Forest and Conservation Workers
In short: today's best AI models could do about 2% of this job's working time (projected from METR's April 2026 measurement and Epoch's November 2026 index) if the work were set up for them, and about the same by the end of 2028 if progress keeps its long-run pace. The people and hands-on work, about 98% of the time, stays with people.
Under supervision, perform manual labor necessary to develop, maintain, or protect areas such as forests, forested areas, woodlands, wetlands, and rangelands through such activities as raising and transporting seedlings; combating insects, pests, and diseases harmful to plant life; and building structures to control water, erosion, and leaching of soil. Includes forester aides, seedling pullers, tree planters, and gatherers of nontimber forestry products such as pine straw.
6,050 people do this job in the US. $43,680 a year.
A typical 40-hour week
Not yet reviewed task by task- AI could take on1 h
- A person checks AI's work0 h
- Desk work AI can't do yet0 h
- Stays with people39 h
Forest and Conservation Workers, now: of a 40-hour week, AI could take on 1 hours, 0 hours become checking its work, 0 hours are desk work it can't do yet, and 39 hours stay with people.
The largest pieces: Maintain tallies of trees examined and counted during tree marking or measuring efforts (under an hour).
Estimates for a typical week of this job, if progress keeps its long-run pace, counting work the best models finish four times in five. Every task is below.
of the working time. Now is projected from METR's April 2026 measurement and Epoch's November 2026 index.
- 2%
- 1%
- 97%
of the work: Anthropic's measure of what people already bring to Claude at work (2025). It counts help with part of a task, so it can be higher than the share within reach.
On the chosen pace and reliability. Estimate.
Share of the working time within reach, now to 2030
Change assumptionsHide assumptionsLong-run pace, four in five
What each choice means: , , , , . Every pace starts from .
At this date and pace, models finish tasks up to 2.4 work days long four times in five.
How far this has come
With GPT-4, measured in March 2023, 0% of this job's working time was within reach at . With Claude 3.7 Sonnet, measured in February 2025, 0%. With Claude Mythos Preview (early), measured in April 2026, 2%. Today's estimate: 2%.
A backcast: today's task data with the best model METR had measured by each date. It shows how fast the models have moved, not what anyone forecast at the time.
Measured use over time
None of this job's 17 tasks showed up in the Claude.ai conversations Anthropic sampled in any of its 7 releases, from February 2025 to May 2026.
Measured, not estimated: Anthropic's samples of Claude.ai conversations, each tied by a model to an O*NET task, from the Anthropic Economic Index. It says where Claude's use goes, not how much of this job's working time it covers, so it is not on the same scale as the reach above. The releases differ in their sample, their classifier and the smallest share they report (the June 2026 file rounds each task to a hundredth of a percent, so a smaller task reads as none), which is why a change of method starts a new line. At least 96% of each older release's task-tied use matched this site's tasks, and all of the newest. Claude.ai only, so use through other tools and other companies' models is not in it. Every job ranked.
Robots and the physical work
Anthropic rates 89% of this job's working time as physical work. For 84% of the working time, a robot has been shown doing most of the task somewhere: 53% in a purpose-built cell, 31% in a structured facility. 1.15 of 3, the 67th highest of the 923 jobs.
- Not physical 11%
- No robot shown 5%
- In a purpose-built cell 53%
- In a structured facility 31%
Anthropic's rating, not this site's estimate: Claude Opus 5, searching the web, rated each physical O*NET task by the kind of setting in which a robot it could cite (deployed, sold or demonstrated) does most of the task, weighted by its own estimate of each task's share of the time (What work can robots do?, September 30, 2026, data CC BY 4.0; every job ranked). A robot shown somewhere is not a robot in your building: cost, setup and safety decide that. The share within reach on this page still counts no body work. The robot behind each rated task is under the task below.
The tasks
Sorted by . 17 tasks from .
