Will AI replace Forest and Conservation Workers?
AI reaches little of this job’s work.
7/100
Low exposure
More exposed to AI than 14% of US workers.
- AI already used in
- 0% of the work
- As AI tools mature: up to
- 14% of the work
What the job involves
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.
Where AI reaches the work
The job’s main tasks, heaviest first, by how far AI reaches them.
Within reach(2)
- Confer with other workers to discuss issues, such as safety, cutting heights, or work needs.
- Maintain tallies of trees examined and counted during tree marking or measuring efforts.
Out of reach(15)
- 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.
- Perform fire protection or suppression duties, such as constructing fire breaks or disposing of brush.
- Explain or enforce regulations regarding camping, vehicle use, fires, use of buildings, or sanitation.
- Thin or space trees, using power thinning saws.
and 10 more
Also called
Tree Planter · Forest Worker · Seedling Puller · Forest Ranger · Reforestation Worker · Forester Aide · Grounds Crewman · Seedling Sorter
Related jobs
What these numbers mean
The score is the share of this job’s work, weighted by how important and frequent each task is, that AI could do in half the time: tasks an AI model could do alone count in full, tasks that need software built on AI count half.
“AI already used” is the share of the work in tasks where people are recorded using AI today. “As AI tools mature” counts every task AI could halve, with or without extra software.
The percentile compares the score with every job’s, weighted by how many people in the US do each one. Exposure means AI could change how the work is done, not that the job goes away. These are estimates for the typical job, not predictions.
Sources
- O*NET 31.0 Database, U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration
- GPTs are GPTs: Labor market impact potential of LLMs (task labels), Eloundou, Manning, Mishkin & Rock (2023), OpenAI and University of Pennsylvania
- Anthropic Economic Index: labor market impacts (task penetration), Anthropic
- Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025 (national and metropolitan areas), U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics