Zippy the Professional Forester

One of the main things that gets pounded into the heads of students at forestry schools is that they are in training to be "professional foresters," and that the answer to all the problems of forestry is more "professional foresters."  Have you ever heard of "professional doctors" or "professional lawyers" or "professional architects?"  Right.  So the mantra of "professional foresters" is really a case of thinking that if you say it often enough, it will make it true.

After receiving their forestry degrees, the newly minted foresters go out into the real world to practice forestry, more or less...but mostly less.  They also typically join "professional forester" organizations such as the Society of American Foresters and the Massachusetts Association of Professional (sic) Foresters.  At meetings of these groups, they get to hear more about the glories of being a "professional forester," and to relive their days in forestry school.  It really is lots of fun.

So here's a picture of our pal Zippy after attending forestry school and a whole lot of those "professional forester" meetings.  Are we professional yet?