Jobs for a person living in the forest ?

Working at a sawmill.

If it's in an area with maple trees, collecting and making maple syrup.

And being a lumberman wouldn't necessarily just be a "hobby." It's extremely hard work.

What time period are we talking? If the lands are part of a kingdom, there could be a royal forester protecting the king's forest from poachers.

More modern times, if its state or federal property, they have forest rangers, responsible for a whole range of things including watching for forest fires.

A botanist, he or she could be studying why a certain plant is dying in a certain area.

Somebody has to do it, so it might as well be me...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sZa26_esLBE

Also, depending on level of tech, there could be a pulping mill, or a timber yard.

There's also wildlife management, fire control, tourism manager, hiking guide etc if a more modern setting.

I've lived in a couple remote villages (population 150 and 350 people) for years. You find a great number of jobs there as anywhere else: government, tourism, service industry, forestry, electricity and mining, road construction and maintenance, artists and crafters, mechanics, carpenters, mushroom pickers, web designers and accountants, teachers, fire wardens, librarians, pilots, secretaries, child care workers, plumbers, grocery and hardware store owners etc etc etc.

Does he have to have a job, or could he just self-sustain? If he was just self-sustaining he can live on the outskirts do trapping, hunting and fishing. There are a lot of aboriginal people that live this way. They can sell furs, sell the meat etc.

Since it's modern times, here's a couple of additional ideas.

Where I live (Tennessee) is a natural hardwood forest region. Two industries having to do with forestry that are big in some small towns are the production of hardwood flooring and cabinets, and the cutting and preparation of wood for log and timber framed homes.

Growing / gathering rare herbs and flowers. Truffle. Fiddlehead ferns. Wild mint. Etc.

Then there is the 'illegal' side of doing stuff deep in a forest. Moonshine brewer. Cannabis grower. Wild animal raising (gators, wildcats, snakes, etc).

Alternatively, another 'remote area' job type - although not really labor-intensive - is chopper / bush pilot for forest fire prevention or other transport duties in the region.

Park / game warden. Like hunter - rather obvious.

Government or private developer land surveyor. NWS / USGS station operator.

-cb

Charcoal burner

WBuck said:

Hey guys, thank you all for the advices.

Actually its in the modern times. I wish i could give you more details about what land this is, but i have no idea. The reason why i want to know the job type its because i want to somehow tie it up with the character, this is why i am searching for a "manly" job that requires hard labor. From there i guess i could work more details about the place...but they are secondary for me right now. The whole lumberman thing is starting to sound tempting...any more advice along this line ?

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As a wildland firefighter, I have to say that being a wildland firefighter is super manly.

It does require a lot of hard labor, as well as skill in a variety of physically demanding firefighting techniques. In can include carrying heavy loads, operating heavy equipment, long hikes, and of course, the adrenaline rush of going up against one of nature's most feared forces.

Firefighters have to be in good physical condition, and they need to work well with other people. They need to have excellent communication abilities, as well as problem solving skills. They need to be able to think on their feet. I could go on, but you get the point.

If you want to know about specific firefighting positions (there are many, everything from Hotshot, engine crew, Helitac, etc.), I'd be happy to discuss more.

Willow weaving - growing withies, coppices, then crafting?

Where is this forest? North America, Europe, Australia
[list other continents as required]...?

My older sister's grandfather, great-grandfather and all the way back to the 1700's worked as hunting guides in the forests of Maine. (My sister and I have diff. dads. She's always been my sister. We never used the term half-sister or whatever.)

I actually found pictures of her great-grandfather in his 'outdoor gear' before taking a group of hunters into the woods. He looked sort of how we might imagine Daniel Boone to have looked.

(They were all part native American, too. And Dutch. Blondes. The lot of them.)

Scientist studying flora or fauna
Surveyor for a lumber company
If it's modern time and s/he's not tooo far out in the boonies s/he could do just about anything that requires a modem and a computer. For "manly" things s/he could DIY around the place.
Law Enforcement
Veterinarian
Shop keeper
Restaurant owner
Gas station owner or attendant
Vehicle mechanic
Really, anything a small village could sustain
Some people make a living or shore up their income by collecting evergreen tips and selling them to wreath makers.
Growing marijuana in a hidden clearing
Trapping
Guide for hunters, hikers, fishers

And the whole 'forest management' side of things, either for the government or private landowners: looking for sick or dying trees, checking for infestations, shooting down prime pinecones for seed harvesting. Marking trees for removal, keeping an eye out for undesirable activity in the forest, ie marijuana plantations, stills. And making sure that people are only cutting trees in their designated areas, and that no-one's poaching desirable trees.

Helix said:

Where is this forest? North America, Europe, Australia
[list other continents as required]...?

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I fight fire in North America, specifically the US State of Oregon, though wildland firefighting is big all over the West Coast. But there is a significant amount of wildland firefighting that goes on in Australia and Russia as well, to name a couple other locations. Unfortunately, I don't know much about operations in those two locations. Russia, especially, does things quite a bit differently than we do.

BRDurkin said:

I fight fire in North America, specifically the US State of Oregon, though wildland firefighting is big all over the West Coast. But there is a significant amount of wildland firefighting that goes on in Australia and Russia as well, to name a couple other locations. Unfortunately, I don't know much about operations in those two locations. Russia, especially, does things quite a bit differently than we do.

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Sorry. I should have been a bit more specific! I was responding to the OP because the range of likely jobs would vary between locations.

(I realised that you were in the US.)

Park Ranger: would involve search & rescue, guide, repair trails, bridges, fencing, handling problems with people, enforcement of laws, work in visitor centers, etc. A ranger could be on the State or Federal level as well.

In Appalachia there are people who gather wild ginseng and mushrooms. There is even a new show about the ginseng gatherers called Appalachia Outlaws.

In these modern times one can do many things while living in the forest. There are people who run online businesses from their forest fastnesses, and programmers, technical writers, and support people can also work from the forests.

williemeikle said:

Somebody has to do it, so it might as well be me...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sZa26_esLBE

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I was personally thinking. . .

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dkAYOTEIKx8