{"id":152,"date":"2020-02-18T16:23:57","date_gmt":"2020-02-18T16:23:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost:8009\/stories\/?p=152"},"modified":"2023-06-07T13:43:42","modified_gmt":"2023-06-07T13:43:42","slug":"uf-student-diversity-will-benefit-my-generations-foresters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forestrycareers.com\/stories\/uf-student-diversity-will-benefit-my-generations-foresters\/","title":{"rendered":"UF Student: Workforce Diversity will Benefit Next Generation of Foresters"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Olivia Johnson says more women and minorities are enrolling in forestry programs, bringing a new level of workforce diversity that will enrich the industry in the years to come.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

GAINESVILLE, Florida\u2014Olivia Johnson is in her element as she leads a team of students through the forest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis area would be perfect for recreation,\u201d she says, gesturing to a sunny stand of trees. The students nod in agreement as they continue walking through Austin Cary Forest, University of Florida\u2019s official teaching and research forest. Their assignment: to come up with a business plan for a pretend landowner, figuring out how to get the most value from a 95-acre section of the forest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI love tromping through the woods. I can\u2019t believe you can just do this as a major,\u201d says Olivia, a fourth-year student who is finishing her bachelor\u2019s and working on her master\u2019s this semester.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"UF-Forestry-Students-in-Cary-Forest\"
Olivia evaluates a stand of trees with her classmates.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

A Love for the Forest<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Olivia, who recently received the first-ever Rayonier Scholarship to Support Diversity and Inclusion in Operational Forestry, says she never feels more at home than when she\u2019s in the forest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMy family moved from the mountains of North Carolina to Key West, and I missed the forest,\u201d she says. \u201cI volunteered at Key West\u2019s botanical gardens, and that\u2019s the one place that felt right.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Women-in-Forestry\"
The forest is “the one place that feels like home” to Olivia.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Olivia enrolled in the UF\/IFAS School of Forest Resources & Conservation<\/a> expecting to go into a conservation career, or perhaps to work at a national park. But then she fell in love with something unexpected: operational forestry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI love going through the woods of course, but I also love the math part of it,\u201d she says. \u201cI love taking what I see and making sense of it. I love figuring out, just from the height and diameter, how much a stand is worth.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She says operational forestry is a perfect \u201cwin-win\u201d because a forester can determine ways to enhance the value of the property while also maintaining sustainable practices and protecting the ecosystem that depends on the forest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Workforce Diversity in Forestry \u201cIs Already Here\u201d<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

In the past, college-level forestry programs throughout the U.S. have struggled to attract women and minorities. Asked if she expects to see more diversity in the forestry profession in the future, Olivia says, \u201cIt\u2019s already happening. In my forestry department, there are so many people of different backgrounds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cEveryone respects each other. I\u2019ve never felt like I was treated any differently than anyone else in the program,\u201d she says. \u201cMy advice to anyone considering forestry is that it shouldn\u2019t be a barrier. There are more and more of us going into natural resources fields.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She says the rich array of perspectives will benefit the forestry profession as it becomes more diverse in the years to come.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Forestry-College-Students-Field-Study\"
Diversity in Forestry is “already happening,” says Olivia, shown leading a team of students in a field exercise.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Entering into Forestry Research<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Determined to work her way through college, Olivia has been using a job at Gainesville\u2019s Kanapaha Gardens to cover her tuition. But she\u2019s become passionate about genetic research in forestry<\/a> and wanted to find work that would give her experience in that field. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe scholarship from Rayonier helped a lot. It\u2019s paying for this next semester of college, which is allowing me to pursue forest genetics,\u201d she says. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Diversity-in-Forestry-Students\"
Olivia’s scholarship from Rayonier covered enough of her tuition to allow her to work with the UF Co-op in genetic research.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The financial support allowed Olivia to take a position as a research assistant for the Cooperative Forest Genetics Research Program that UF manages. Ironically, as a member of the coop, Rayonier will benefit from the work she does.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Olivia says she\u2019s looking forward to working full-time in the industry after she graduates next year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI love that you can just be outside and make money at it,\u201d she says. \u201cIt\u2019s such a fun profession and it\u2019s really cool.\u201d
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Olivia Johnson says more women and minorities are enrolling in forestry programs, bringing new perspectives that will enrich the industry in the years to come.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ryn_post_video":"https:\/\/youtu.be\/0sJEjZ8OCV8"},"categories":[5,42,1],"tags":[75,18,19],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\r\nNext Generation of Foresters will benefit from Workforce Diversity<\/title>\r\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Workforce diversity in the forestry industry will benefit the next generation with new perspectives as more women and minorities enroll in forestry programs.\" \/>\r\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\r\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/forestrycareers.com\/stories\/uf-student-diversity-will-benefit-my-generations-foresters\/\" \/>\r\n<meta 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