire management officer vs forest technician overview

	Fire Management Officer	Forest Technician
Yearly salary	$77,536	$36,614
Hourly rate	$37.28	$17.60
Growth rate	11%	-
Number of jobs	121,051	5,732
Job satisfaction	-	-
Most common degree	Bachelor's Degree, 60%	Bachelor's Degree, 55%
Average age	38	38
Years of experience	12	12

Fire management officer vs forest technician salary

Fire management officers and forest technicians have different pay scales, as shown below.

	Fire Management Officer	Forest Technician
Average salary	$77,536	$36,614
Salary range	Between $49,000 And $121,000	Between $27,000 And $48,000
Highest paying City	North Brunswick, NJ	Birmingham, AL
Highest paying state	New Jersey	Alaska
Best paying company	Citi	Washington State University
Best paying industry	-	Manufacturing

Differences between fire management officer and forest technician education

There are a few differences between a fire management officer and a forest technician in terms of educational background:

	Fire Management Officer	Forest Technician
Most common degree	Bachelor's Degree, 60%	Bachelor's Degree, 55%
Most common major	Forestry	Forestry
Most common college	-	Duke University

Fire management officer vs forest technician demographics

Here are the differences between fire management officers' and forest technicians' demographics:

	Fire Management Officer	Forest Technician
Average age	38	38
Gender ratio	Male, 72.3% Female, 27.7%	Male, 76.6% Female, 23.4%
Race ratio	Black or African American, 7.0% Unknown, 6.3% Hispanic or Latino, 17.9% Asian, 10.6% White, 57.2% American Indian and Alaska Native, 1.1%	Black or African American, 10.0% Unknown, 5.7% Hispanic or Latino, 15.3% Asian, 6.2% White, 61.8% American Indian and Alaska Native, 1.0%
LGBT Percentage	8%	8%

Differences between fire management officer and forest technician duties and responsibilities

Fire management officer example responsibilities.

Manage a team responsible for designing service-orient application architecture, standards and best practices guidelines, security and data access frameworks.
Coordinate with surrounding units to identify and meet their SharePoint requirements.
Provide administration support for UNIX systems including monitoring and user account activities.
Coordinate development and maintenance of Unix and NT standard operating, escalation, and notification procedures.
Spearhead San Juan braden head investigation to address regulatory concerns around pressure trends and potential for methane in groundwater contamination.
Analyze internal knowledge infrastructure and develop optimized information system/organization.

Forest technician example responsibilities.

Survey back-country old-growth timber, fight forest fires, manage brush, and replant forests after harvest.
Mark timber sale unit boundaries, sensitive areas for protection using GPS, aerial and GIS maps.
Fall trees, cut and clear brush, and dig trenches to create firelines, using axes, chainsaws or shovels.
Used drip torches for back lighting when need.
Used GIS to plot and map power lines for the power company.
Utilize the most current and innovative forestry software to prepare cruise inventory reports and GIS mapping.

Fire management officer vs forest technician skills

Common fire management officer skills

Logistics, 35%
Financial Reports, 14%
BLM, 12%
Portfolio, 8%
Performance Standards, 6%
Human Resources, 4%

Common forest technician skills

GPS, 27%
Data Collection, 15%
Harvest, 11%
Forests, 11%
GIS, 10%
Wildlife Habitat, 8%

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Fire Management Officer
Fire Management Officer vs Forest Technician

Updated January 8, 2025

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