Resources for Green Jobs: Exploring Forest Careers – Activity 3 – Monitoring Forest Health

Download this PLT Green Jobs NGSS Correlations Toolkit. The Toolkit includes guiding questions, a list of science connections, and explicit NGSS correlations for each activity. Each is organized around the three dimensions of science, making it useful for educators even if their state has not adopted NGSS.

Go on an adventure with Rick Crosslin, a science teacher in Indiana, to investigate forest management in this video Forests at Work: An Indiana Expeditions Special. Students will learn how the genetic traits of seedlings can turn result in a tree farm full of magnificent hardwoods—similar to how our DNA can determine athletic ability, height, and muscle growth. Students will *virtually* follow foresters into the woodlands to learn about management practices and how these practices are changing the state’s forest composition, health, and overall recovery.

The video series On the Front Lines, created by the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, profiles conservation professionals working in New York’s natural lands and environments. Select the playlist “On the Front Lines” to choose from 25 videos highlighting a variety of green careers including Wildlife Biologist, Forest Health Specialist, and Environmental Educator.

Want to show your students how fun, interesting, and just downright cool being a scientist can be? Share with them this Cool Jobs video series that highlights what scientists do, how they do it, and how they got their jobs. There are 40 videos highlighting a variety of green careers including Biologist, Wildlife Conservationist, and Zoologist.

Learn more about the wide array of jobs related to forests with PLT’s 12 Green Jobs Fact Sheets, which highlights the following green jobs: Forester, Environmental Educator, GIS Specialist, Indigenous Relations Specialist, Forestry Technician, Park Ranger, Hydrologist, Silviculture Technician, Urban Forester, Machine Operator, Wildlife Biologist, and Sustainability Manager. Green jobs offer opportunities for people with diverse backgrounds, skills, interest areas, and personal qualities. Youth and adults alike might be surprised at the range of green career opportunities. These jobs help sustain forest ecosystems and ensure that forest products are produced in the most sustainable way possible also ensure that wildlife habitat is conserved, trees are replanted, and workers are treated fairly.

Read in-depth about forest health – from invasive pests and diseases to regeneration – in this Special Issue: Forest Health from Science, a magazine published by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). Researchers are constantly trying to understand and monitor the health of forests given the world’s changing ecosystems and human behavior. Learn about methods being employed to protect forest health, for example, forest managers are releasing predatory insects to eat and hopefully defeat the widespread infestation of Eastern Hemlock conifers by tiny sap-sucking insects called hemlock woolly adelgid.

Check out what professional arborists look for in surveying tree health with this sample basic tree risk assessment form from the International Society of Arboriculture. By assessing multiple site factors, profiling tree species and general health (crown and branches, trunk, and roots), and soil conditions, arborists evaluate many factors when determining the overall risk of the tree to the surrounding community.