Earn Extra Cash as a Contract Tree Thinner

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PHOTO: C. E. FERWEDA
David Slaughter stands in a properly thinned area of forest. Trees are spaced ten to twenty feet apart, dead limbs and boles have been disposed of in an acceptable manner.

Clean mountain air, plenty of invigorating exercise, freedom to come and go as I choose, and a chance to perform ecologically important work for decent pay … I enjoy all this as an independent tree thinner. And, with a little advance planning, you can too.

Each year, the U.S. Forest Service lets out hundreds of contracts for the thinning of thousands of acres of National Forest land … land that must be thinned to [1] allow more rapid growth of desirable tree species, [2] ensure habitability of the area for deer and other wildlife, and/or [3] increase the amount of runoff from a watershed area. Normally, Nature would perform this “thinning” herself with wildfires (touched off by lightning and other natural phenomena) … but — because such blazes have the potential to do great harm in addition to the good they accomplish — the Forest Service does everything in its power to prevent forest fires. And, as a result, the Service also pays people like you and me to do Nature’s work of tree thinning for her.

I find the pay quite good. My very first timber-thinning stint lasted seven months and paid me a gross income of nearly $9,000 … of which I netted close to $6,000 (after I’d deducted transportation costs, chain saw maintenance, and other expenses). I worked an average of less than 40 hours per week during that period, and — best of all — I called the shots … no “boss” told me what to do, or when to work.

How to Get Started Tree Thinning

If you’d like to give tree thinning a try, the first thing you should do is contact the District Ranger assigned to the National Forest in which you wish to work. (You can obtain a list of -National Forest headquarters from your Regional Forester. See the sidebar that accompanies this article.) He’ll add your name and address to his list of prospective contractors, answer any questions you may have, and — in a few weeks — send you a formal request for bids, or “solicitation.”

  • Published on May 1, 1977
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