>>1197364>Belgium>ForestCompare what can be compared.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_forest_areaHere in France we need to produce wood, we have annual growth rates 4 to 5 times greater than Canada. In most departments of Lorraine, Occitania and Gascony at least a third of all jobs are related to forestry. The Gulf Stream sends strong winds eastward from the Atlantic, and a lot of rain that is captured by the Grand Massif mountains. The ensuing erosion leads a lot of sand... back to the Atlantic, through the Garonne river. In its natural state, Gascony should look like a sandy desert, and there's an intensive forest industry that tries to keep it from gaining ground. Since the pines that grow there are often victim to drought and violent winds, landowners try to bring them to maturity ASAP to collect and sell the wood. Standing capital patiently waiting for winds to bring it down isn't good for business, so people there plant and cut as soon as they can.
Foresters here understand that hugging trees is meaningless, and cutting without replanting afterwards is a waste of capital. Wood production is a serious business here, and there's plenty of work.
Now I get perfectly what you meant by
>I dislike how much focus is on the pruning and managing of single treesPeople who do this job only work on decorative trees inside a park or in town, they don't manage entire forests.
I honestly don't understand what's the point of a "tree worker" or technician. Forestry technicians work on forests, not trees. A single tree doesn't matter, when it becomes wooded hectares then it deserves attention. That's what I'm studying: how to grow trees in a way that produces valuable wood, and how to collect them without causing an ecological mess.
If you speak French, you definitely should come and study here. Look for "BTS Gestion Forestière". There's a lot of work in Germany and Slovenia too.
