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Career profile Forestry Professor

Also known as Assistant Professor, Associate Professor, Conservation Biology Professor, Extension Professor, Forest Technology Professor, Forestry Professor, Lecturer, Natural Resources Professor, Professor, Research Professor

Forestry Professor

Also known as Assistant Professor, Associate Professor, Conservation Biology Professor

Interests Profile
  • Social
  • Investigative
  • Realistic
Pay Range
$50,520 - $144,310 (annual)
Required Skills
  • Instructing
  • Reading Comprehension
  • Writing
Knowledge Areas
  • Education and Training
  • Mathematics
  • Biology
Core tasks
  • Prepare course materials, such as syllabi, homework assignments, or handouts.
  • Prepare and deliver lectures to undergraduate or graduate students on topics such as anatomy, therapeutic recreation, and conditioning theory.
  • Evaluate and grade students' class work, assignments, papers, and oral presentations.
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What does a Forestry Professor do?

Forestry Professors teach courses in forestry and conservation science.

In addition, Forestry Professors includes both teachers primarily engaged in teaching and those who do a combination of teaching and research.

What kind of tasks does a Forestry Professor perform regularly?

Forestry Professors are often responsible for overseeing or executing some or all of the following tasks:

  • Prepare course materials, such as syllabi, homework assignments, or handouts.
  • Prepare and deliver lectures to undergraduate or graduate students on topics such as anatomy, therapeutic recreation, and conditioning theory.
  • Evaluate and grade students' class work, assignments, papers, and oral presentations.
  • Supervise students' laboratory or field work.
  • Maintain student attendance records, grades, and other required records.
  • Keep abreast of developments in the field by reading current literature, talking with colleagues, giving presentations at conferences, and serving on committees in professional associations.
  • Supervise undergraduate or graduate teaching, internship, and research work.
  • Collaborate with colleagues to address teaching and research issues.
  • Compile, administer, and grade examinations or assign this work to others.
  • Initiate, facilitate, and moderate classroom discussions.
  • Advise students on academic and vocational curricula, and on career issues.
  • Plan, evaluate, and revise curricula, course content, course materials, and methods of instruction.
  • Write grant proposals to procure external research funding and review others' grant proposals.
  • Maintain regularly scheduled office hours to advise and assist students.
  • Conduct research in a particular field of knowledge and publish findings in scholarly journals, books, or electronic media.
  • Participate in student recruitment, registration, and placement activities.
  • Act as advisers to student organizations.
  • Select and obtain materials and supplies, such as textbooks and performance pieces.
  • Serve on academic or administrative committees that deal with institutional policies, departmental matters, and academic issues.
  • Review papers for colleagues and scientific journals.
  • Provide information to the public by leading workshops and training programs and by developing educational materials.

The above responsibilities are specific to Forestry Professors. More generally, Forestry Professors are involved in several broader types of activities:

Updating and Using Relevant Knowledge
Keeping up-to-date technically and applying new knowledge to your job.
Getting Information
Observing, receiving, and otherwise obtaining information from all relevant sources.
Interpreting the Meaning of Information for Others
Translating or explaining what information means and how it can be used.
Identifying Objects, Actions, and Events
Identifying information by categorizing, estimating, recognizing differences or similarities, and detecting changes in circumstances or events.
Thinking Creatively
Developing, designing, or creating new applications, ideas, relationships, systems, or products, including artistic contributions.

What is a Forestry Professor salary?

The median salary for a Forestry Professor is $87,400, and the average salary is $92,420. Both the median and average roughly describe the middle of the Forestry Professor salary range, but the average is more easily affected by extremely high or low salaries.

Many Forestry Professors earn significantly more or less than the average, due to several factors. About 10% of Forestry Professors earn less than $50,520 per year, 25% earn less than $65,490, 75% earn less than $114,670, and 90% earn less than $144,310.

Between the years of 2020 and 2030, the number of Forestry Professors is expected to change by 5.9%, and there should be roughly 200 open positions for Forestry Professors every year.

Median annual salary
$87,400
Typical salary range
$50,520 - $144,310
Projected growth (2020 - 2030)
5.9%

What personality traits are common among Forestry Professors?

Interests

Career interests describe a person's preferences for different types of working environments and activities. When a person's interest match the demands of an occupation, people are usually more engaged and satisfied in that role.

Compared to most occupations, those who work as a Forestry Professor are usually higher in their Social, Investigative, and Realistic interests.

Forestry Professors typically have very strong Social interests. Social occupations frequently involve working with, communicating with, and teaching people. These occupations often involve helping or providing service to others.

Also, Forestry Professors typically have very strong Investigative interests. Investigative occupations frequently involve working with ideas, and require an extensive amount of thinking. These occupations can involve searching for facts and figuring out problems mentally.

Lastly, Forestry Professors typically have moderate Realistic interests. Realistic occupations frequently involve work activities that include practical, hands-on problems and solutions. They often deal with plants, animals, and real-world materials like wood, tools, and machinery. Many of the occupations require working outside, and do not involve a lot of paperwork or working closely with others.

