What Are the Chances for Promotion?
Chances for limited promotion are reasonably good. It should be recognized frankly, however, that one can not hope to get rich in the profession and that a comfortable living is all that can ordinarily be looked forward to. In exceptional cases unusually able and well qualified men will doubtless be able to draw salaries of $4,000 or $5,000 a year. The average professional forester, however, can hardly hope to advance much beyond $2,500 or $3,500 a year except by acquiring an interest in some lumber business or in the forest itself. For the forest ranger a salary of $1,500 or $1,600 may reasonably be looked forward to. Moreover, this salary often carries with it a ranger station which can be occupied as long as he stays in the service, and also an opportunity to produce some crops for his own use. Forest guards can hardly hope for more than $900 or $1,800 a year.
In other words, in forestry, as in all other professions, the better educated you are the better are your chances for promotion. Even at best, however, the chances for large salaries are small and those who are bent on getting rich should look elsewhere for an opportunity to do so. On the other hand, one who is satisfied to make a comfortable living, to spend a large part of his life in the open, to occupy a responsible and respected place in his home community, and to enjoy the satisfaction which comes from having an important share in a work of great public service, can not look for a more congenial or attractive occupation than forestry.