Salaries in Forestry must be competitive in order to keep the employees you value and recruit new staff. But what is the average salary for a career in forestry? More than likely, forestry starting salaries will be less than an arborist salary with extensive experience. However, it’s also important to determine average forest service pay for similar positions in your area.

Many factors come into play when determining average salaries in forestry. Use the following tips to help you come up with a basic forestry salary guide:

1. Use online forestry salary tools to come up with fair forest service pay scales based on several variables.

2. Search job boards for examples of current salaries in forestry based on job description, location and experience level.

3. Purchase forestry salary surveys to help you determine competitive compensation and benefits for your staff.

Action Steps
The best contacts and resources to help you get it done

Determine a fair forestry salary based on job description

If you don't have job descriptions for your forestry positions, create them. Things to include are job duties, skills set and expectations. Then, use online forestry salary tools to help you figure out the average forestry pay for a person that matches the job description. Be sure to keep the number of years of experience and job location in mind.

I recommend: Select a job title at Salary.com to find the average salary for a variety of forestry careers. If you don’t see the title you’re looking for, use the site’s free Salary Wizard to get more specific. Indeed also has a helpful forestry salary calculator, which lets you enter more than one job title to compare multiple salaries in forestry in multiple locations.

Compare forestry salary ranges on national job boards

You can research all day long and find plenty of hypothetical references, but sometimes real-life examples provide the best information. Check your local newspaper's classified section or search online job boards to find average forestry salary information from real job postings. Keep a log for a few weeks to see if a pattern emerges.

I recommend: Check the job listings on ForestryUSA to help you with your forestry salary evaluation. The Warnell School of Forest Resources also has an excellent jobs database from which to search salaries in forestry.

Purchase forestry salary surveys

As a business owner, you may not have the time to do extensive research on forestry salaries, yet, you want to determine fair forestry pay for your staff. Online salary research services and compensation software programs can get you the information you need and are usually quite simple to use.

I recommend: Order a Premium Salary Report from SalaryExpert to get customized, detailed information on arborist salary ranges. PayScale also offers custom forestry industry salary reports for employers.

Tips & Tactics

Helpful advice for making the most of this Guide

• •  If you need to hire a new forestry professional, the same job boards you used to research salaries in forestry are a great place to start your search.