Good news boys and girls! According to FastCompany.com, being a forester is one of the "Ten Best Green Jobs for the Next Decade."
Here's what they had to say about foresters:
"Modern forestry a complex combination of international project finance, conservation and development. According to the World Bank, a staggering 1.6 billion people depend on the forest for their livelihoods. Foresters help local people transition from slash-and-burn to silviculture--teaching cultivation of higher-value, faster-growing species for fruit, medicine or timber, for examples while carefully documenting the impact on the environment. Deforestation, which causes around a quarter of all global warming, is also likely to be a leading source of carbon credits worth tens of billions of dollars."
For the entire article go to: http://www.fastcompany.com/articles/2009/01/best-green-jobs.html
Can fame and fortune be far behind?
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Most prognosticators have a poor track record. If being a forester does indeed become one of the "Ten Best Green Jobs," I expect it will take a little longer than a decade due to political obstacles that stand in our way.
ReplyDeleteAs Mark Thomas recently pointed out to SAF's House of Society Delegates, for many years we, as a profession, have politely sat on our hands while the more pro-active environmental lobby positioned us on critical issues, portraying us to the public as bad guys.
Our clients recognize our value and respect our opinions. But our clients are a tiny fraction of the general public.
When journalists seek quotable sources to report on forestry-related news stories, they call ecologists and environmental lawyers... but never foresters. Why? Because in the public eye we're the bad guys.
When an ecologist or news reporter incorrectly characterizes clearcutting as deforestation, we should jump up and scream. But we don't. We just sit there and take it.
When I was in forestry school, foresters were ranked in the top ten (or was it the top five) of most trustworthy professions. I wonder were the public would rank us now?
Foresters are some of the greenest people I know, and being a forester is definitely a great green job. But in my view, we have much to do before the general public sees us for who and what we truly are.