Introduction

[JordanStewart1]

Hi Everyone, 

My name is Jordan. I work as a Service Forester for a State Forestry Division. I have and Associates and Bachelors degree is Forest Management. Currently at my job, I have been working with our GIS manager. I am hoping to become more proficient in ESRI. I have experience in ArcGIS Pro and am working my way to understanding some of the apps and other features that our organization uses on a daily basis. 

As a member of the Esri Young Professionals Network, I’m especially excited about the ways GIS can apply to forest management and to make streamlined applications and processes that are applicable on a departmental level. I’m Excited to learn more within the Esri community and explore how this technology will build onto forestry in the future!

Looking  at furthering my education, I have considered getting a Graduate level certificate in GIS. I have not heard from others if these certificates are valuable in the workforce if i potentially want to move into a GIS position.

[JosephPortmann]

I have a bachelor level certificate which I obtained with my geography degree and I would certainly say it was worth the effort. They offered something similar for the grad students with most of the same classes if I remember correctly. It was great having the certificate in GIS as I used it when first being hired as a planner and it helped quite a bit in that position. Then when I was able to move into an analyst position I had experience and a certificate. Though it may vary with others specifically going into Forest Management. I know that companies like Rayonier and Weyerhauser have GIS divisions.

[AroobaShahzad]

Glad to see how GIS is being used for forest resource mapping and management.