I am a forester, and I can tell you that it is the best career I could ever imagine myself doing. If you are going to become a forester, don't do it for the money unless you happen to run a very successful consulting business or work for a company like Georgia Pacific as one of their top foresters.
Foresters got into their career because they enjoy what they are doing and felt it as their calling. If you work for a State or Federal department as a forester, the pay can be anywhere from $30,000-$50,000 with lots of opportunity for promotion. You will be able to support a family on a forester's salary. The best part about working for either the State or Feds. are the benefits.
You are 15 years old and are thinking about becoming a forest conservationist...I would take that as a sign that you have more interest in the job than the money. Not too many people find out about those jobs till they are close to graduating from high school. If you are really interested in it, go find a internship or shadow a forester while still in high school and find out what they do. The future doesn't really look that good for forestry anymore with the way liberals and activists are going through Congress, so jobs may become slimmer and slimmer. They pass these protection laws, and yet ignore the conservation part of it (FORESTRY IS HARDER AND MORE COMPLICATED THAN ROCKET SCIENCE).
Enough of my rambling...if you have anymore questions feel free to email me at:
[email protected]
We need more foresters, and we need more people like you having interest in it.
