Chris DeForest’s article, “What Good are Woods” (INLT Quarterly Newsletter, Fall 2009), points out the tremendous conservation values of our forests – not only in meeting the material needs of humanity, but also providing a myriad of other benefits referred to as ecosystem services. Services include clean water, pure air, wildlife habitat, and spiritual values.

The role of a professional forester maintains the balance between human needs and desires and our forests’ ability to sustain these “services.” A forester not only sees the need to build a house but, also, incorporates science and biology to help understand how the landscape will respond to the removal of needed resources.

More than a hundred years ago when our forests where being harvested with little regard for the future, a father asked his boy, “How would you like to be a forester?” The boy was Gifford Pinchot, who later became one of the first (and most notable) professional foresters in United States. Later, as a man, Gifford remarked: "I had no more conception of what it meant to be a forester than the man in the moon....but at least a forester worked in the woods and with the woods - and I loved the woods and everything about them....” (Reference: ForestHistory.org)

Among his many accomplishments, Pinchot was instrumental in forming the Forest Service and urging President Teddy Roosevelt to protect and manage forests for future generations. He also worked to help define forestry as, “The greatest good for the greatest number in the long run.”

Since Pinchot’s time, the forestry profession has become more specialized and diverse. Today’s foresters, university extension foresters, consulting foresters, state and federal foresters, urban foresters, industrial foresters, research foresters, etc., fill many different roles and play an important role in how our forests are managed while working for the “greatest good.”

Although diversity strengthens the profession, it can also lead to confusion as to who is, or is not, a forester. In essence, a forester is an individual who obtains a four-year degree in natural resource management and works in the forestry field. Two professional organizations, the Society of American Foresters (SAF) and the Association of Consulting Foresters (ACF), provide competency and credentialing standards for foresters. The main difference between the two lies in how specific the certification is. The SAF offers its members a Certified Forester (CF) program which is open to all types of professional foresters, whereas the ACF offers its credentialing system specifically to Consulting Foresters (those foresters available to assist private forests owners on a fee basis). You can get more information on these two organizations and a list of certified foresters in your area by visiting their respective websites at safnet.org or acf-foresters.org.

Obviously defining what, or more importantly, who a forester is goes beyond training and experience. It is ultimately defined by the resource. In the famous words of Aldo Leopold, another leader in the field of forestry, “Conservation is a state of harmony between land and man.” It is a forester’s duty to help preserve this harmony.

Next issue: My description of how a Consulting Forester fits into the management of forest resource.

Steven V. Bloedel, ACF, CF
Inland Forest Management, Inc.
(208) 263-9420
IFM@inlandforest.com



Examples of Duties Performed by a Professional Forester