Forest Worker Spotlight: Edward Skipper

From Land to Air. See how Edward Skipper of Cahaba Forestry Services, LLC. is taking forest management to new heights.

Edward is a silvicultural forester focusing mainly on artificial regeneration. He has a bachelor’s degree in Forest Management from Auburn University. Day to day, he looks after an aerial application spray crew that mainly focuses on site preparation and release operations, but he also does some invasive species treatments.

"I write herbicide rates for tracts, make sure the appropriate rates are put on the tracts, oversee planting crews, and meet with private landowners as well as companies to gain more acreage for us to spray and to make sure our performance is up to standard."

Edward said the his favorite part of the job is that he gets to see so much property and he is rarely in the same place for a long amount of time. He sprays all over Alabama, as well as some parts of Tennessee, Georgia, Mississippi, and Florida. This allows him to see many different land types and geographic provinces throughout the Southeast and allows him to write different rates depending on those land types and the different types of woody and herbaceous competition that are in each region.

His advice for anyone looking to join the industry would be "to not be locked in on a certain field of forestry, such as procurement or land management, and be open to different opportunities that may present themselves."

To find out more about careers in the forest industry, click here #ForestryWorks