Will AI replace Foresters?
AI reaches some of this job’s work, but most of it stays with people.
38/100
Moderate exposure
More exposed to AI than 59% of US workers.
- AI already used in
- 0% of the work
- As AI tools mature: up to
- 58% of the work
What the job involves
Manage public and private forested lands for economic, recreational, and conservation purposes. May inventory the type, amount, and location of standing timber, appraise the timber's worth, negotiate the purchase, and draw up contracts for procurement. May determine how to conserve wildlife habitats, creek beds, water quality, and soil stability, and how best to comply with environmental regulations. May devise plans for planting and growing new trees, monitor trees for healthy growth, and determine optimal harvesting schedules.
Where AI reaches the work
The job’s main tasks, heaviest first, by how far AI reaches them.
Within reach(14)
- Establish short- and long-term plans for management of forest lands and forest resources.
- Monitor contract compliance and results of forestry activities to assure adherence to government regulations.
- Perform inspections of forests or forest nurseries.
- Determine methods of cutting and removing timber with minimum waste and environmental damage.
- Plan cutting programs and manage timber sales from harvested areas, assisting companies to achieve production goals.
and 9 more
Out of reach(11)
- Supervise activities of other forestry workers.
- Negotiate terms and conditions of agreements and contracts for forest harvesting, forest management and leasing of forest lands.
- Plan and supervise forestry projects, such as determining the type, number and placement of trees to be planted, managing tree nurseries, thinning forest and monitoring growth of new seedlings.
- Choose and prepare sites for new trees, using controlled burning, bulldozers, or herbicides to clear weeds, brush, and logging debris.
- Study different tree species' classification, life history, light and soil requirements, adaptation to new environmental conditions and resistance to disease and insects.
and 6 more
Also called
Silviculturist · Urban Forester · Area Forester · Environmental Protection Forester · Resource Forester · Service Forester · Extension Forester · Forestry Consultant
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