Bachelors in Forestry: Degree Types, How Long It Takes, Careers & Salary

Video Transcript

Host Question:
What is a bachelor’s in forestry degree? How long would that take to obtain and what careers can you pursue with just that level of degree?

Guest Answer:
The bachelor’s degree is probably your safest and best bet. That is going to provide you a lot more opportunity for entry level jobs, a lot more opportunity for mid-level jobs and even some higher positions. The biggest thing in environmental, isn’t your degree it’s your experience. Unfortunately, I don’t like this, but a lot of companies, they just look for the check box degree check, ‘What can you do?’ That is the thing, ‘What can you do?’

Guest Answer:
In a bachelor’s of Forestry. Are students prepared to manage forests or conduct forest research providing timber, water, wildlife or recreation? The program usually develops leaders in management, conservation and restoration of the world’s diverse forests. So that’ll take you a 120 credit hours. Obviously have all of your basics. And then whatever the degree plan of study is, your extra classes on top of that. So could take four or five years, just kind of depends on how many credit hours you take a semester and the types of jobs that you can get would be something like a natural resource specialist. You could be an instructor, probably not at the University level, but at a junior college level or high school level. You could be an instructor as far as that’s concerned.

Guest Answer:
If you don’t change your major, a lot of times you can try to graduate in normal four years. And a lot of people that took summer classes or graduated in three years. So that’s pretty typical and typically a lot of jobs. Specifically if you want to work for the government, a lot of their jobs require that four year degree, or an equivalent experience. But oftentimes it’s easier to qualify with education. And that’s kind of about an entry level, 36 to $40,000 a year career, depending on where you want to go. And I would say it’s definitely easier with that bachelor’s to get a job that’s maybe a little higher paying. I think it’s just easier in general to get a job either consulting or working for an agency, because a lot of them require you to have a certain number of credit hours in sciences, whether chemistry, biology, soil science, botany, zoology, that kind of thing. So if you’re interested in doing forestry or silver culture, which is just basically tree planting and tree health or education or law enforcement like a game warden, most of those do require a four year degree.

Guest Answer:
A forestry bachelor’s degree is usually four years. You can do a lot more different jobs. A big one is you could become a forest Ranger where sometimes forest rangers, they do do actually environmental research or help a biologist. Another dog is just going to mention is you could also be an environmental compliance inspector where you would use the knowledge of law in field data of the site to investigate and you’d work on making sure that polluters are held responsible and that remediation is carried out.

What is the bachelor’s in environmental or forestry degree? How long does that take to obtain and what kind of careers are we looking at once you’ve reached that level of education?

Guest Answer:
A forestry bachelor’s degree it’s usually four years. You can do a lot more different jobs. A big one is you could become a forest ranger, where sometimes forest rangers, they do do actually environmental research or help a biologist.

Guest Answer:
Typically four years for a bachelor’s in forestry. Again, there might be some variation of programs for years is pretty standard and you’re still looking mostly at entry level jobs with a bachelor’s degree, but you might be able to get in one or two kind of steps higher. With a bachelor’s. You might be able to start at a 5 or six level, depending on if you have some field experience as well. Lined up similar with an associate degree, you might just have a few more doors open to you. It certainly makes things easier within the government anyway. Applying to a specific job. Even if you’re qualified for it with an associate’s degree, it’s going to be easier to get it and you’re going to be higher up on the list if you have a bachelor’s degree. So similar set of jobs, but easier to get those jobs with a bachelor’s.

Guest Answer:
One thing that I’ve learned when I started agricultural business is that anything pertaining to the environment or pertaining to agriculture, you could honestly get a job with a bachelor’s in just about any field because there are so many companies like, for example, Walmart. I have a friend that studied environment science at Arkansas and she works for Walmart, environment and agriculture. And you can basically get a job over any type of industry because any industry is going to be someone that focuses on the environment or focuses on supply chain issues, which agriculture pertains to.