My name is Alex Fosket. I am an agricultural
science major with an emphasis in forestry at
Western Illinois University (go, Leathernecks!).
I graduate this December. I had a rather uncon-
ventional path into the field of forestry. I entered
college as a law enforcement major; that was
the plan until my sophomore year, when I
took a tree ID class as an elective. I found it
very interesting and wanted to learn more.
By junior year, I had officially changed my major
to agriculture science and started a new journey
of learning more about soil science, horticulture,
agriculture technology, and mainly—forestry. I
really enjoyed the urban forestry course, for which
we did an Arbor Day project with one of the local
grade schools in Macomb, Illinois. I presented
about Arbor Day to a class of third graders, which
was a great experience. I was lucky enough to work
with both the city forester and mayor of Macomb
for Arbor Day, when we planted three trees on
school grounds in celebration of the occasion.
In the summer of 2021, I was hired to be an
intern by the Village of Mount Prospect, Illinois.
My main job was to inventory trees in sec-
tions of the Village where pruning was going
to take place the following year. I inventoried
nearly 6,000 trees, and at the end of the intern-
ship I was asked back for the summer of 2022,
when I inventoried approximately 5,000 more
trees. Needless to say, my tree ID has come a
long way since my sophomore year of college.
After I graduate in December, I hope to work
somewhere in the field of urban forestry. I am
excited for what is to come! I'm looking for
work in any of the lower 48 states in the U.S. I
welcome hearing from folks who are hiring for
urban forester positions:
am-fosket@wiu.edu.
Alex Fosket with a northern pike (44 inches/112 cm)
caught on Waskesiu Lake in Saskatchewan, Canada.
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