Forestry technician
Also called forestry foreman, foresty supervisor, forestry forewoman
Forestry technicians assist and support the forest manager and implement their decisions. They supervise a team of forestry equipment operators and support and supervise forestry and environmental protection through research and data collection. They also manage resource conservation and harvesting plans.
What you'd do
Forestry technicians · ILO- Conducting forest inventories, surveys and field measurements following accepted scientific and operational procedures
- Assisting in and performing technical functions in the preparation of forest management and harvest plans using photogrammetric and mapping techniques and computerized information systems
- Assisting in planning and supervision of construction of access routes and forest roads
- Implementing, supervising and performing technical functions in silvicultural operations involving site preparation, planting, and tending of tree crops
- Coordinating activities such as timber scaling, forest fire suppression, disease or insect control or pre-commercial thinning of forest stands
- Supervising and performing technical functions in forest harvesting operations
- Ensuring adherence to regulations and policies concerning environmental protection, resource utilization, fire safety and accident prevention
- Supervising forest tree nursery operations
- Providing technical support to forestry research programmes in areas such as tree improvement, seed orchard operations, insect and disease surveys or experimental forestry and forest engineering research
- Preparing forest cultivation and cutting plans
- Indoors and outdoors
- A mix of sitting and standing
- Lots of contact with people, including the public
- Good freedom to decide
- Usually 40 hours a week
- Deadlines most weeks
- Some repetitive tasks
Will there be jobs?
Average prospectsA typical number of jobs will need filling by 2035.
Solid: measured. Dashed: forecast.
What does it pay?
About averagePay depends a lot on the country: from about €1,600 a month (Bulgaria) to €6,500 (Denmark), before tax.
Pick a country at the top of the page to see typical pay there, for people under 30, and compared with all jobs.
Among technicians and associate professionals in the EU, women earn 16% less per hour than men. Technicians and associate professionals · Eurostat
What do I need to study?
Usually post-secondary or a short degreePost-secondary training or a short degree in environmental sciences is the usual route.
697 institutions in the EU offer science and maths bachelor's degrees. Pick a country at the top of the page to see where to study and the official course finders.
Will AI change it?
Very littleAI could help with only small parts of the tasks.
Average task score 0.21 on a scale from 0 (AI can't do it) to 1 (AI could do it fully).
See the score for each of the 10 tasks
Based on what AI could technically do when assessed in 2025. It is not a forecast for a future year, and not a forecast of job losses. Scores for forestry technicians. Source: ILO (2025), adapted (credits).