Quickly after my interview with a professional in my field,
I realized that this was the most effective tool for discovering unanswered
questions I’ve had about forestry. I was actually surprised on the answers of
the topic of writing in this field too. I was especially surprised on the
amount of writing preformed and the close relation to our classroom topics. A one
on one discussion with a field forester informed me that even with a field
intensive job, writing is still an everyday process.
The questions were:
1.
What is a quick summary of your job description
and a quick description of your day-to-day?
2.
What are some challenges that are typically
faced in your field?
3.
How do you use writing in your job?
4.
What is your writing process?
5.
Who is your primary audience?
6.
What are some other forms of communication that
have an importance in your job?
7.
What should a forester’s main focus on writing be to prepare for the job field or just communication for
the job in general?
Answers:
1.
Tony
Fox, a state registered forester, is a field forester for a private forests
products company in Michigan. He oversees the plan management of a customer’s
land; the customer’s land, they are generally working with, needs some type of
tree harvesting or tree removal. On a typical morning he meets with the 7 crews
to answer questions or concerns those crews may have with the “cutting” that
Tony and his team are orchestrating. Him and the foreman plan out the goals for
each day on the forest management plan for their customer.
2.
Most of the challenges he faces in his job are
competition. Competition with other mill companies and competition with timber.
Later he also mentioned that a specific challenge was always meeting the needs
of the customer. They are the most important person in the entire management
plan and their needs must be met.
3.
The answer to this question was surprising to me
in the fact that this proved the large amount of writing that a forester does.
He said that he was currently finishing up working on a 30-page management
plan. A lot of the writing must be professional. Especially professional for
stewardship plans that the federal government requires to be done. Every day
some sort of writing is preformed working with his timber group, mostly just
writing small notes in the field but still is an everyday occurrence.
4.
Most of the writing process is revision and a compilation
of different field notes gathered from every timber group. I came to realize
that a lot of forester’s writing needs to be edited so others can fully
understand the management plans and goals of the team. Writing for the DNR or
landowners requires explanation of things like forestry’s terminology. Revision
is mostly so people can understand the writing.
5.
DNR and landowners are the two main audiences.
It makes sense because most of the writing is management plans and these are
the two audiences that are overseeing and in need of the management plans.
6.
Aside from emailing on a very daily basis, a
field forester makes a lot of calls; this is probably the main source of
communication for the job. Generally communication with the private land owners
requires questions to be answered and is a lot simpler with a phone
conversation and provides a more in depth explanation for the questions.
7.
The last question, and I think the most
important question for me, was stressed on the idea of listening to the
customer. He made it sound like after college it was very easy to become eager
about his new job and want to put all his training in action instantly; this
isn’t necessarily the best thing to do. Again it all goes back to the focus of
the landowner’s ideas are of the most importance and conveying their objectives
into the plan should be the first concern for a forester. Listen to them and
hear them out on their ideas and relay the education you’ve received into the
plan instead of doing whatever you think is the right thing.
Relating everything back to our writing in class, I notice the
importance of writing for an audience. The last question of the interview
showed me that a forester has a significant audience: the landowner. Writing
for their understanding and writing for their goals is the main idea in a field
foresters writing. The purpose of their writing is for a management plan and
with using forestry education and the ideas of the landowner’s management plan,
the plan becomes enacted perfectly by the forester.
This week was helpful in expanding my general
knowledge in forestry. I feel like the classes related to my major are starting
to get into the core material and I’m becoming more interested in forestry
every day. The amount of outdoor labs is such a nice change from high school
and just learning the basics of tree identification and tree measurements is so
intriguing to me. Being outside and enjoying the nice fall weather is so much
more enjoyable than sitting behind a desk every day. This week we did our first
“tree plots” which is the foundation of field foresters job. They consist of
counts of the trees in a specified area of a forest that are used to estimate
the total trees in the entire acreage of that forest. It’s very easy to learn
something that has a direct value and purpose to my intended job field.
Practicing and perfecting this field method is essential to furthering my
forestry knowledge here at Michigan State University. Overall I’m excited to
learn more about my field!
