Also called: Trail Builder, Conservation Corps Member, Backcountry Trail Crew
Builds and repairs hiking trails in parks and wilderness, often camping out for weeks.
You hike in with a crosscut saw and rock bar, camp for 8-10 days, and spend your days moving boulders, building stone steps, and clearing fallen trees. Conservation corps programs hire teens and young adults for this.
Corps programs pay stipends; agency trail crew leaders earn more.
Approximate: anchored on Bureau of Labor Statistics data for a broader job group.
No formal education, about 0 years after high school. No degree needed; conservation corps programs train you and often offer education awards.
Ways in: On-the-job training. Training cost: Get paid while you train.
Growing about average (about 2% over 10 years). Forest and conservation workers.
Low risk for 10 years. No robot builds rock steps on a mountain trail; crews stay human.
Age 16+. One way to start: Apply to a conservation corps (state corps, SCA, youth crews) in winter or spring for summer trail crews First: Corps application on a set hiring cycle; crews train you in first aid and tools
Classes: PE or fitness, Earth science.
Official data: O*NET occupation 45-4011.
Career Universe is an early version. Pay, training and AI-risk figures are estimates to start your own research, not verified facts. The research was written with AI research assistants, checked by validation scripts and spot-checked by hand. Check anything important with schools, employers and official sources. How the numbers work.