What does a forestry technician do?
A forestry technician specializes in protecting and preserving forests and natural resources. Mostly working outdoors, their responsibilities revolve around collecting and analyzing different samples for research purposes, recording and reviewing findings, devising programs and strategies to protect the forest and animals, and raising public awareness. Furthermore, as a forestry technician, it is essential to implement and enforce rules and regulations to protect forests, coordinate with other agencies such as the fire and police department, and contribute studies to different publications.
Forestry technician responsibilities
Here are examples of responsibilities from real forestry technician resumes:
- Participate in manage and prescribe burns, using ignition devices and drip torches.
- Serve as a timber sale prep crew member completing field work and managing GIS data in support of land management projects.
- Record data for timber sale plots in the USDA's require format.
- Perform routine maintenance on foot trails to include spraying, mowing, and raking.
- Perform wildfire suppression and control, trail maintenance, park and recreation duties, cabin restoration, and patrol.
- Learned to use maps and GPS devices to plot suggest burn areas, rehabilitation zones, and progress on suppression.
- Perform quantitative/qualitative analysis of DNA and RNA for the detection of viruses from diagnostic specimens as directed.
- Apply herbicide and seed designated treatment areas to meet multiple resource objectives for post-fire and timber harvest rehabilitation projects.
- Talk to and coordinate with various land owners (private, BIA, BLM, NPS etc . )
- Cooperate with the fisheries biologist and others to layout units.
- Conduct daily leadership and, training techniques in specific tasks.
- Locate and flag BLM property corners and boundaries to establish project boundary lines.
- Serve in multiple roles within a hotshot crew including sawyer, FFT1, and EMT-B.
- Provide specialize and technical supervision and leadership to crewmembers, both on and off the fireline.
- Patrol OHV use areas to ensure areas are operate, used and maintain in accordance with the recreation plan.
Forestry technician skills and personality traits
We calculated that 32% of Forestry Technicians are proficient in Harvest, Patrol, and Natural Resources. They’re also known for soft skills such as Analytical skills, Communication skills, and Technical skills.
We break down the percentage of Forestry Technicians that have these skills listed on their resume here:
- Harvest, 32%
Determined inoperable areas within the harvest unit boundary and maintained detailed harvesting field maps.
- Patrol, 12%
Performed wildfire suppression and control, trail maintenance, park and recreation duties, cabin restoration, and patrol.
- Natural Resources, 10%
Coordinate with the Fire Department in planning prescribed burns for the management of natural resources and wildfire suppression.
- GPS, 9%
Applied forestry techniques including site eradication of Dwarf Mistletoe, GPS mapping, tree identification, inventory plots and forest ecology.
- Data Collection, 6%
Use GIS spatial grids, electronic orthographic and topographic quadrangles in Arc Map to create maps of data collection points.
- Trail Maintenance, 5%
Supervised non-governmental organization/ constituency groups in their volunteer efforts of Forest Service property cleanup and trail maintenance.
"harvest," "patrol," and "natural resources" are among the most common skills that forestry technicians use at work. You can find even more forestry technician responsibilities below, including:
Analytical skills. To carry out their duties, the most important skill for a forestry technician to have is analytical skills. Their role and responsibilities require that "biological technicians need to conduct scientific experiments and analyses with accuracy and precision." Forestry technicians often use analytical skills in their day-to-day job, as shown by this real resume: "identified tree species, measured, assessed and recorded data. "
Communication skills. Many forestry technician duties rely on communication skills. "biological technicians must understand and follow the instructions of their managing scientists," so a forestry technician will need this skill often in their role. This resume example is just one of many ways forestry technician responsibilities rely on communication skills: "update gis map daily to include completed locations for sake of organization and communication to employer of progress made"
Technical skills. Another skill that relates to the job responsibilities of forestry technicians is technical skills. This skill is critical to many everyday forestry technician duties, as "biological technicians need to set up and operate sophisticated equipment and instruments." This example from a resume shows how this skill is used: "used technical equipment and computers to complete a variety of technical forest inventory and management tasks. "
The three companies that hire the most forestry technicians are:
- National Park Foundation6 forestry technicians jobs
- Katmai Careers2 forestry technicians jobs
- Parsons2 forestry technicians jobs
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Compare different forestry technicians
Forestry technician vs. Soil conservation aide
A fire management officer ensures regular safe housekeeping and inspections take place. They ensure fire safety audits take place and appropriate actions get implemented. Besides reporting hazards and the implemented remedial actions, fire management officers monitor the organization's daily fire safety functions, fire protection, and fire prevention. These professionals ensure that the staff members have access to the appropriate emergency response procedures and written fire safety procedures. Also, they ensure fire protection systems and fire safety equipment remain tested and maintained.
There are some key differences in the responsibilities of each position. For example, forestry technician responsibilities require skills like "harvest," "patrol," "natural resources," and "provide technical assistance." Meanwhile a typical soil conservation aide has skills in areas such as "sage," "wetland," "general upkeep," and "crp." This difference in skills reveals the differences in what each career does.
The education levels that soil conservation aides earn slightly differ from forestry technicians. In particular, soil conservation aides are 5.9% more likely to graduate with a Master's Degree than a forestry technician. Additionally, they're 0.1% less likely to earn a Doctoral Degree.Forestry technician vs. Resource manager forester
A biological science technician is responsible for supporting scientists in conducting laboratory experiments and examinations. Biological science technicians perform data analysis procedures, evaluate findings, and create data reports. They also ensure the cleanliness of the laboratory, including the laboratory tools and equipment, to prevent contamination that may affect the accuracy of test results. A biological science technician must have excellent scientific knowledge, especially on the application of scientific methods, assessing research studies, and other related scientific principles.
Each career also uses different skills, according to real forestry technician resumes. While forestry technician responsibilities can utilize skills like "patrol," "natural resources," "provide technical assistance," and "trail maintenance," resource managers forester use skills like "management plans," "powershell," "sccm," and "mdt."
Resource managers forester earn similar levels of education than forestry technicians in general. They're 4.5% more likely to graduate with a Master's Degree and 0.1% less likely to earn a Doctoral Degree.What technology do you think will become more important and prevalent for forestry technicians in the next 3-5 years?
Chris Stockdale
Lead National Recruiter, Forest Service
Forestry technician vs. Fire management officer
The required skills of the two careers differ considerably. For example, forestry technicians are more likely to have skills like "harvest," "patrol," "natural resources," and "gps." But a fire management officer is more likely to have skills like "management plans," "logistics," "resource management," and "financial reports."
When it comes to education, fire management officers tend to earn higher degree levels compared to forestry technicians. In fact, they're 17.6% more likely to earn a Master's Degree, and 0.1% more likely to graduate with a Doctoral Degree.Forestry technician vs. Biological science technician
Even though a few skill sets overlap between forestry technicians and biological science technicians, there are some differences that are important to note. For one, a forestry technician might have more use for skills like "harvest," "patrol," "gps," and "provide technical assistance." Meanwhile, some responsibilities of biological science technicians require skills like "laboratory equipment," "scientific data," "usda," and "water quality. "
Biological science technicians reach higher levels of education compared to forestry technicians, in general. The difference is that they're 6.6% more likely to earn a Master's Degree, and 0.8% more likely to graduate with a Doctoral Degree.Types of forestry technician
Updated January 8, 2025
