NY DEC Cooperating Forester Directory

Find a private consulting or industrial forester by DEC region and professional certification.

Certifications Explained

These are the professional affiliations DEC's directory tracks. Not every forester listed holds one.

NYICF - NY Institute of Consulting Foresters

A New York-specific group of consulting foresters founded in 1978. Offers members ongoing education and acts as a liaison between consulting foresters and DEC.

SAF - Society of American Foresters

The national professional association for foresters. Plain SAF membership does not require passing a certification exam - see SAF-CF below for that credential.

SAF-CF - SAF Certified Forester

A voluntary credential within SAF. Holders must meet eligibility standards, agree to a professional code of conduct, and keep up continuing education - a step beyond basic SAF membership.

ACF - Association of Consulting Foresters

A national organization, split into state and multi-state chapters, specifically for independent consulting foresters. Focused on raising professional standards and connecting consultants with landowners.

In short: SAF is general membership; SAF-CF is SAF's vetted, tested credential; NYICF and ACF are consultant-specific groups (state and national, respectively). A forester can hold more than one.

Verifying current status: this list reflects DEC's directory as revised November 2024 and hasn't been independently re-checked against each organization since. SAF and ACF each run a public member/certification search you can use to confirm a specific person: SAF: Find a Certified Professional and ACF: Find a Forester. NYICF has no public website or member directory of its own, so an NYICF listing can't be independently checked - it's shown as DEC recorded it.

DEC Region Reference

Tap a region to see its counties and filter the list below. Names and counties are DEC's official region breakdown.

Select a region above to see which counties it covers.

Want to see it on an actual map? NY State's official DEC Regions GIS map

Certification

Website links, where shown, are inferred from each forester's listed business email domain and haven't been independently verified - confirm before relying on them.