Teach courses in forestry and conservation science. Includes both teachers primarily engaged in teaching and those who do a combination of teaching and research.
U.S. Workers
1,310
Median Salary
$100,830
10-Year Growth
+4.0%
Annual Openings
100
Typical entry: Doctoral or professional degree
25 of 25 tasks have some AI capability
Exposure Trend
This score reflects estimated AI technical capability for tasks in this occupation. It does not predict employment changes, and it does not account for company-specific constraints, regulation, or adoption barriers.
Write grant proposals to procure external research funding.
AI: Fully automatable - Given targeted inputs (research plan, preliminary data, CV), AI can fully draft tailored, polished grant proposals and supporting documents suitable for submission.
Prepare course materials, such as syllabi, homework assignments, and handouts.
AI: Fully automatable - AI can fully generate syllabi, homework, handouts, and other course materials tailored to course objectives and level with minimal human editing.
Maintain student attendance records, grades, and other required records.
AI: Fully automatable - Maintaining attendance, gradebooks, and required records is routine administrative work that LMS and AI automation can fully perform and integrate with institutional systems.
Compile bibliographies of specialized materials for outside reading assignments.
AI: Fully automatable - Compiling specialized bibliographies is primarily an information-retrieval and organization task that AI can perform end-to-end by searching databases and formatting references.
Conduct research in a particular field of knowledge and publish findings in books, professional journals, or electronic media.
AI: Partial - AI can assist strongly with literature reviews, data analysis, and writing, but cannot independently design and ethically conduct original empirical research or assume full responsibility for authorship and peer-reviewed publication.
Keep abreast of developments in the field by reading current literature, talking with colleagues, and participating in professional conferences.
AI: Partial - AI can automatically monitor and summarize the literature and public conference outputs, but it cannot fully replicate human networking, in-person dialogue, and the nuanced judgment from colleague interactions.
Compile, administer, and grade examinations, or assign this work to others.
AI: Partial - AI can compile exams and auto-grade many question types and support administration, but high-stakes proctoring, subjective grading decisions, and oversight still require human involvement.
Supervise undergraduate or graduate teaching, internship, and research work.
AI: Partial - AI can support supervision via feedback, progress tracking, and advising resources, but cannot fully perform mentorship, conflict resolution, and hands-on oversight of internships and research projects.
Evaluate and grade students' class work, assignments, and papers.
AI: Partial - AI can reliably grade objective items and provide rubric-based feedback on many assignments, but nuanced, high-stakes, or pedagogically sensitive evaluations still need human judgment.
Prepare and deliver lectures to undergraduate or graduate students on topics such as forest resource policy, forest pathology, and mapping.
AI: Partial - AI can prepare complete lecture content and even deliver prerecorded or scripted presentations and answer common questions, but it cannot fully replicate the dynamic, context-sensitive teaching and credibility of a human instructor in live classroom settings.
Initiate, facilitate, and moderate classroom discussions.
AI: Partial - AI can initiate and moderate many online or asynchronous discussions and support facilitation, but it lacks the full social, ethical, and contextual judgment to completely replace human moderation in live, high-stakes classroom discourse.
Advise students on academic and vocational curricula and on career issues.
AI: Partial - AI can generate tailored academic and career advice and handle routine queries, but human advisors are still needed for nuanced mentorship, institutional knowledge, and complex career networking.
Supervise students' laboratory or field work.
AI: Partial - AI can support planning, remote monitoring, and provide procedural guidance for lab/field work but cannot fully replace in-person supervision for hands-on corrections, safety, and situational judgement.
Collaborate with colleagues to address teaching and research issues.
AI: Partial - AI tools can facilitate collaboration by drafting documents, synthesizing literature, and proposing solutions, but cannot fully replace human negotiation, consensus-building, and shared research leadership.
Plan, evaluate, and revise curricula, course content, and course materials and methods of instruction.
AI: Partial - AI can draft and evaluate curricula, suggest materials and pedagogical approaches, and analyze learning data, yet final curricular decisions, accreditation considerations, and contextual judgment require human oversight.
Maintain regularly scheduled office hours to advise and assist students.
AI: Partial - AI chatbots and scheduling systems can handle many office-hour functions and routine student questions, but personalized advising and complex interpersonal support still require a human instructor.
Review papers for colleagues and scientific journals.
AI: Partial - AI can perform thorough technical checks, summarize contributions, and suggest critiques for manuscripts, but expert human reviewers remain necessary for deep domain judgement and ethical appraisal.
Participate in student recruitment, registration, and placement activities.
AI: Partial - Recruitment, registration, and placement workflows can be largely automated with AI-driven CRM and matching tools, but relationship-building, interviews, and strategic outreach require human involvement.
Select and obtain materials and supplies, such as textbooks and laboratory equipment.
AI: Partial - AI can research options, recommend textbooks and equipment, and automate ordering, but human judgment is typically needed for final selection, budget trade-offs, and hands-on evaluation.
Provide information to the public by leading workshops and training programs and by developing educational materials.
AI: Partial - AI can generate educational materials and run virtual trainings, but leading in-person workshops and community engagement rely on human facilitation and contextual responsiveness.
Serve on academic or administrative committees that deal with institutional policies, departmental matters, and academic issues.
AI: Partial - AI can prepare agenda items, summarize policies, and produce recommendations but cannot fully represent faculty governance, make binding institutional decisions, or navigate political dynamics autonomously.
Perform administrative duties, such as serving as department head.
AI: Partial - AI can automate many administrative tasks (scheduling, reporting, budgeting assistance) but cannot assume ultimate leadership, accountability, or the interpersonal duties of a department head.
Participate in campus and community events.
AI: Partial - AI can help plan, promote, and provide virtual content for events, but cannot fully replace in-person presence, relationship-building, and community engagement performed by humans.
Provide professional consulting services to government or industry.
AI: Partial - AI can generate analyses, models, and written recommendations for government or industry, yet cannot assume professional responsibility, fieldwork, or the trust required for independent consulting engagements.
Act as advisers to student organizations.
AI: Partial - AI can support student organizations with logistics, resources, and advice, but cannot fully replace the mentorship, judgment, and duty-of-care role of a human adviser.