Forest and Conservation Workers

Under supervision, perform manual labor necessary to develop, maintain, or protect areas such as forests, forested areas, woodlands, wetlands, and rangelands through such activities as raising and transporting seedlings; combating insects, pests, and diseases harmful to plant life; and building structures to control water, erosion, and leaching of soil. Includes forester aides, seedling pullers, tree planters, and gatherers of nontimber forestry products such as pine straw.

The occupation "Forest and Conservation Workers" has an automation risk of 29.1%, which closely mirrors the base risk of 29.4%. This relatively moderate risk is primarily due to the hands-on, variable nature of many forestry tasks. While certain job duties can be standardized or utilize machines, the overall role demands frequent adaptation to changing environments, terrains, and weather conditions. Many aspects of the job require workers to move through unpredictable outdoor spaces and respond to unforeseen challenges, making it less amenable to fully automated solutions compared to occupations performed in controlled indoor environments. Additionally, much of the work in forest and conservation settings is critical to public and environmental safety, requiring human oversight and judgment. The top three most automatable tasks in this occupation include "Check equipment to ensure that it is operating properly," "Fight forest fires or perform prescribed burning tasks under the direction of fire suppression officers or forestry technicians," and "Perform fire protection or suppression duties, such as constructing fire breaks or disposing of brush." These duties often involve routines that could be monitored or executed by machines or drones, especially with advances in sensor technology and autonomous equipment. Fire protection and suppression, while dangerous and complex, increasingly see support from automated systems, such as drones mapping fire areas or robots clearing brush, to improve safety and efficiency. Checking equipment functionality is also a process that can be automated with smart monitoring tools that detect malfunctions or needed maintenance. Such technologies suggest moderate but not overwhelming potential for automation in selected forestry operations. On the other hand, the most resistant tasks are those that require a high degree of manual dexterity, sensory perception, and situational judgment, such as "Sort tree seedlings, discarding substandard seedlings, according to standard charts or verbal instructions," "Provide assistance to forest survey crews by clearing site-lines, holding measuring tools, or setting stakes," and "Select tree seedlings, prepare the ground, or plant the trees in reforestation areas, using manual planting tools." These activities necessitate nuanced human decision-making and the ability to adjust to diverse, often unpredictable conditions outdoors. Bottleneck skills such as Originality (at 2.6% and 2.1%) also play a significant role, highlighting how the creative, adaptive responses required for sorting, site preparation, and tree planting are not readily replicable by automated systems. These elements ensure that forest and conservation workers retain a significant level of job security from automation—at least for the foreseeable future.