Occupation / job
Forest and Conservation Workers
Median annual pay. Half earn less than this.
Hourly at a standard 2,080-hour year. We do not yet have unpaid-time or cost data for this, so this is not an adjusted figure.
The middle half. A quarter earn below this range.
Source: BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025 · view
What this figure cannot tell you
It covers people EMPLOYED in this occupation. Anyone who trained for it and was never hired is not in the median above, and neither is anyone doing the work self-employed. No verified count of qualified people exists for this occupation, so this page shows none rather than an estimate. Why that matters · The occupations where we could source it
Who this suits
The $43,680 midpoint for Forest and Conservation Workers sits $6,340 under the $50,020 the typical American job pays. That is a real living across much of the country and a thin one in expensive metros, so geography decides this more than seniority does.
With 6,050 employed nationally, Forest and Conservation Workers is a small occupation. Small occupations are quiet: few postings, slow turnover, and a real chance that the person you would replace is not going anywhere.
Forestry, conservation and logging suit people who want to work outdoors in remote places and are serious about the safety discipline the equipment demands.
We carry no verified training length for Forest and Conservation Workers — BLS reports pay, not preparation, and we will not estimate it.
Who should not do this
A quarter of Forest and Conservation Workers earn under $37,440 and a quarter over $45,760: 1.2x, and $8,320 between the ends. That is a narrow band — enough room to be paid better than average, not enough for the occupation to be a route to a materially different income.
A quarter of Forest and Conservation Workers earn under $37,440, which is $12,580 short of the $50,020 national midpoint. Assume you start there and check whether the arithmetic still works.
Avoid it if remote work sites and a genuinely elevated injury risk are not acceptable terms for you.
No failure rate is shown, and the absence is deliberate: the 6,050 figure counts people already working as Forest and Conservation Workers, not everyone who trained and never got hired. Without a licensing register to divide by, a rate here would be an invented denominator.
What the spread tells you
A 1.2x ratio from $37,440 to $45,760 makes $43,680 a dependable planning number. Dependable is the whole offer here — there is not much room above it.
The middle half of this field earns between $37,440 and $45,760. That is $8,320 of range, with $43,680 sitting inside it as the point half the field is above and half below.
The 75th percentile is $45,760. Reaching it from the $43,680 midpoint is $2,080 a year; reaching it from the $37,440 that the bottom quarter of Forest and Conservation Workers earn is $8,320.
Getting from $37,440 to the $43,680 midpoint is $6,240; getting from there to $45,760 is only $2,080. The hard part of the range is the lower half, which is also the half a newcomer starts in.
On a 2,080-hour year the midpoint for Forest and Conservation Workers is $21.00 an hour. The quarters sit at $18.00 and $22.00, and the all-occupation midpoint at $24.04.
What these figures are, and what they are not
This is payroll data: it comes from employers, about people they employ. Anyone doing the work of Forest and Conservation Workers for themselves is not in it, and there is no reason to assume $43,680 describes them.
The hourly number on this page is $43,680 divided by a 2,080-hour year and nothing more. We hold no unpaid-hours or cost data for Forest and Conservation Workers, so it is arithmetic rather than an effective rate.
How this is calculated · Self-employment failure rates · What credentials cost and pay back · Look up something else