Has he been on an extended backpacking trip? That’s a good starting point, if you don’t backpack as a family then consider things like this:
The next step up would be YCC which he should look at for next year (it might now be a bit late for this summer but he could still try):
There are kids who major in finance and get a job in Hong Kong and see their parents once or twice a year. (and they are making major bucks, so it’s not the money). There are kids who major in civil engineering and spend 90% of their time on the road-- a canal project in Northern Europe, a bridge project in Asia, an airport in Guam.
There are no guarantees that your kid would put proximity to home as a high priority regardless of the major. I think you need to work through some of your “OMG, my kids are growing up” issues independent of what they study. There are kids with plain vanilla majors making lots of money who don’t live close to mom and dad and don’t visit very often… really, this has nothing to do with forestry.
Every single parent of a 30+ kid in my social circle who doesn’t have a significant other worries that it’s the job/profession. Kid is in the ministry- OMG, what spouse wants that life? Kid is an ER doc- he doesn’t even have time to date, let alone have a relationship. Kid is a litigator-- she’s always on the phone. Kid teaches HS math and coaches basketball- what woman wants a husband who isn’t a big earner AND spends the entire weekend on a bus with the team? Kid is an airline pilot, career military officer, therapist, on and on and on.
You will stop worrying about THAT the day you walk the kid down the aisle!
Here’s a link showing all USFS office locations, ranging from field offices to Regional and National. There are many remote offices especially in the west, but there are also many non remote locations. They employ foresters, wildlife biologists, ecologists, botanists, archaeologists, GIS specialists, recreation folks, range managers, entomologists, plant pathologists, Wildland fire staff, statisticians, NEPA specialists, and copious amounts of administrative folks.
Then there is the Bureau of Land Management, NRCS, NPS (few forestry majors, more ecologists, botanists, wildlife biologists, etc - very hard to be hired for permanent positions), state, Tribal, and industry.
BTW, 99% of the foresters I know are married.
For Wildlife Bio, I’d say there is no better place than CSU, but for Forestry I think you have a gem in Michigan Tech (especially if it’s in state). Add in a Surveying minor and he’ll never be without a job.
What about SUNY ESF?
Interestingly, the professor from U of Idaho who spoke with us said that western states preferred to hire forestry students from western programs.
I don’t think that’s true. For forestry, as long as you graduate from an SAF accredited school, you’re fine.
Yes! My husband and I are both engineers. Our youngest majored in Photography and Art History. And she’s doing well! She has a good job with benefits - she photographs products for a local supermarket. It’s not very stressful and she doesn’t have to think about it when she’s not working. She rents a small art studio with her friend, plays jazz piano in gigs, puts music on Spotify, and enjoys life. She just traveled to Poland to visit her older brother and his new wife.
Don’t tie yourself up in knots over this. He’s still a kid, let him enjoy himself. He’s not going to do what you want, anyway, ha. Start practicing holding your tongue - it’s a useful skill.
Who knows? He was teaching at Idaho, but did his masters at Purdue and PhD at Michigan Tech.
Fortunately, he’s only 16 and chances are, doesn’t know what he wants yet. Giving facts to a 16 year old doesn’t usually work anyway, at least with my daughter. When my daughter was 16, when I tried to reason with her, I’d get the cold stare…“BRUH!” She’s 18 now and is much more mature. In fact, she cringes when she thinks of her 16 year old self.
There are similar concerns for lots of careers. We have a kid heading off to study computer engineering. It’s also spouse’s field, so we know what it looks like. Heavily male, full of workaholics, and many jobs located in tech centers on the west coast, far from us. And we’ve talked with kid about making conscious choices around what he’d like his life to look like. A computer engineer might choose to move to Silicon Valley, but could also work at a university, computing center, national lab, or company in many other parts of the country. Kid is aware of what he wants and will look for opportunities that align with his goals (which may or may not match our preferences).
Likewise, your kid could choose to move to the boonies and enjoy the solitude. Or be a park ranger, interacting with people all day. Or work on policy and spend a lot of time in DC. Or work for a university and mostly be in a college town except when doing field work with a lab group (which, from what I hear, is highly social). But, there’s no guarantee that a different major will cause your kid to be in what you see as a preferable environment. And, for that matter, what your son sees as a better environment might change over time as priorities change.
I think it’s important to remember that our kids probably define “success” differently than we do, and that’s OK - probably an improvement!
Exactly. My kid realized that they would be miserable sitting at a desk or inside all day. Once he realized there were STEM jobs that had you out in nature a whole new world opened up for him. To him, the definition of success is finding a job that you find meaningful and that is enjoyable (for him that means being outside). He says the biggest problem in schools is that kids don’t get a chance to find what they connect to and aren’t exposed to a large variety of careers. He was lucky enough to experience conservation research and GIS in high school or else he would have just gone into engineering like the other “good at math and science” kids.
There are also urban forestry departments. Urban Forestry Division | Charleston, SC - Official Website
When jobs have posted for this department they have been decent salaries for our area. Current posting - The starting salary out of college for an Urban Forestry Technician is just shy of $60,000. Job Opportunities | City of Charleston Careers
I also know several private contractor arborists who are able to support a comfortable life.
Urban forests are becoming even more important with climate change - trees can provide natural cooling off areas, help manage water flows, provide carbon sequestration, etc.
This website is really cool
Of possible interest
https://phys.org/news/2024-02-century-york-city-urban-forest.amp
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