Job

[Skully]

I hope this is a ok forum to post this in.

Anyways will be graduating in May with a M.S. degree in Forest Management.  

I was wondering what are some good sites to search for jobs.

Ideally I would like to work for a sawmill or consulting company, working in a procurement or management aspect.

any leads or ideas would be appreciated.

Dan

[Ron Wenrich]

Subscribe to the Northern Logger.  Right now, there are 2 procurement forester positions and 2 for hardwood log buyers.  Someone is usually looking for procurement foresters.

Subscription is $12/yr and covers the northeast and lake states.  Email - NELA@telenet.net

You can try Monster.com and other websites like that, but very few of the smaller operations advertise there.  Also, a lot of mill owners are computer illiterate and scared of the Internet.

If worse comes to worse, you can always get a job at a sawmill and see what the insides of a tree looks like.  I advise this very strongly.  I didn't get my education until after I left college.  

I started by stacking lumber, learning grade, and applying it to scaling and grading logs.  Then, I could apply grading to buying timber.  I knew what defects cut out, and which ones wouldn't.  Helps a whole lot if you ever have to bid timber.

[Skully]

Ron,
Thanks for the quick reply.  I have a subscription to Northern Logger and have recently started applying to the classified ads in the back.

I forget to mention I would like to work in the NE
preferrably, NY or PA.

I have one solid lead on a procurement job in NY, but would like more options.

I have considerable practical experience as an arborist, and have also worked for the Colorado State Forest Service as a research assosiate.

If anyone has a contact person that would be great.

Thanks again,
Dan

[Tillaway]

You mean they hire procurement foresters in the East?  Man, you have to wait until someone dies or retires to get the same position out here.  Then the company will decide that they don't need to fill the position that's vacant. A procurement job advertised here would get at least 100 experienced people applying.

[Ron Wenrich]

A lot of small mills have gone to procurement foresters, here in the East.  It is about the only way a mill or even a logger can get timber on a regular basis.

Timber is getting harder to find.  We have one mill that is now going 200 miles for standing timber.  He just takes the extra milage off of the scale.

The same mill dumped 28 procurement foresters on the open market.  They instantly became consultants.  But, the mill couldn't buy enough gatewood, so they had to start to hire back foresters and timber buyers.  Their timber buyers are ex-real estate agents and car dealers.  They can buy more timber than foresters.  Too bad they can't tell the difference between white oak and gum.  

Procurement foresters can burn out pretty quick.  Anyone who has any decent timber has had their door knocked on by lots of guys.  Sometimes you have to keep after a landowner for years.  Most of the time it's thanks-bu-no-thanks.

You have to drive miles of highway to scope out potential timber.  Then, you have countless hours in the courthouse tracking down landowners.  I burned out on that stuff quite a long time ago.  Consultants work that way as well.  

[swampwhiteoak]

Other places include the SAF website www.safnet.org , and http://www.forestryusa.com/jobs.htm .   Those will usually have a few procurement jobs listed.