Forest Service jobs

154 national forests and 20 national grasslands make up the National Forest System, 193 million acres spread across 43 states, the Virgin Islands, and Puerto Rico, and the Forest Service manages all of it with about 30,000 employees. The agency was established in 1905 and sits inside the U.S. Department of Agriculture, with a structure of a Washington Office, regions, and research stations.

The reach goes well past the land it owns. Counting the work it does with states, tribal governments, forest industries, and private landowners, the Forest Service helps steward roughly 900 million forested acres nationally, including 130 million acres in urban areas, where most Americans now live. That partnership work is a real slice of the jobs: cooperative forestry with local governments looks nothing like a district ranger post on a national forest. Research is its own branch again, with stations doing the science the agency uses. Then there is fire: the fire management organization shapes hiring across the whole system, because seasonal assignments pull staff from other roles. If you are weighing federal conservation employers, the useful question here is which piece you would join, because the forest, the research station, the state and private forestry program, and the fire organization run on different clocks.