| Task | Kind | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fight forest fires or perform prescribed burning tasks under the direction of fire suppression officers or forestry technicians.Done more than yearly by most who do it. Robots: no robot shown. Anthropic's rating. | 36% | 5 h1.7 h to 1.3 work days | Stays with people | |
| Perform fire protection or suppression duties, such as constructing fire breaks or disposing of brush.Done more than monthly by most who do it. Robots: in a purpose-built cell, Konecranes CXT biomass / waste-to-energy automated grab crane (sold). Anthropic's rating. | 12% | 2.5 h50 min to 6.7 h | Stays with people | |
| Select or cut trees according to markings or sizes, types, or grades.Done more than yearly by most who do it.Robots: in a purpose-built cell, AirForestry harvesting drone (demonstrated). Anthropic's rating. | 10% | 1.7 h38 min to 4.2 h | Stays with people | |
| Provide assistance to forest survey crews by clearing site-lines, holding measuring tools, or setting stakes.Done yearly or less by most who do it.Robots: in a structured facility, Burro Grande / Cortador brush cutter (sold). Anthropic's rating. | 8% | 1.3 h25 min to 3.3 h | Stays with people | |
| Thin or space trees, using power thinning saws.Done more than yearly by most who do it.Robots: in a purpose-built cell, SAHA (Supervised Autonomous HArvester) (ETH Zurich Robotic Systems Lab / University of Bonn / Prefor Oy) (demonstrated). Anthropic's rating. | 5% | 2.5 h50 min to 4.2 h | Stays with people | |
| Identify diseased or undesirable trees and remove them, using power saws or hand saws.Done more than yearly by most who do it.Robots: in a purpose-built cell, AirForestry harvesting drone (demonstrated). Anthropic's rating. | 5% | 1.3 h25 min to 3.3 h | Stays with people | |
| Operate skidders, bulldozers, or other prime movers to pull a variety of scarification or site preparation equipment over areas to be regenerated.Done more than weekly by most who do it.Robots: in a structured facility, John Deere autonomous 9RX / 8R with second-generation autonomy kit (16-camera perception) (deployed). Anthropic's rating. | 4% | 3.3 h1.7 h to 5 h | Stays with people | |
| Spray or inject vegetation with insecticides to kill insects or to protect against disease or with herbicides to reduce competing vegetation.Done more than monthly by most who do it.Robots: in a structured facility, Herbicide GUSS autonomous orchard sprayer (sold). Anthropic's rating. | 4% | 2.5 h50 min to 5 h | Stays with people | |
| Check equipment to ensure that it is operating properly.Done daily by most who do it. Robots: in a purpose-built cell, ENORISE production hot test facilities (end-of-line engine test cells) (sold). Anthropic's rating. | 3% | 17 min8 min to 38 min | Stays with people | |
| Maintain campsites or recreational areas, replenishing firewood or other supplies and cleaning kitchens or restrooms.Done more than yearly by most who do it.Robots: in a structured facility, Somatic BCR (Bathroom Cleaning Robot) (deployed). Anthropic's rating. | 2% | 1.3 h25 min to 2.5 h | Stays with people | |
| Maintain tallies of trees examined and counted during tree marking or measuring efforts.Done more than yearly by most who do it. | 2% | 25 min13 min to 1.3 h | 100%Half by now | |
| Erect signs or fences, using posthole diggers, shovels, or other hand tools.Done yearly or less by most who do it.Robots: in a purpose-built cell, Roto-Fence (Farmscan AG / Kidd Farm Machinery / Harper Adams University) (demonstrated). Anthropic's rating. | 2% | 1.7 h38 min to 3.3 h | Stays with people |
Within reach, per task: the share of the task's time whose instances are short enough for a model to finish at the chosen date, pace and reliability. Half by: the date half of that time comes within reach.
Jobs that share skills with this one
From O*NET's related occupations. Within reach now and by the end of 2028, long-run pace, four in five.
Where this job works
The industry groups that employ the most of it (BLS, May 2025).
Where the most of these jobs are
The metro areas with the most people in it (BLS, May 2025).
Questions about this job
- How much of the work of Forest and Conservation Workers is within reach of AI now?
- An estimated 2% of the working time is within reach of AI models now and 2% by the end of 2028, on METR's long-run pace at four in five. Within reach means a model could finish work that long at that reliability. It is not a forecast of jobs lost or of savings.
- Which tasks of Forest and Conservation Workers come within reach first?
- Weighted by the time each takes, the tasks with the most within reach now (projected from METR's April 2026 measurement and Epoch's November 2026 index) are: Maintain tallies of trees examined and counted during tree marking or measuring efforts (100% of the task's time now).
- Which tasks of Forest and Conservation Workers stay with people?
- Tasks that are people work or body work are not counted as within reach at any date. The largest: Fight forest fires or perform prescribed burning tasks under the direction of fire suppression officers or forestry technicians; Perform fire protection or suppression duties, such as constructing fire breaks or disposing of brush; and Select or cut trees according to markings or sizes, types, or grades. Together such tasks are about 98% of the working time.
- Do people already use AI for the work of Forest and Conservation Workers?
- In the Claude.ai conversations Anthropic sampled for May 2026, no reportable share went to this job's tasks. Anthropic's labor market measure puts the share of the job's tasks seen in real Claude use at work at 0%. These are measures of use, not of how much of the work AI could finish, and they cover Claude only.
- Can robots do the physical work of Forest and Conservation Workers?
- Anthropic's robot exposure rating (September 2026) finds 89% of the working time is physical work, and that a robot has been shown doing most of the task, somewhere, for 84% of the working time, 31% in a structured facility. Its index is 1.15 of 3. One example: Burro Grande / Cortador brush cutter for "provide assistance to forest survey crews by clearing site-lines, holding measuring tools, or setting stakes". A robot shown somewhere is not one in every workplace; this site's own estimates still count no physical work as within reach.
- How is this estimated?
- From the 17 tasks O*NET lists for the occupation, each with an estimated length checked against GDPval and a share of the working time, each classed as desk, people or body work, and METR's measurements of how long a task the best AI models can finish, carried forward to the date from the latest, Claude Mythos Preview (early) in April 2026. Data checked November 10, 2026.
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