---
title: "Forest and Conservation Worker"
description: "Under supervision, perform manual labor necessary to develop, maintain, or protect areas such as forests, forested areas, woodlands, wetlands, and…"
canonical: "https://nuecareer.com/careers/forest-and-conservation-worker"
last-updated: "2026-10-09T10:57:55.138Z"
---

# Forest and Conservation Worker

**Category:** Farming, Fishing, and Forestry · **SOC code:** 45-4011 · **O\*NET-SOC code:** 45-4011.00

Under supervision, perform manual labor necessary to develop, maintain, or protect areas such as forests, forested areas, woodlands, wetlands, and rangelands through such activities as raising and transporting seedlings; combating insects, pests, and diseases harmful to plant life; and building structures to control water, erosion, and leaching of soil. Includes forester aides, seedling pullers, tree planters, and gatherers of nontimber forestry products such as pine straw.

Also advertised as: Christmas Tree Farmer; Conservation Officer; Field Laborer; Forest Ranger; Forest Resource Specialist; Forestry Support Specialist; Park Maintainer; Reforestation Worker.

## At a glance

- **Median annual wage:** $43,680 (BLS OEWS, May 2025)
- **Median hourly wage:** $21.00/hr
- **Wage range (10th–90th percentile):** $33,780 to $57,220, with the middle half between $37,440 and $45,760
- **Total US employment:** 6,050
- **Typical entry education:** High school
- **Preparation required:** Little or no preparation — O\*NET rates this "Job Zone 1-2: Very Little to Some Preparation Needed"
- **Projected growth:** -1.5% over 2025–2035 (BLS EP, 2025–2035)
- **Annual job openings:** 2,200 openings a year
- **AI-resilience score:** 57/100 — a NueCareer heuristic over O\*NET work activities and context, not a BLS or O\*NET figure

## Pay

National wage distribution, BLS OEWS, May 2025, across 6,050 US jobs.

| Percentile | Annual wage |
| --- | --- |
| 10th | $33,780 |
| 25th | $37,440 |
| 50th (median) | $43,680 |
| 75th | $45,760 |
| 90th | $57,220 |
| Mean (average) | $43,680 |

### Pay by state

The 15 highest-paying states, by median annual wage. The cost-of-living-adjusted column divides the state median by that state's BEA Regional Price Parity, so the columns answer different questions: the first is what the job pays there, the second is what that pay buys there.

| State | Median annual wage | Cost-of-living adjusted | Employment |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| ID | $59,460 | $62,266 | Not published by BLS |
| HI | $56,330 | $51,232 | 60 |
| VA | $54,560 | $53,964 | Not published by BLS |
| MA | $51,890 | $49,065 | 120 |
| PA | $50,250 | $51,500 | 210 |
| OH | $48,470 | $52,245 | 160 |
| AR | $47,310 | $54,419 | 30 |
| OR | $46,010 | $44,514 | 70 |
| WA | $44,430 | $41,518 | 460 |
| SC | $44,050 | $46,987 | 40 |
| CA | $43,680 | $39,451 | 2,270 |
| NJ | $41,600 | $38,234 | 40 |
| TN | $40,320 | $43,888 | 210 |
| LA | $39,900 | $45,235 | 150 |
| MN | $39,590 | $40,144 | 30 |

12 more states with published wage data are omitted here. The full table for all 27 states is at https://nuecareer.com/careers/forest-and-conservation-worker/salary-by-state, or as JSON at https://nuecareer.com/api/v1/careers/forest-and-conservation-worker.

## Outlook

BLS projects employment to move from 14,700 in the 2025–2035 base year to 14,500 by the end of the cycle — a loss of 200 jobs, or -1.5%. Declining: -1.5% against 3.5% projected for all occupations over the same cycle. About 2,200 openings a year are expected on average, counting openings from growth as well as from workers leaving the occupation permanently. Source: BLS EP, 2025–2035.

## How to get in

- **Typical entry education:** High school diploma or equivalent (BLS Employment Projections).
- **Preparation level:** Little or no preparation — O\*NET's preparation band for this occupation is "Job Zone 1-2: Very Little to Some Preparation Needed".
- **Related work experience typically required:** None.
- **Typical on-the-job training:** Moderate-term on-the-job training.

### Education people in this job actually hold

O\*NET surveys incumbents, so this distribution describes who is in the job today and can differ from the BLS entry requirement above.

| Education level | Share of workers |
| --- | --- |
| High School Diploma or the equivalent (such as a GED) | 43.6% |
| Bachelor's Degree | 22.6% |
| Master's Degree | 20.3% |
| Some College Courses | 6.5% |
| Less than a High School Diploma | 3.4% |
| Post-Secondary Certificate | 1.9% |

## What the work involves

- Check equipment to ensure that it is operating properly.
- Fight forest fires or perform prescribed burning tasks under the direction of fire suppression officers or forestry technicians.
- Confer with other workers to discuss issues, such as safety, cutting heights, or work needs.
- Perform fire protection or suppression duties, such as constructing fire breaks or disposing of brush.

