Forest and Conservation Technicians

Low Risk
Low High

Explore safer careers (4)

Lower estimated automation risk

Conservation Scientists
11% automation risk | Minimal Risk
Pays better Higher growth
17.5 pts lower View career
Why it fits

Natural-resource data, rangeland or habitat management, conservation plans, and field judgment carry over.

Park Naturalists
11% automation risk | Minimal Risk
Pays better Higher growth
17.7 pts lower View career
Why it fits

Reuses natural-resource knowledge, field interpretation, public education, habitat awareness, and conservation programs.

Foresters
21% automation risk | Low Risk
Pays better Higher growth
7.6 pts lower View career
Why it fits

Reuses forest inventory, timber stand data, fire prevention, habitat protection, and field crew coordination.

Forest Fire Inspectors and Prevention Specialists
17% automation risk | Minimal Risk
Higher growth
10.9 pts lower View career
Why it fits

Applies fire prevention, forest conditions, field patrols, public guidance, and hazard reporting.

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Occupation snapshot

What does this snowflake show?
The Snowflake is a visual summary of the five badges: Automation Risk (calculated), Risk (polled), Growth, Wages and Volume. It gives you an instant snapshot of an occupations profile. The colour of the Snowflake relates to its size. The better the occupation scores in relation to others, the larger and greener the Snowflake becomes.
JOB SCORE
4.1/10
What's this?
Job Score (higher is better):

We rate jobs using four factors. These are:

- Chance of being automated
- Job growth
- Wages
- Volume of available positions

These are some key things to think about when job hunting.

Risk & user votes

Calculated automation risk

28% (Low Risk)

Low Risk (21-40%): This occupation has a lower risk of full replacement by AI, software, or robotic systems. Some tasks may be automated or assisted, but the role usually still relies on human judgement, communication, responsibility, physical adaptability, or practical decision-making.

More information on what this score is, and how it is calculated is available here.

Human strengths important in this job

These are human abilities and work contexts that are important in this occupation. They may help explain why parts of the role are harder to replace end-to-end, but they are not the only inputs into the automation score.

Decision-making and problem solving

Very important
Why this matters
Analyze information, weigh tradeoffs, and choose the best solution—especially when situations are ambiguous, high-stakes, or have real-world consequences.
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Assisting and caring for others

Quite important
Why this matters
Provide hands-on help, emotional support, or personal care to people—work that depends on empathy, trust, and responding to individual needs in the moment.
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Thinking creatively

Quite important
Why this matters
Coming up with original ideas and designs—creating new concepts, products, systems, or artistic work. This kind of open-ended invention and taste-based judgment is harder to automate end-to-end than routine, rule-based tasks.
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Social perceptiveness

Quite important
Why this matters
Noticing others’ emotions and reactions in the moment and adjusting what you say or do based on why they’re responding that way.
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Coordinating others’ work

Quite important
Why this matters
Bringing people together, assigning tasks, and keeping a group aligned so work gets done.
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Show 4 more strengths

Coaching and developing others

Quite important
Why this matters
Helps people learn and improve through coaching, mentoring, and feedback. This relies on trust, motivation, and adapting guidance to each person—work that’s hard to replace end-to-end with automation.
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Developing objectives and strategies

Quite important
Why this matters
Sets long-term goals and chooses strategies and actions to reach them, weighing tradeoffs and adapting plans as conditions change.
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Communicating with people outside the organization

Quite important
Why this matters
Represents the organization to customers, the public, or government—handling questions, concerns, and relationship-building through conversations, writing, calls, or email.
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Active learning

Quite important
Why this matters
Keeps learning from new information and applying it to make better decisions now and in the future, especially when situations change.
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What users think

Based on 12 votes

What do you think the risk of automation is?

What is the likelihood that Forest and Conservation Technicians will be replaced by robots or artificial intelligence within the next 20 years?

Pay & outlook

Wages

Low paid relative to other professions

In 2024, the median annual wage for Forest and Conservation Technicians was $54,310 ($26 per hour).

The median annual wage for Forest and Conservation Technicians was 9.7% higher than the national median annual wage, which stood at $49,500.

View wage trend

Wages over time

* Data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics

Growth

Very slow growth relative to other professions.

The number of 'Forest and Conservation Technicians' job openings is expected to decline 3.2% by 2034

View employment trend

Total employment, and estimated job openings

* Data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics for the period between 2023 and 2033
Updated projections are due 09-2025.

Volume

Lower range of job opportunities compared to other professions

As of 2024 there were 31,080 people employed as 'Forest and Conservation Technicians' within the United States.

This represents around < 0.001% of the employed workforce across the country

Put another way, around 1 in 4 thousand people are employed as 'Forest and Conservation Technicians'.

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What people are saying (1)

Miguel Angel (Moderate)
29 Jun 2023 11:42
Due to the lack of specialized workforce, conventional work methods will be abandoned and replaced by machinery and AI. There is no replacement and it involves very arduous tasks. This is happening in Western societies.
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Job description

Provide technical assistance regarding the conservation of soil, water, forests, or related natural resources. May compile data pertaining to size, content, condition, and other characteristics of forest tracts under the direction of foresters, or train and lead forest workers in forest propagation and fire prevention and suppression. May assist conservation scientists in managing, improving, and protecting rangelands and wildlife habitats.

O*NET-SOC code: 19-4071.00