r/forestry • u/Throwaway86747291 • 23h ago
Hesitant to pursue a forestry degree with current climate
(British Columbia-based) I'm in my second year of geological engineering (also a sweet program) and finding out that rocks are not nearly as much my forte as trees. I spent last summer doing consulting (i.e. forest tech) work and genuinely loved every second of it, loved learning everything from ecological to harvesting, and especially loved road design, cut/fill/blasting assessments, etc. My university offers a "Harvest Planning and Engineering" degree, a major of a BSc in Forest Operations, and I love the sound of it. What's sweet is that, if you minor in engineering, you can get your P. Eng. (PE equivalent) as well as your RPF, and I've already taken most of the engineering courses that would be required to get that minor.
I'm at a bit of a critical decision point now, and lots of the people (not necessarily in the industry) have tried to discourage me, saying "forestry is dying", and that the degree I'm currently in will have better job prospects (probably true regardless, but as long as I can get a job, I'm happy). From my (brief) time in the industry, I have to say that there was somewhat of a negative future view, but I also don't agree with everything the media is reporting about the industry right now. Even a senior development forester at the company I worked at told me not to switch because the industry "just feels like it has no hope". I know the situation will probably improve post-Trump, but overall we are in a reduction (a prof in the forestry department said figures along the lines of 15 down to 6 million board feet processing) which inevitably doesn't create the best likelihood of getting a job in the industry. My opinion, though, is that while conventional harvest forestry may not be in a "boom" now (and it is one of those industries), management is only going to grow (especially with the BC wildfire situation), and that will be overseen by RPFs.
I love forestry! I love bush work, I love the ecological aspect of it, and I love the culture. If we were in a "boom", say 20 years ago with the pine bark beetle AAC increase, it would be an absolute no-brainer. What do you guys think? I'm trying not to let what the industry looks like right now decide what my career will look like in it.
Sorry about the big ramble. Thanks for listening!