The Complete Guide to Becoming A Forestry and Conservation Science Teacher, Postsecondary
Know exactly what a Forestry and Conservation Science Teacher does, how much it pays, how to get hired, and whether it's the right fit for you — before you spend a decade in school.
by Alumigogo Books
non-fiction
The honest, concrete guide to becoming a postsecondary forestry teacher — pay, path, fit, and how to land the job.
About this book
You've seen job postings for "Forestry and Conservation Science Teacher, Postsecondary." You've read the official BLS blurb that says it's a stable, slow-growth career. What you haven't found is anyone telling you what the first year of teaching is actually like, what you'll really earn as an adjunct before you get a tenure-track line, or why most Ph.D. graduates in forestry never become professors.
This guide is that missing inside look. It's written for people who are weighing a major or considering a career change — not for people already in the field. It covers the real responsibilities (teaching 3-4 courses a semester, advising students, running a research lab, writing grant proposals), the actual salary table by experience level (entry-level as low as $42k at a regional college, senior full professors at $110k+ at research universities), and the brutal job-market math: roughly 1,100 openings per year nationally, many of which are adjunct or non-tenure-track. It also gives you a self-assessment checklist so you can figure out if you're the kind of person who thrives in this role.
You'll get chapter-by-chapter guidance on education paths (master's vs. Ph.D., costs and timelines), how to get your first teaching job with no classroom experience (adjuncting, mentorship, teaching-as-a-graduate-student), and what the promotion timeline actually looks like (assistant -> associate -> full professor, 5-7 years per step). No vague inspiration. Just the facts, the numbers, and a practical decision framework.
Reader Reviews
Paul Johnson
★★★★★I was two years into a forestry master's and seriously panicking about whether to keep going for a Ph.D. This guide gave me the actual salary table and the adjunct vs. tenure-track reality — I had no idea entry-level paid that little at regional schools. The chapter on breaking in was practical, not fluffy. It helped me decide to target teaching at a community college with a master's, and I feel a lot better about that plan now.
Robert Thompson
★★★★★It's a decent overview, but I wish it went deeper on the research side of the job. Chapter 1 is clear about the teaching load, but the grant-writing and lab management parts felt a bit glossed over. The education comparison table was useful, though — I have no idea what my master's degree costs me each year, so seeing it laid out next to a Ph.D. timeline was genuinely clarifying. Solid starting point, not a full encyclopedia.
Melissa Lewis
★★★★★I'm a working forester and I've been toying with the idea of teaching at a community college. This guide did exactly what it promised: it told me the real pay (much lower than my current job starting out), the realistic teaching load, and how to get an adjunct position without a Ph.D. I appreciated that it didn't try to talk me into or out of it — just the facts. The self-assessment checklist in Chapter 2 is worth the purchase alone.
Karen Green
★★★★★Honest, grounded, and refreshingly free of the 'follow your passion' garbage. I'm a career-changer in my late 30s, and I needed to know whether going back for a Ph.D. in conservation science was a realistic path to teaching. The pay numbers are sobering but real, and the chapter on where the jobs are geographically showed me I'd need to move to the Pacific Northwest. Not what I wanted to hear, but I'm glad I heard it before applying to programs.
Stephanie Nguyen
★★★★★Readable and concrete. I'm a high school student considering college programs for environmental science, and this book helped me understand the difference between a research university professor and a teaching-focused community college instructor — that was a blind spot for me. I liked the day-in-the-life chapter; it felt like actually watching someone do the job, not a brochure. I knocked off one star because I wanted more details on scholarships and funding for the education paths.