Tips & Tactics: Becoming a Forester

All right, Just to give you a little insight into forestry, just so if there's anyone out there listening that, you know, maybe some young guys are considering what their career choice or path may be. So, you know, is forestry something that might interest me? You know, I speak a little bit of my own experience and I've heard this a lot. We've used a lot of interns at our business before and everybody. Forestry is a great career. It all depends on how far you want to carry and how far you want to go. First thing I hear some of the young guys say is, oh, I want to be a forester, you know, because I want to work in the woods. I want to see deer and turkeys and, you know, I want to be in that environment all the time. And it's true, we are in that environment. But there is a flip side of that. Today it's about 98 degrees and it's not always fun. It is fun in the wintertime. But let's go back. Forestry is, I think, a great career path. If you like the outdoors, it's different than farming, although in a lot of ways it is the same. It depends on which area of forester you want to go in. As we're in the private land management business, you can go into a career with a sawmill and be in procurement. So your job mainly is buying timber and supplying a mill. You don't really get to practice forestry, in my opinion. If you're in that field, it's more about buying timber and supplying a mill, which is better than some office jobs, by all means. But that's one career path. And then the forest management is one. You can go get involved with the government and working through the national park system or the national forest system, state forestry department. There's so many different career paths in forestry. What I like about my particular job is being able to come out here and take a job, you know, land management, take a tract of land and being able to manipulate it, however that landowner chooses. Whether I'm improving the timber growth, whether it's a financial return that he wants, whether it's improving wildlife habitat or just generally improving the land for the next generation. As a forester, you make decisions that can last a lifetime with that forest. And we're not talking, we're not growing corn and peanuts, which is an annual. We're growing trees, which is 30, 40, 50 year rotations. And so you're making a decision that's going to last a long time and make a difference on that property. For me, that's been very rewarding in my career in forestry. So, you know, yeah, it's a great career. I highly encourage young people that think they want to go in the forestry to check it out, get more involved, find out more about it. It's a very rewarding career.