What Do You Want To Be When You Grow Up?

All children play the game.  “What do you what to be when they grow up?”  Whether the question comes from their peers or well-meaning adults, it’s standard fare.  For boys it’s often, “I want to be a fireman or a policeman.”  For girls perhaps it is “teacher or nurse.”  The reality is at those young ages, few have anything upon which to base such dreams. 

As we do grow up and perhaps for all-too-many, it’s when high school or college graduation goes from being something “out there” to eminent, we start getting more serious about the answer.

Influences toward a Career Path
For me, a 9^th grade biology teacher provided.  Because of my love for nature and the out-of-doors, she said, “You should go into forestry.”  With no personal mentors or connections to the field, that settled it.  En route I had many different part-time jobs … from sales clerk, to factory work building mobile homes, to mowing yard … yet, all served to ensure one thing – I would be college bound and would pursue forestry.

Once in college and as I gained a bit more understanding of the field, I began to hone the vision a bit more.  The image of forest wildlife biologist began to emerge.  With two degrees – one in forestry, the other in wildlife ecology – under my belt, I set out to make my mark.  Thirty-five years later I’m still in the broad forestry/wildlife field, but in a job (heading a national endowment) that was never on the radar.

Lumberjack:  The Worst Job in America?
Why this walk down memory lane?  Today, Careercast.com announced its “200 best and worst jobs” in America.  At the top is software engineer and at the bottom is the lumberjack, which the study defines as “fells, cuts, and transports timber to be processed into lumber, paper and other wood products.”  While I’m having a bit of trouble differing between “fells and cuts,” the jest is, timber harvesting is hard and dangerous work.  Duh!

By the way, I find that I can be listed as either 27^th – biologists; or 188^th – conservationists.  Forester didn’t even make the list.  Is that to suggest that it isn’t a job or it didn’t even make the top 200?

The Future for Lumberjacks
I haven’t heard the term lumberjacks since I lived in the small town of Warren, Arkansas, where the local high school football team had as its mascot the “Lumberjacks.”  Am I surprised that it ranked so low?  Well no; and yes.

Without timber harvesters we wouldn’t have the myriad of lumber, paper, and biomass-based products that make our lives better.  Today there are estimated to be some 8-10 thousand independent firms that harvest and transport timber in the U.S.  While most are small businesses, when we multiply each firm by its number of employees, the total sector would rank in the tens of thousands of employees.

At the Endowment we’ve long been concerned about the financial health and survival of the nation’s loggers.  In fact, one of our very first efforts was to assess the state of the nation’s timber harvesting sector.  While we were unable to turn that assessment into a specific plan of action at that time, we continue to speak with and look for the right entry point to aid this vitally important part of the forest products value chain such that it might evolve for a brighter future.

In fact, over just the last six months we’ve met with timber harvesters (lumberjacks, loggers, etc.) from across the nation to explore specific actions that we could take together.  Our hope is that such will turn into tangible outcomes that will ensure that “lumberjacks” will be around for decades to come but that in future ratings that the job won’t be listed at the bottom of the pile.

Written by: Carlton Owen