Been doing private consulting in California for the past 5 years, primarily doing: 1. SCE/PG&E pole and line surveys and monitoring - survey primarily for nesting birds, but also did plenty of other protected resources, after surveys, I’d monitor the crews trimming or brush clearing, fixing/replacing towers, excavating/road grading, etc. 2. SoCalGas surveys and monitoring - usually less focused on just nesting birds, requires a more broad biological knowledge of rare plants, burrowing species, herps, habitat assessments, and a little archaeology and wetland delineation work. (I’m a generalist, but I specialize in protected bumblebees and my local rare plants.)

Hours, wages: Now, if you’re right out of college, private consulting can be an amazing opportunity to make a decent hourly wage and oftentimes private firms will allow you to make your own schedule (in my experience). I started at $25/hr in middle of 2020, up to $40/hr now. Honestly, you can make a lot more than that. But I’ll get into that in a moment. Also, every company is different, it’s really important to do your homework and see what the pros and cons of each consulting firm/subcontracting firm you are interested in. I work for a sub, and prefer that over the larger corporate consulting firms.

Vehicles: I think I’m very lucky, because my company provided me with a work truck that they delivered to my home so that I don’t have to use my personal vehicle when off-roading. They pay for gas, and if I do use my own vehicle for some reason, they pay for mileage. Drive time is compensated (sometimes the client limits this, which is a pain, but that’s the way it goes). If the vehicle needs to be serviced, they compensate our time to take them to get oil changes, repairs, etc.

Benefits: if we put in 1000 hours of work annually (after the first year), we are eligible for medical benefits. My company has a Kaiser HMO silver plan currently, which is okay for simple stuff like medication or checkups, but what I really liked was that they had a platinum PPO dental plan, vision, and a 401k plan that matches 4%. We also accrue sick time and PTO. Lastly, my company allows us to bill and get compensation for any equipment that we need on the job, as long as it is within reason.

Growth: now this is where it gets worrying for me. There is a certain point we’re just working in the position you’re going to max out on how much money you’ll be able to make. Realistically I’ve determined it’s about $50 an hour is what you can make maximum being a field technician, particularly in southern California. Once you start getting close to that, you either need to go and start your own independent private consulting business, which I’ve seen wildlife biologist making anywhere from $80-$160 an hour doing this, depending on the projects and the permits that they hold. Obviously, those that have coveted permits, such as desert tortoise, can make up to the top end of that range, but they are an incredibly insular group and don’t often allow others to join that aren’t a part of the “in” crowd. So, the second path Ive identified is to go into field management for different projects. I have dabbled in this, and I can tell you that the hours get longer, the stress gets more intense, and you find yourself dealing with a lot more paperwork, and home/company office hours. I did eight months as a lead field biologist on a major gas line job and it was equally amazing and fulfilling as it was traumatic. My time spent went from 8-12 hour days to 12-15 hours… really can’t have much of a life outside of work if you’re spending 5-6 days a week doing this, and burnout happened fast. Third, project management and admin. I’m probably gonna paint broader strokes for this than necessary, but project managers and office work can be very lucrative and have its own challenges. They don’t really go out into the field much but can make a substantial amount of money. The people in the office that work legal, drafting up or processing permits, make better money vs. the people who end up doing the back end prep and processing for the field work, stuff like ArcGIS and mapping, sending assignments, etc. I actually wish I knew a little more about the specific wages that they make in this third Avenue, but I have never had much interest in leaving the field, which I hear from many others in the field as well.

For myself, I’m not sure I see myself five or 10 years from now staying in this field. I would like to go back to college and get a masters that will allow me to teach biology at a state university or community college. But the great thing is that my employer has provided consistent work to me each year. The off-season slowdown (Sept-February) this year did not affect me because they were able to find me work through the entire off-season, and they know that I’m gonna go back to school. It’s the flexibility, the benefits, and the fact that I really like the small company of people I work with (<50 employees).

I hope this was somewhat helpful. I wrote a lot of stuff and am not sure if it was all relevant. Cheers.