September 15, 2026 — New York’s landscape is heavily dominated by forests, which cover about 63% of the state’s total land area – nearly 18.6 million acres of woodland, providing vital wildlife habitats and economic resources.
PEF member Sarah Malinowski, a forester with the Department of Environmental Conservation, has long loved the outdoors and stepped into her career as a CSEA member, working as a forest technician before joining PEF several months later.
“I was drawn to the forestry field because I have always loved being outside and exploring, and I knew I wanted to work in a career that would fulfill that,” she said. “My father graduated from SUNY ESF’s Ranger School in 1979 and took me to annual summer reunions at the Adirondack campus, which had a strong influence on me.”
Malinowski went on to earn a bachelor’s degree in Forest Ecosystem Science in 2023, taking part in an internship placement program through the SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry’s Research Foundation and DEC’s Region 4 office.
Preserving forests is a varied job and involves more than just managing state-owned land. The Forest Stewardship Program offers forestry services to landowners in every New York county. Malinowski is responsible for Onondaga and Oswego counties.
“All private, non-industrial forest landowners who are looking for introductory management and technical advice are eligible for a free visit with a DEC forester,” she said. “Often a visit is a landowner’s first step toward getting professional guidance for their property.”
Foresters accompany landowners on a tour of the woodland and make recommendations, then refer them to private consulting foresters who can be paid to manage and carry out the recommended work.
“There are no formal acreage requirements, I have gone on properties as small as an acre and swung by a postage-stamp sized yard on my way to do other work to discuss the couple dozen trees on the property,” Malinowski said. “If someone will benefit from the education or technical support I can provide, I try to make myself available.
“An average site visit with a landowner requires coming up with a map, setting a date and time, then walking the property with the landowner if possible and identifying the landowner’s goals and objectives as well as the present forest resources and resource concerns,” she explained. “Using all that information, which can sometimes be conflicting, I develop management suggestions for the property and will either communicate my findings through a simple email or a more formal management plan for the landowner to learn from and refer to when making decisions about their property. I also aim to connect private landowners or communities with grants and monies to help them address any resource concerns.”
At the recent New York State Fair, Malinoski and her colleagues handed out trees in the DEC aquarium building as part of the 25 Million Trees Initiative. Since it was launched in 2025, nearly half a million trees have been recorded in DEC’s Tree Tracker tool, developed by DEC and the NYS Office of Information Services (OITS).
DEC also runs a school seedling program every spring. Through this educational program, schools, homeschool groups, and youth organizations are eligible to receive free trees or shrubs from the Colonel William F. Fox Memorial Saratoga Tree Nursery along with guidance on how to plant and care for them. Applications are accepted on a first-come, first-served basis from the beginning of January until mid-March each year.
“My goal as a forester is to inform landowners, the general public, and targeted audiences such as schools, policy makers, and land resource managers on stewardship actions that will ensure a healthy balance of forest resource values for present and future generations – on private woodlots and on the public streets and spaces in your community,” she said.
How to get started – Contact your local DEC forester and make an appointment to discuss your goals for your woodland.