Values

People differ in their values, or what is most important to them for building job satisfaction and fulfillment.

Compared to most people, those working as a Forestry Professor tend to value Working Conditions, Achievement, and Independence.

Most importantly, Forestry Professors strongly value Working Conditions. Occupations that satisfy this work value offer job security and good working conditions.

Second, Forestry Professors strongly value Achievement. Occupations that satisfy this work value are results oriented and allow employees to use their strongest abilities, giving them a feeling of accomplishment.

Lastly, Forestry Professors strongly value Independence. Occupations that satisfy this work value allow employees to work on their own and make decisions.

Psychological Demands

Each occupation brings its own set of psychological demands, which describe the characteristics necessary to perform the job well.

In order to perform their job successfully, people who work as Forestry Professors must consistently demonstrate qualities such as achievement/effort, initiative, and integrity.

Below, you'll find a list of qualities typically required of Forestry Professors, ranked by importance:

Achievement/Effort
Job requires establishing and maintaining personally challenging achievement goals and exerting effort toward mastering tasks.
Initiative
Job requires a willingness to take on responsibilities and challenges.
Integrity
Job requires being honest and ethical.
Self-Control
Job requires maintaining composure, keeping emotions in check, controlling anger, and avoiding aggressive behavior, even in very difficult situations.
Independence
Job requires developing one's own ways of doing things, guiding oneself with little or no supervision, and depending on oneself to get things done.

What education and training do Forestry Professors need?

Many Forestry Professors have earned a graduate degree. For example, they may require a master's degree, and some require a doctoral degree, such as a Ph.D., M.D., or J.D..

Forestry Professors may need some on-the-job training, but most candidates will already have the required skills, knowledge, work-related experience, and/or training.

Educational degrees among Forestry Professors

  • 0.6% did not complete high school or secondary school
  • 1.4% completed high school or secondary school
  • 2.0% completed some college coursework
  • 1.8% earned a Associate's degree
  • 14.6% earned a Bachelor's degree
  • 32.1% earned a Master's degree
  • 47.4% earned a doctorate or professional degree

Knowledge and expertise required by Forestry Professors

Forestry Professors may benefit from understanding of specialized subject areas, such as education and training, mathematics, or biology knowledge.

The list below shows several areas in which most Forestry Professors might want to build proficiency, ranked by importance.

Education and Training
Knowledge of principles and methods for curriculum and training design, teaching and instruction for individuals and groups, and the measurement of training effects.
Mathematics
Knowledge of arithmetic, algebra, geometry, calculus, statistics, and their applications.
Biology
Knowledge of plant and animal organisms, their tissues, cells, functions, interdependencies, and interactions with each other and the environment.
Computers and Electronics
Knowledge of circuit boards, processors, chips, electronic equipment, and computer hardware and software, including applications and programming.
Geography
Knowledge of principles and methods for describing the features of land, sea, and air masses, including their physical characteristics, locations, interrelationships, and distribution of plant, animal, and human life.

Important Abilities needed by Forestry Professors

Forestry Professors must develop a particular set of abilities to perform their job well. Abilities are individual capacities that influence a person's information processing, sensory perception, motor coordination, and physical strength or endurance. Individuals may naturally have certain abilities without explicit training, but most abilities can be sharpened somewhat through practice.

For example, Forestry Professors need abilities such as oral expression, written comprehension, and oral comprehension in order to perform their job at a high level. The list below shows several important abilities for Forestry Professors, ranked by their relative importance.

Oral Expression
The ability to communicate information and ideas in speaking so others will understand.
Written Comprehension
The ability to read and understand information and ideas presented in writing.
Oral Comprehension
The ability to listen to and understand information and ideas presented through spoken words and sentences.
Written Expression
The ability to communicate information and ideas in writing so others will understand.
Speech Clarity
The ability to speak clearly so others can understand you.

Critical Skills needed by Forestry Professors

Skills are developed capacities that enable people to function effectively in real-world settings. Unlike abilities, skills are typically easier to build through practice and experience. Skills influence effectiveness in areas such as learning, working with others, design, troubleshooting, and more.

Forestry Professors frequently use skills like instructing, reading comprehension, and writing to perform their job effectively. The list below shows several critical skills for Forestry Professors, ranked by their relative importance.

Instructing
Teaching others how to do something.
Reading Comprehension
Understanding written sentences and paragraphs in work-related documents.
Writing
Communicating effectively in writing as appropriate for the needs of the audience.
Learning Strategies
Selecting and using training/instructional methods and procedures appropriate for the situation when learning or teaching new things.
Active Listening
Giving full attention to what other people are saying, taking time to understand the points being made, asking questions as appropriate, and not interrupting at inappropriate times.

What is the source of this information?

The information provided on this page is adapted from data and descriptions published by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration under the CC BY 4.0 license. TraitLab has modified some information for ease of use and reading, and the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment, and Training Administration has not approved, endorsed, or tested these modifications.

If you have any questions or suggestions about this information, please send a message.