when the white man first came to north america a great part of the continent was just a forest wherever the soil and climate were trees flourished in countless numbers but to the early settlers trees were a barrier they were into the birds and polished with little or no thought for the future they left scenes of desolation as they moved on to a new forest to be despoiled but wasteful logging was not the only enemy of the forest fire carelessness made up thousands upon thousands of acres finally destruction of this natural resource reach the point where america awakened to the need for conservation eighteen ninety one congress began setting aside large practice of timber as national forest reserves and watersheds these national forests now exceed one hundred and sixty million acres and state and private holdings millions more but the fact that some of these products are called reserves does not mean that no three's are cut for trees are like a crop they must be harvested when mature or otherwise they rot away and are wasted the important thing is to harvest the big trees without killing the young ones or to leave enough mature trees to reseed the area again so today the government and some forest industries are cooperating on a program designed to ensure a continuous supply of timber and steady well paid employment there are nearly a million persons engaged in harvesting processing and distributing forest products a comparatively small number of persons are engaged in protecting and managing our for and the opportunities for employment are limited the experts in this the you the professional partners theirs are employed by federal state and local government agencies or by private companies for private employment college training  forestry is not required though it is preferred permanent government positions are filled by civil service examinations and require a college training with at least two years of technical forestry subjects but regardless of the employing agency the fields of work are similar protecting the forest from fire is one of the forester's greatest responsibilities the organizers and managers of fire prevention system consisting of lookout stations telephone lines and firefighting crews and equipment and when fire strikes it's his duty to stick with his crew until it is put out some burned over areas can be reforested to get them back into production overgrazing permits or if you are allowing only a certain number of sheep or cattle and so the area forest fires are also concerned with the wildlife that lives in the politest they help to administer state game l other recommendations as to protection and other phases of wildlife management forests provide recreation grounds where people may experience helpful outdoor life the forest area helps the public to enjoy the forest but mostly that users do not harm it educating the public is part of his job three years are subject to injury by disease and insects studying these pests and working out ways to combat it means less waste of our forest resources there are many other occupational duties and professional forestry but basically they all call for men with certain abilities interests and attitudes to be a forester you should enjoy outdoor work and be interested in growing things you must have good health and be ready to endure discomfort than occasional hardships you must be willing to work under long lay conditions but also enjoy contact with the public and be able to impress them with the importance of activities requiring their cooperation and you must attend one of the schools in the united states offering technical promise recourses employment in the policy industries for others than covers a wide range of skills and training in logging for instance engineers and surveyors are needed to plan the methods by which the logs will be hauled from the woods to the mill that's often entails the laying out of railroads or truck paid very well and their living conditions were poor but today in most cases they are well paid and provided with comfortable camps and good food they also have modern machinery to aid in making the work easier and then getting the logs out of the woods past their at the mill the logs are dumped into a storage pond storing them in water protects them from drying out too quickly and also makes it easier to sort them before they go into the mill job requires a fine sense of balance as well as the knowledge of various species of trees in the middle of each log is placed on the carriage a moving platform which brings the log into contact with a saw which cuts off a board on each print that had sawyer's job is a very important one he decided the best way to cut each log and signals indicating the thickness of the board to be cut the man on the carriage quickly or just following the instructions of the head sawyer on the head saw the board move to the edge or saw which cuts off the rounded irregular sides of the trimmer saw operator must make split second decisions be carefully dried or at least sometimes they are piled in a large seasoning yard this method known as air drying requires several months the modern and pastor way is to put the lumber in special killed where hot air and steam dry it in a few days some sleazy lumber goes next to a planing mill where it is moved and cut the patterns or is made into special materials such as window frames and doors whether it be producing lumber or other products there are positions that superintendents are executives for those who are efficient and have the necessary education but of course you have to start at a lower level and work up in the distributing end of the industry the local building material dealers require many employees the establishment of a lumber yard of your own would be a fine gold but you must know the business have enough capital and  a good location it would be best to work for someone else until you learn the business thoroughly the industries and the field of forestry offer a great variety of opportunities however you must consider the fact that some activities specially the government agencies require a comparatively new man each year if you do go into forestry or one of the industries you will be part of work that has opted for the aim of