## Skills and knowledge

### Essential skills

- Critical Thinking — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Monitoring — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Reading Comprehension — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Active Listening — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Speaking — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Active Learning — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Writing — importance 2.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Learning Strategies — importance 2.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Transferable skills

These are the skills that carry into other occupations, and they drive the related-occupation and career-change rankings on this site.

- Coordination — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Judgment and Decision Making — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Complex Problem Solving — importance 2.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Time Management — importance 2.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Social Perceptiveness — importance 2.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Operations Monitoring — importance 2.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Operation and Control — importance 2.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Persuasion — importance 2.4 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Knowledge areas

- Public Safety and Security — importance 3.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- English Language — importance 3.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Customer and Personal Service — importance 3.2 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Administration and Management — importance 3.2 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Geography — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Biology — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Abilities

- Oral Comprehension — importance 3.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Problem Sensitivity — importance 3.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Oral Expression — importance 3.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Static Strength — importance 3.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Deductive Reasoning — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Flexibility of Closure — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

## Who it suits

O\*NET rates every occupation on the six Holland (RIASEC) interest areas, on a 1–7 scale. This occupation's strongest areas are Realistic (R), Conventional (C), Investigative (I).

| Interest area | Score (1–7) |
| --- | --- |
| R — Realistic | 7.00 |
| C — Conventional | 4.07 |
| I — Investigative | 3.33 |
| E — Enterprising | 3.03 |
| S — Social | 2.71 |
| A — Artistic | 1.00 |

### Personality fit

These scores are **derived by NueCareer**, not published by any government agency: they are cosine similarities between a personality type's trait profile and this occupation's O\*NET interest and work-style ratings, expressed 0–100. Treat them as a starting point for exploration, not as evidence that a type belongs in a job.

| Type | Fit score (0–100) |
| --- | --- |
| ISTJ | 87.7 |
| ESTJ | 77.6 |
| ISFJ | 73.2 |
| ISTP | 73.1 |
| ESTP | 63.8 |

Best-fitting types: ISTJ.

## Related occupations

O\*NET's primary related occupations, in its own ranked order.

- [Forest and Conservation Technician](https://nuecareer.com/careers/forest-and-conservation-technician) — median $54,560
- [Forester](https://nuecareer.com/careers/forester) — median $76,400
- [Range Manager](https://nuecareer.com/careers/range-manager) — median $73,010
- [Forest Fire Inspector and Prevention Specialist](https://nuecareer.com/careers/forest-fire-inspector-and-prevention-specialist) — median $56,870
- [Farmworker and Laborer, Crop, Nursery, and Greenhouse](https://nuecareer.com/careers/farmworker-and-laborer-crop-nursery-and-greenhouse) — median $35,660
- [Conservation Scientist](https://nuecareer.com/careers/conservation-scientist) — median $73,010
- [Tree Trimmer and Pruner](https://nuecareer.com/careers/tree-trimmer-and-pruner) — median $50,960
- [First-Line Supervisor of Landscaping, Lawn Service, and Groundskeeping Workers](https://nuecareer.com/careers/first-line-supervisor-of-landscaping-lawn-service-and-groundskeeping-workers) — median $58,430
- [Pesticide Handler, Sprayer, and Applicator, Vegetation](https://nuecareer.com/careers/pesticide-handler-sprayer-and-applicator-vegetation) — median $46,340
- [Agricultural Technician](https://nuecareer.com/careers/agricultural-technician) — median $49,630

## Sources

- **O\*NET** — O\*NET 31.0 Database, August 2026. https://www.onetcenter.org/database.html
- **BLS OEWS** — BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025. https://www.bls.gov/oes/
- **BLS EP** — BLS Employment Projections, Table 1.2, 2025–2035. https://www.bls.gov/emp/
- **BLS OOH** — BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook, 2025–2035 edition. https://www.bls.gov/ooh/
- **BEA RPP** — BEA Regional Price Parities by State, 2024. https://www.bea.gov/data/prices-inflation/regional-price-parities-state-and-metro-area

---

This bank includes information from the O\*NET 31.0 Database by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (USDOL/ETA). Used under the CC BY 4.0 license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). O\*NET® is a trademark of USDOL/ETA. NueCareer has transformed the data by joining it to BLS wage and projection data and deriving facet, personality-fit and AI-resilience scores. BLS and BEA data are public domain (17 U.S.C. §105).

O\*NET content is used under [CC BY 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). How these figures are sourced and derived: https://nuecareer.com/careers/methodology

JSON representation of this page: https://nuecareer.com/api/v1/careers/forest-and-conservation-worker