Forest Cruiser & Craft Technician pay range
State of Washington · class code 518F
- Class code
- 518F
- Salary range
- 42E
- Pay unit
- Year
- State
- Washington
- The State of Washington published pay range for Forest Cruiser & Craft Technician is $50,412 to $61,332 per year.
- Washington State Office of Financial Management (OFM) keys this classification as class code 518F.
- This is the range the plan authorises, not the salary of any individual employee.
Step progression
Washington State Office of Financial Management (OFM) assigns this class to salary range 42E in the General Service Salary Schedule. The range pays 9 steps, and this class starts at step E rather than at the bottom of the range; a step is normally earned on a periodic increment date, not negotiated.
| Basis | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Annual | $50,412 | $51,600 | $52,872 | $54,204 | $55,596 | $56,952 | $58,392 | $59,760 | $61,332 |
| Monthly | $4,201 | $4,300 | $4,406 | $4,517 | $4,633 | $4,746 | $4,866 | $4,980 | $5,111 |
| Hourly | $24.14 | $24.71 | $25.32 | $25.96 | $26.63 | $27.28 | $27.97 | $28.62 | $29.37 |
Steps as published. The monthly and hourly rows are the state's own, not conversions of the annual row.
Class specification
The OFM classified job specification for this class is published by Washington State Office of Financial Management (OFM). The passages below are quoted from it as published, not paraphrased, and cut to their opening sentences; the full specification is the authority on duties and qualifications.
What the state says the job is
As a lead and/or specialist, performs work in one of the following areas: Controlled felling of large and hazardous trees, climbing, rigging, manlift operation, aerial work and directional topping, limbing, or lowering of tree material; Preliminary cruising on all timber types and verifying local unit cruises on second-growth conifers, hardwoods, thinnings, and salvage sales. Inspects sale preparation considerations and recommends changes; Development and maintenance of forest areas, buildings, equipment and grounds that involves logging operations, heavy equipment operations and the use and maintenance of logging and sawmill equipment. Duties also involve the repair and maintenance of buildings and equipment.
Examples of the work
Performs skilled tree service work in technical tree climbing, controlled topping, an directional falling of large trees and snags, ornamental tree pruning and debris removal (chipping or stump removal); Operates manlift, log skidder, D-4 dozer, seven and ten-yard dump trucks with equipment trailers, trucks, boom trucks, portable sawmill and forklift; Uses brush chipper, spray equipment, stump grinder, power winch and rigging on horticulture project; Determines and plans best sampling method; cruises the area by examining each tree in sample; marks and measures and/or examines each tree to be removed in a thinning sale; determines species, height, gross volume, log grades, extend of defect a ...
Minimum qualifications
Three years of experience using technical tree climbing skills or performing forestry activities such as working in a sawmill, timber cruising for land exchange or timber buying and selling, bucking, felling, operating heavy equipment such as bulldozer, graders, logging equipment, and/or heavy trucks.
Quoted from the OFM classified job specification, read 2026-10-21.
Where this comes from
Washington State Office of Financial Management (OFM) publishes this figure in Classified Job Listing joined to the OFM salary schedules effective July 1, 2026. Every number on this page is read from that document; nothing is estimated, modelled or averaged.
The dollar figures come from the salary schedule the listing assigns this range to.