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Job Description
City Forester
at The City of Fort Worth
Park & Recreation
Pay Range: $41.16 - $53.51 hourly -- $85,611 - $111,295 annual compensation
Job Posting Closing on: Wednesday, November 29, 2025
Workdays & Hours: Monday - Friday, 8:00am - 5:00pm; occasional weekends and holidays required.
Benefits for this position include: 11 Paid Holidays, Medical, Dental, Vision, Paid Time Off, Pension Plan, Professional Development Opportunities, and much more.
The City of Fort Worth is one of the fastest-growing large cities in the U.S. Our employees serve the needs of more than 1,000,000 residents, upholding our values of exceptional customer experience, mutual respect, embracing diversity, continuous improvement, ethical behavior, and accountability.
The City of Fort Worth is seeking to hire a City Forester who supervises and coordinates urban forestry activities and operations within the Park & Recreation Department's Planning & Resource Management Division. The City Forester oversees hazard abatement and structural pruning of the City's urban forest; permitting and plan review related to tree planting and removal; and the Community Tree Planting Program, which grows trees from seed at the Rolling Hills Tree Farm and distributes them to the public at no charge through a competitive grant program.
This position is based at Rolling Hills Tree Farm in southeast Fort Worth.
Fort Worth is home to one of the oldest municipal forestry programs in Texas and has been designated a Tree City USA since 1978, longer than any other city in the state. Recognized as a leader in municipal forestry, Fort Worth's program has been featured in professional publications and industry conferences nationwide. The department manages more than 310 parks covering over 13,000 acres, serving a population of over one million residents.
Minimum Qualifications:
- Bachelor's degree from an accredited college or university with major coursework in Forestry, Landscape Architecture, Horticulture, or a related field.
- Four (4) years of responsible experience in urban forestry, park supervision, or landscape installation, including one (1) year of administrative and/or lead supervisory experience.
- Possession of, or ability to obtain, a valid Texas Driver's License.
Preferred Qualifications:
- Advanced knowledge/experience/education in urban or municipal forestry/arboriculture including risk assessment, plant appraisal, tree protection during construction, experience in emergency operations procedures, objectives and guidelines.
- Basic knowledge of GIS and mapping software.
- International Society of Arboriculture Arborist certification.
- Completion of TEEX Incident Command and/or EOC training.
The City Forester Job Responsibilities Include:
- Supervise staff, including assigning work, evaluating performance, providing training, ensuring policy compliance, maintaining safety, and making staff decisions.
- Participate in developing and implementing divisional goals, objectives, policies, and priorities.
- Identify and implement improvements to procedures and resource use in collaboration with management.
- Coordinate and review forestry work plans, assign projects, monitor progress, evaluate results, and resolve issues.
- Monitor and evaluate program effectiveness and support continuous improvement in urban forestry operations.
- Review landscape plans and issue permits for tree planting, removal, and pruning, ensuring proper species selection and placement.
- Provide public education and presentations on urban forestry; represent the City in meetings with agencies and community organizations.
- Assist with budget development and administration; forecast resource needs; monitor expenditures; and recommend adjustments.
- Support park planning and resource management initiatives; serve on committees; and prepare reports and correspondence.
- Coordinate with other departments and agencies; provide technical advice; conduct tree appraisals; and review construction plans.
- Lead emergency response efforts as Incident Commander for tree debris and hazard mitigation operations.
- Adhere to assigned work schedule and ensure compliance with City policies and personnel regulations.
- Perform other related duties as assigned.
Working Conditions & Physical Demands
Depending on assignment, this position typically requires touching, talking, hearing, seeing, grasping, standing, stooping, kneeling, crouching, reaching, walking, and repetitive motions. Field and office environment; exposure to computer screens and inclement weather conditions when conducting site inspections. Essential and marginal functions may require maintaining physical condition necessary for sitting for prolonged periods of time; operating assigned equipment.
Light Work: Exerts up to 20 pounds of force occasionally, up to 10 pounds frequently, and/or negligible force constantly to move objects.
Conditions of Employment
The City of Fort Worth is proud to be an Equal Employment Opportunity employer. It is the policy and practice of the City to recruit, hire, train and promote a diverse workforce without regard to race, color, religion, sex (including pregnancy and gender identity), national origin, political affiliation, sexual orientation, marital status, disability, genetic information, age, membership in an employee organization, parental status, military service, or another non-merit factor.
