Land and environment
What does a Forestry and Conservation Worker do?
Working outdoors on growing things, ground and habitats.
What the day is like
- Outside, in the weather.
- Tools, materials, your body.
- Largely on your own.
- Answerable for your own work.
The facts
- Pay
- $43,680 a year, median
- Forest and Conservation Workers, May 2025
- Usually needs
- High school diploma or equivalent
- Weeks to months. Most people can start from where they are.
- Jobs
- -2% projected change in jobs, 2025-2035 projections
- Demand looks shrinking
What is good about it
- You can be earning at it within months rather than after years of training.
- You answer for your own work rather than for other people, which suits more people than admit it.
- You can see what you did at the end of the day.
What people find hard about it
- Remote sites and travel
- Physically hard days
- Short-term contracts
More people want this work than there are paid jobs, and it shows in the pay.
Will machines take this job?
Hard for machines to take over. Machinery has replaced muscle in places, but outdoor work that changes by the day has resisted automation.
How to find out whether it suits you
Volunteer with a conservation team for a week of actual site work.
Would this actually suit you?
CareerDNA works that out from what you choose rather than from what you say about yourself: two minutes of choosing between real jobs, a few puzzles, and some questions about what you are like. It is free, it saves as you go, and it will tell you plainly where the answer is thin.