What do foresters do?

Forestry is the science of understanding and managing forests for a variety of uses – like all scientist, foresters use the tools of study and research to increase their knowledge.

Working as a forester, whether in Australia or internationally provides a career pathway with many opportunities to specialise within and experience a range of work areas and some amazing environments. Our forests have many different values: they support biodiversity, provide clean water, store carbon, and are a popular setting for tourism and recreation. Along with these values, some of our native forests are also managed to provide us with timber resources, finding the balance of these values is a challenging aspect of the work of a forester. A unique characteristic of forestry is its focus on the long-term sustainable management of forest ecosystems.

For the practicing forester this means dealing with day-to-day variables, such as weather, but also considering the long-term view and the need for ongoing planning – often many years and generations into the future. Planning is therefore a large part of forest management: short term planning for each season of a year and long term planning to ensure that all other activities contribute to the long term health of the forest and therefore its ability to provide the services and products required by communities today and into the future.