If you want to know about Nolan Ward’s work ethic, just ask how he spent his school vacations as a kid.

“Instead of spring break, I went to the woods and made money,” recalls the New England Forestry technical forester.

Nolan is the fourth generation in his family to work in the forest. It all started when his great-grandfather started a logging company in their hometown of Lake Butler, Florida. The business eventually passed down to Nolan’s grandfather, and then to his father.

“Most of the time, I’d run a tractor. As I got older, I would run the cut down machines and load logs,” Nolan recalls. “I always enjoyed the ‘grind’ of working in the woods.”

Choosing Forestry College

There was no doubt a career in the forest was the right fit for Nolan, but some advice from his mother stuck with him.

“She told me, ‘When you’re a logger, you’re married to logging. You just date your wife,’” Nolan recalls. “You work long, 15-hour days. Even on the weekends, you’re tending to your equipment. I knew that wasn’t ideal if I wanted to have a family one day.”

He started out studying civil engineering, but soon realized working in the woods was still his passion. That’s when he enrolled at the University of Florida College of Agricultural and Life Sciences to major in forest resources and conservation.

Nolan’s undergraduate program, offered through what is now known as the School of Forest, Fisheries, and Geomatics Sciences, utilizes an experimental forest, the Austin Cary Forest, for hands-on learning. “We would go out and do labs, try to understand wetlands, watching how rainfall affects the woods. We went out in the field for class at least once a week, for three hours at a time.”

For Nolan, it was a perfect fit.

“We weren’t just stuck in a classroom being lectured; I didn’t spend college in a library studying,” he says. But it was still challenging.

“My specialization was forest business management, which gives you some of the business world of forestry. The toughest part was financial accounting. It was tough!”

A Small Community with Big Networking Opportunities

Both at UF and in the industry overall, forestry is a relatively “small world” according to Nolan. That was his ideal situation because he made some of the best friends of his life.

“We did group projects that made us really learn how to work with different people. I now have friends from all over the state and all over the country,” he says.

With a high demand for workers in the forestry industry, Nolan found there were a lot of scholarship opportunities for forestry students. There were also internships with well-known companies. And that’s how he got his start with New England Forestry.

He had already heard about New England Forestry through his father’s logging company. Then a group of New England Forestry employees came to UF to speak about New England Forestry internship opportunities and Nolan applied.

He was accepted twice, interning with New England Forestry in both 2018 and 2019.

“I just enjoyed it. I really liked the people and felt like there was a good support system. We were outside doing something different every day: site prep, fertilization, cruising, land management. It really opened my eyes,” Nolan says.

Joining the New England Forestry Team

After graduation, Nolan went back to working in the woods with his dad’s logging company at first. Then one day, a friend from New England Forestry called to tell him about a job opening.

For Nolan, relationships are an important factor in decision making: He chose forestry rather than logging with his future family in mind, and he loved UF’s forest resources and conservation program largely because of the relationships he built with classmates and faculty. And, ultimately, it was his relationship with the New England Forestry team that made the job the right fit for him.

“The type of people you’ll meet at New England Forestry are good, honest, and they treat you fairly. They’re like family,” he says.

To students considering a similar academic path, he offers this advice: “If you want a field with job opportunities anywhere in the country, and you want to work outside, you can’t beat it.”

The post 4th Generation Logger Chooses UF Forestry School appeared first on New England Forestry Stories.

One seemingly small decision can change where your life is headed.

Sarah de Gouw was one year into pursuing a science degree at New Zealand’s University of Canterbury when she decided to take a forestry course as an elective. By the end of the course, she knew forestry was the career for her.

“Forestry combined my passion for the outdoors with environmental management, sustainability and what I had learned in the beginning of my science degree,” says Sarah, now a New England Forestry harvest forester in Southland, New Zealand. “I knew absolutely nothing about the industry until I took that course.”

It was an exciting discovery for two reasons: first, because it was such an interesting field, with a wide range of subjects, the kind of hands-on work Sarah loves and even field trips across the South and North islands. Secondly, forestry expertise was (and is) in high-demand in the workforce, with many jobs available throughout New Zealand for forestry graduates.

A Wide Variety of Subjects

The more Sarah learned about forestry, the more she confirmed this was where she belonged. 

“The wide variety of subjects that we studied was surprising, everything from economics and engineering to biosecurity, silviculture and wood science,” she says. “The advancement of technology in the industry was also surprising.”

Sarah was able to see how drones, winch-assist machines and other tech was changing the landscape of forestry work, making it safer, more efficient and environmentally-friendly.

“Most classes also had a lab component, which created variety and a chance to complete some practical work or assignments that imitated scenarios in our potential future jobs,” Sarah says. 

Studying forestry was exciting and interesting, but also took a lot of hard work. Determined to get her Bachelor of Forestry Science with honors, she spent many early mornings and late nights in the computer lab and library.

“For me the most challenging part was the statistics courses, as math had never been my strongest point. But the lectures are amazing as well as your classmates, so it was easy to get extra help when needed,” she says.

A Closeknit Group

The school’s forestry classes were small, and the bonds between forestry students were strong. Sarah became involved in the Forestry Society, known as FORSOC, which united forestry students throughout the university. There were also special Women in Forestry events.

“Even several years after graduating, whenever we are in the same city as other classmates, we still catch up for a BBQ or drink,” Sarah says.

Discovering New England Forestry through an Internship

When summer break came around, Sarah made some new friends in her summer internships, joining the New England Forestry team each summer.

“Summer student jobs were advertised through the School of Forestry at uni,” she recalls. “New England Forestry employees and the contractors are all great people, and it creates a work environment that is enjoyable to be a part of.”

The internships gave her real-life experience in the type of work she wanted to do:

“During the summer, I worked as a part of the New England Forestry Canterbury office. I helped create harvests plans, QC logs, QC blocks that had been thinned and complete assessments of significant ecological areas.”

After graduation, Sarah knew where she wanted to go: she immediately began working for New England Forestry.

“The people and high standards were inspiring and something I wanted to contribute to. The ability for growth and development opportunities was also appealing,” she says.

Sarah uses principles she learned at university regularly in her career with New England Forestry.

“Basic harvest planning principles and creating maps using ArcMap are skills that I use every week in my current role,” she says. “Time management is also an important skill to ensure jobs and projects are completed on time.”

Some of her favorite aspects of her work are catching up with contractors in the forest, working on harvest plans and problem solving.

“It is rewarding to be working for a company in a sustainable industry that cares about our environmental impact,” she says. 

Advice for Future Forestry Students

For students considering a forestry degree, Sarah says it is a great first step into a promising career.

“The degree is specialised for the industry and the types of jobs you are mostly likely to apply for when you graduate, so you will be well-prepared when you complete your degree,” she says.

It’s also just plain enjoyable.

“University as a forestry major was so much fun. The class sizes were small so you got to know your classmates and lecturers well. And the wide variety of subjects meant that every semester was different.”

There’s also variety in job options within the field.

“The forest industry provides so many opportunities,” Sarah says. “You can be involved in any part of the ‘cycle’ all the way from the very beginning—when land prepping of a block for planting occurs—to the sale of the logs to customers around the world, and all the many jobs in between.”

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