Description
Forestry inspectors monitor forestry operations to ensure that workers and their activities comply with proper legislation and standards. They perform inspections to examine operations, wages, costs and health and safety measures. Forestry inspectors also analyse and report on their findings.
Duties
A forestry inspector typically does the following:
- Inspects trees and vegetation to determine pruning or removal requirements in order to ensure public safety, aesthetics, and the health of trees and vegetation.
- Documents tree and vegetation pruning requirements and specifications and prepares contractor work orders to complete required tree and/or vegetation maintenance.
- Obtains permits as required to maintain trees and vegetation
- Communicates with citizens regarding vegetation pruning and/or removal of trees encroaching
- Inspects completed work to ensure contractor completes work in accordance with required specifications.
- Prune or remove trees for public safety, aesthetics, and health.
- Responds during emergency situations such as floods, severe weather, and accidents.
Other titles
The following job titles also refer to forestry inspector:
chief forestry inspector
forestry operations monitor
forestry auditor
forestry assessor
urban forestry inspector
forestry operations compliance inspector
forestry operations inspector
arboriculture inspector
Minimum qualifications
A high school diploma or equivalent is generally the minimum required to work as a forestry inspector. Relevant work experience in forestry or a related field is also necessary.
ISCO skill level
ISCO skill level is defined as a function of the complexity and range of tasks and duties to be performed in an occupation. It is measured on a scale from 1 to 4, with 1 the lowest level and 4 the highest, by considering:
- the nature of the work performed in an occupation in relation to the characteristic tasks and duties
- the level of formal education required for competent performance of the tasks and duties involved and
- the amount of informal on-the-job training and/or previous experience in a related occupation required for competent performance of these tasks and duties.
Forestry inspector is a Skill level 3 occupation.
Forestry inspector career path
Similar occupations
These occupations, although different, require a lot of knowledge and skills similar to forestry inspector.
agricultural inspector
fire protection technician
fire inspector
railway infrastructure inspector
customs officer
Long term prospects
These occupations require some skills and knowledge of forestry inspector. They also require other skills and knowledge, but at a higher ISCO skill level, meaning these occupations are accessible from a position of forestry inspector with a significant experience and/or extensive training.
emergency response coordinator
forestry adviser
forester
conservation scientist
health and safety officer
Essential knowledge and skills
Essential knowledge
This knowledge should be acquired through learning to fulfill the role of forestry inspector.
- Forestry regulations: The legal rules applicable to forestry: agricultural law, rural law, and laws on hunting and fishing.
- Health, safety and hygiene legislation: The set of health, safety and hygiene standards and items of legislation applicable in a specific sector.
- Environmental legislation in agriculture and forestry: Awareness on environmental legislation, policies, principles relevant for agriculture and forestry. Awareness of the impact on the environment of local agricultural procedures and practices. Means to adjust the production to new environmental regulations and policies.
Essential skills and competences
These skills are necessary for the role of forestry inspector.
- Communicate health and safety measures: Inform about applicable rules, guidelines and measures to avoid accidents and hazards in the workplace.
- Ensure compliance with legal requirements: Guarantee compliance with established and applicable standards and legal requirements such as specifications, policies, standards or law for the goal that organisations aspire to achieve in their efforts.
- Maintain forest inventory: Recognise growing crops in forests and woodlands. Record their numbers in a formal inventory. Take measures applying the appropriate techniques.
- Undertake inspections: Undertake safety inspections in areas of concern to identify and report potential hazards or security breaches; take measures to maximise safety standards.
- Monitor work site: Regularly ensure that working conditions on site meet health and safety requirements; ensure that the proposed work will not pose a threat to the physical integrity of others.
- Analyse business processes: Study the contribution of the work processes to the business goals and monitor their efficiency and productivity.
- Enforce sanitation procedures: Ensure standards of sanitation and cleanliness essential to effective control of fungi and other parasites under intensive culture conditions. Obtain uncontaminated fish and eggs by strict sanitary procedures and avoidance of carrier fish. Supervise the isolation and identification of the agent with specific immune antiserum.
- Write work-related reports: Compose work-related reports that support effective relationship management and a high standard of documentation and record keeping. Write and present results and conclusions in a clear and intelligible way so they are comprehensible to a non-expert audience.
- Conduct environmental surveys: Conduct surveys in order to collect information for analysis and management of environmental risks within an organisation or in a wider context.
Optional knowledge and skills
Optional knowledge
This knowledge is sometimes, but not always, required for the role of forestry inspector. However, mastering this knowledge allows you to have more opportunities for career development.
- Forest conservation: Understand forest conservation: the practice of planting and maintaining forested areas.
- Pollution prevention: The processes used to prevent pollution: precautions to pollution of the environment, procedures to counter pollution and associated equipment, and possible measures to protect the environment.
- Cost management: The process of planning, monitoring and adjusting the expenses and revenues of a business in order to achieve cost efficiency and capability.
- Fire prevention procedures: The regulations concerning fire and explosion prevention, and the equipment, systems and methods used in it.
Optional skills and competences
These skills and competences are sometimes, but not always, required for the role of forestry inspector. However, mastering these skills and competences allows you to have more opportunities for career development.
- Perform forest analysis: Review data, reports and studies in forestry. Based on this information, write a situation analysis report on biodiversity and genetic resources relevant to forestry.
- Develop forestry strategies: Build up forestry policies in order to enhance their sustainable management and to improve communication linked to forestry operations. These plans are meant to tackle issues regarding correlated environmental and societal changes.
- Monitor forest health: Monitor forest health to make sure all necessary actions are taken by the forestry workers team.
- Conduct reforestation surveys: Determine the maintenance and distribution of seedling . Identify disease and damage done by animals. Prepare and submit notifications, written plans and budgets for reforestation.
- Carry out forestry related measurements: Use measuring devices such as scale sticks to estimate the volume of timber in a forest. This sum consists of the total number of trees that can be harvested, as well as the average amount of lumber or pulp wood an average tree can produce.
- Review meteorological forecast data: Revise estimated meteorological parameters; solve gaps between real-time conditions and estimated conditions.
- Check payment: Control and ensure employees are being paid correctly by their employers.
- Monitor forest productivity: Monitor and improve forest productivity by organising growing, timber harvesting, and health measures.
- Supervise forestry workers: Supervise and coordinate the staff that works in the forestry areas.
- Manage maintenance operations: Oversee maintenance activities, making sure that staff is following procedures and ensuring routine and periodic refurbishment and maintenance activities.
ISCO group and title
3359 – Regulatory government associate professionals not elsewhere classified
References
- Forestry inspector – ESCO
- Featured image: By US Forest Service – https://twitter.com/A_SNFs/status/941728969178492928, Public Domain