Forest and Conservation Workers

Forest and Conservation Workers typically perform the following tasks: • 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. • Perform fire protection or suppression duties, such as constructing fire breaks or disposing of brush. • Confer with other workers to discuss issues, such as safety, cutting heights, or work needs. • Maintain tallies of trees examined and counted during tree marking or measuring efforts. • Explain or enforce regulations regarding camping, vehicle use, fires, use of buildings, or sanitation. • Operate skidders, bulldozers, or other prime movers to pull a variety of scarification or site preparation equipment over areas to be regenerated. • Spray or inject vegetation with insecticides to kill insects or to protect against disease or with herbicides to reduce competing vegetation. • Thin or space trees, using power thinning saws. • Identify diseased or undesirable trees and remove them, using power saws or hand saws. • Select or cut trees according to markings or sizes, types, or grades. • Prune or shear tree tops or limbs to control growth, increase density, or improve shape. • Maintain campsites or recreational areas, replenishing firewood or other supplies and cleaning kitchens or restrooms. • Erect signs or fences, using posthole diggers, shovels, or other hand tools. • Select tree seedlings, prepare the ground, or plant the trees in reforestation areas, using manual planting tools. • Provide assistance to forest survey crews by clearing site-lines, holding measuring tools, or setting stakes. • Sort tree seedlings, discarding substandard seedlings, according to standard charts or verbal instructions. • Create field maps using geographic information systems technology.