The City of Fort Worth is committed to full compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable qualified individuals with disabilities to participate in the job application or interview process and to perform essential job functions.
Candidates who do not meet the Education requirement, may be considered if they have more relevant work experience than the position requires. Those selected for employment will be required to pass Pre-Employment checks depending on the position requirements. Those could include, but are not limited to: criminal background check, drug screen, education verification, etc. criminal convictions will be considered on a case-by-case basis. Employees are paid by direct deposit only.
Closing Date/Time: Wednesday, November 29, 2025 Workdays & Hours: -
ABOUT THE COMPANY
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City of Fort Worth
Show moreThe Community
The City of Cowboys & Culture is known for its Texas hospitality. The stunning and sprawling City of
Fort Worth is one of the fastest-growing cities in the U.S. And it’s no wonder — With great neighborhoods, scenic terrain and a rich history of arts and culture, paired with world-class opportunities for business and education, it’s not only fun to visit Fort Worth, it’s even more rewarding to call it home.Fort Worth truly offers all the benefits and amenities of a bustling metropolitan city, while keeping the small- town charm that keeps it unpretentious and charismatic in all the right ways. Designated as one of America’s “Most Livable Communities” by the Partners for Livable Communities, the city truly offers a melting pot of culture, commerce, community and yes, cowboys.
There are over a dozen remarkable districts full of treasured history among modern luxuries and unique places to have fun, making it the No. 1 tourist destination in Texas and welcoming more than 9.4 million visitors annually.
Being one of the fastest-growing among large cities in the country, Fort Worth has received multiple accolades, including number one downtown (Livability), and the second-best City in the nation for job seekers (Forbes). Our employees serve the needs of over 900,000 residents representing culturally diverse communities.
Exciting Growth & Future Development
One of the most fascinating aspects of the City of Fort Worth is its almost unprecedented growth over the past several years. Both in terms of population and industry, and as the 12th largest city in the United States, Fort Worth is truly booming — which presents both challenges and opportunities to truly develop this city in the right way. Every 30 minutes a new person moves to Fort Worth, so we’re looking for candidates who can embrace an evergrowing and changing environment and improve on it with solutions that work for the entire community of Fort Worth.
Mission
We are working together to build a strong community that others can look to as a pillar of unity and excellence. Through grassroots efforts within the community, and large scale construction and transportation plans that continue to add the infra- structure a growing city like Fort Worth needs, we’ll provide the public services our community requires to continually cultivate the unique city we call home.
Vision
Fort Worth’s vision is to be the most livable and best managed city in the country. We’ll do this by taking care of our citizens, implementing the highest quality standards in our schools, continually improving the neighborhoods we thrive in and the facets of the city that make our town so unique.
Benefits That Are Well Worth It
The City of Fort Worth continues to be dedicated to its employees’ well-being by providing competitive health benefits, a well-rounded wellness program and a Zero Accident Philosophy® workplace. All regular full-time employees and those employees who work 30–39 hours per week are eligible for all City of Fort Worth Benefits. Part-time employees who work 20–29 hours per week are eligible for dental, basic life insurance, supplemental life insurance, flexible spending accounts, 457 Deferred Compensation plan and other voluntary benefits.
Medical Program
The City offers two plan options through Meritain Health, an Aetna company.
The Health Center Plan – Offers employees and their family’s
primary health care services that are 100% completely free and unlimited. Employees can visit any one of the three City of Fort Worth Employee Health Centers and receive guaranteed same or next day appointments for sick visits. Also, services are available at any one of the five satellite locations that serves employees across the city.
The Consumer Choice Plan – Is offered to employees at no cost or low monthly premiums to cover eligible dependents and provides the financial benefits of a Health Savings Account (HSA).
• Preventative services are covered at 100% on both plans.
• Prescription Drug coverage including mail order pharmacy are also included.Vacation
Eligible for 3 weeks of vacation: After successful completion of probationary period (usually
6 months), employees may take time off for rest, relaxation, vacation, illness, religious observances, and personal business.Holidays
Available on the first day of employment, the city provides employees with paid holidays, including two personal holidays.
Wellness Program
The city’s Healthy Challenge Wellness Program rewards all full-time, benefit-eligible employees on the city’s health insurance. The Healthy Challenge Program utilizes a points system. Participants may earn points throughout the year (Jan. 1-Dec. 15) for completing specific program activities and participants can redeem points at the end of the year for a cash reward. By participating, individuals can earn $150, $200 or $250 by accumulating program points.
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