Becoming a Forest and Wildlife Conservation Technician in Nevada

If you live in Nevada and love being outdoors, a career as a forest and conservation technician could be for you. Nevada contains mountain “islands” of forest all over the state and is a big supplier of timber. Forest and conservation technicians work with other forestry specialists to protect and preserve natural forest land and aid in the harvesting of timber. These specialists are trained in the technical side of forestry efforts, including Geographic Information Systems (GIS), machinery and data collection techniques.

Forest technicians work under the supervision of foresters or conservation scientists to measure soil quality, watershed, tree density and more. Sometimes, forest and conservation technicians supervise and direct the work of forest and conservation workers. Forest fires are a danger in the West, so many forest technicians also specialize in wildfire fighting and prevention.

Your Career Path

Becoming a forest and conservation technician requires at least two years of training in an associate’s degree program. This is because the job requires technical skills and an in-depth understanding of conservation science. After you complete training in forestry, conservation or another related field, you can begin searching through jobs with federal, state and local government forestry agencies. Other places to find work include private forestry organizations and owners.

Finding a Forestry or Conservation College Program

While the minimum requirement to become a forest and conservation technician is an associate’s degree, you can also pursue a four-year bachelor’s degree in forestry or conservation to stand out to employers and increase your earning potential. Here are some forestry and conservation programs available in Nevada:

• Great Basin College. This school, based in Elko, offers an Associate of Science degree in Natural Resources. The program teaches students the skills necessary to become a forest technician and is meant to prepare them to complete a bachelor’s degree in a related field. Great Basin College also offers a bachelor’s option for those want to continue. The program’s minimum length is 60.5 credit hours.
• University of Nevada-Reno. The University of Nevada offers a four-yearForest Management and Ecology bachelor’s degree, which teaches students to manage forest resources from a scientific perspective. The program’s coursework emphasizes hands-on experiential fieldwork. There are two routes of study:Forest Ecology or Forest Management. Curriculum includes study in forest plants, restoration ecology and conservation biology.

Career Outlook and Pay Rates

Nevada is expected to undergo a rapid increase in forest and conservation technician employment in the future due to increasing timber demands. Employment for these professionals is expected to increase by 17.9 percent by 2026, according to the Projections Managing Partnership. There are about 80 job openings per year in Nevada, on average.

The median income earned by forest technicians in Nevada is $17.38 per hour, which is right on track with the nationwide median income of $17.37 per hour for this occupation.

Finding Work in Nevada

Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) data is limited but shows that the highest number of Nevada forest and conservation technicians worked in the Carson City area in 2018. This area also had the highest employment density of forest technicians per 1,000 workers. Forest and conservation technicians in the Carson City area were also paid the highest in the state, at a median income of $21.15 per hour. The Las Vegas and Reno areas, by comparison, both paid forest technicians around $17 per hour.

Carson City seems like the best place to find work opportunities as a forest and conservation technician in Nevada, but it’s likely that these professionals are needed all over the state. Sometimes finding a job involves internships and job placement from a college. You also may need to use some creativity when searching for potential employers.