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Technicians and associate professionals · code 3143

Forestry technicians

Forestry technicians perform technical and supervisory functions in support of forestry research and forest management, harvesting, resource conservation and environmental protection. Tasks include - (a) conducting forest inventories, surveys and field measurements following accepted scientific and operational procedures; (b) assisting in and performing technical functions in the preparation of forest management and harvest plans using photogrammetric and mapping techniques and computerized information systems; (c) assisting in planning and supervision of construction of access routes and forest roads; (d) implementing, supervising and performing technical functions in silvicultural operations involving site preparation, planting, and tending of tree crops; (e) coordinating activities such as timber scaling, forest fire suppression, disease or insect control or pre-commercial thinning of forest stands; (f) supervising and performing technical functions in forest harvesting operations; (g) ensuring adherence to regulations and policies concerning environmental protection, resource utilization, fire safety and accident prevention; (h) supervising forest tree nursery operations; (i) providing technical support to forestry research programmes in areas such as tree improvement, seed orchard operations, insect and disease surveys or experimental forestry and forest engineering research; (j) preparing forest cultivation and cutting plans. Examples of the occupations classified here: - Forestry technician - Silviculture technician

None of this job's tasks scored high enough to count. It ranks 158 of 427 for holding up against AI.

Also known as

  • forestry technician

Job titles from the EU's ESCO list. Search for any of them on the jobs page and you'll end up here.

78.8
Holds up
against AI Not Exposed

AI could take on 21.2 of 100, on average
so it holds up at 100 − 21.2 = 78.8

That's the whole sum, and you can check it against the ILO's study.

70.2
How hands-on
out of 100

From O*NET, matched to one US job

38.4
How fiddly
and cramped

finger skill 42.9 · hand skill 42.9 · cramped spaces 29.5 · averaged

Kind of hands-on work · hands-on 50+ · fiddly under 39.4 Hands-on, less fiddly work

Less fine handwork and fewer cramped spaces than a typical hands-on job. That clears one hurdle for machines. It doesn't mean machines are doing this work yet.

estimated O*NET 31.0 BLS occupational crosswalk chain ISCO-08 to 2010 SOC (Aug 2012, rev. Jun 2015); 2010 to 2018 SOC (Nov 2017); O*NET-SOC 2019 taxonomy data 0.7-work-setting measures chosen by Frey & Osborne (2017) · the grouping is a sorting, not a measurement

This number is probably too high

This score only looks at AI tools like chatbots. It doesn't look at robots at all — and this job rates 70.2 out of 100 for how hands-on it is, which is exactly where robots come in.

Have a look at the tasks below and judge for yourself. The ILO scored them low because a chatbot can't do them. Whether a machine with hands could is a different question, and we can't answer it yet.

The tasks behind the score

The score is the average of these. A job is really a bundle of tasks, and an average can hide how uneven that bundle is.

The task AI could do most of scores 37, while the average is 21.2. A big gap means some of this job is wide open to AI and some of it barely at all. That's quite different from a job where everything sits somewhere in the middle, even when the averages match.

  1. 37

    Assisting in and performing technical functions in the preparation of forest management and harvest plans using photogrammetric and mapping techniques and computerized information systems

    Low
  2. 23.5

    Assisting in planning and supervision of construction of access routes and forest roads

    Very Low
  3. 23

    Ensuring adherence to regulations and policies concerning environmental protection, resource utilization, fire safety and accident prevention

    Very Low
  4. 22.5

    Conducting forest inventories, surveys and field measurements following accepted scientific and operational procedures

    Very Low
  5. 22.5

    Providing technical support to forestry research programmes in areas such as tree improvement, seed orchard operations, insect and disease surveys or experimental forestry and forest engineering research

    Very Low
  6. 21.5

    Supervising and performing technical functions in forest harvesting operations

    Very Low
  7. 17.5

    Coordinating activities such as timber scaling, forest fire suppression, disease or insect control or pre-commercial thinning of forest stands

    Very Low
  8. 17

    Preparing forest cultivation and cutting plans.

    Very Low
  9. 13.5

    Implementing, supervising and performing technical functions in silvicultural operations involving site preparation, planting, and tending of tree crops

    Very Low
  10. 13.5

    Supervising forest tree nursery operations

    Very Low

10 tasks · the High to Very Low labels are the ILO's

from the source Working Paper 140, Generative AI and Jobs 2025 index data 0.7-work-setting

Helped, or replaced?

The score above can't tell a tool that makes you faster from one that does the task instead of you. Jobs and Skills Australia looked at those two things separately, and this is their result, matched to this job.

2 Australian jobs match this one, and we've simply averaged them. Treat the numbers as a rough guide.

AI helps you
72
AI does it for you
40.5

Helping wins by 31.5 points.

estimated Our Gen AI Transition (Gen AI Capacity Study) September 2025 detailed data release data 0.7-work-setting matched to Australian jobs 3111, 3114

Compared with similar jobs

There are 82 jobs in the “Technicians and associate professionals” group, averaging 65.2. This one is above that.