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New York State Department of Environmental Conservation — Forest Rangers entry pay
What this agency pays a new officer to start, and how that compares with the rest of the country.
Entry pay onlyEvery salary here is what an officer is paid on day one, out of the academy — base pay on a 40-hour week, with no overtime, shift differential, specialty or education pay counted. Nobody stays on it.
New York State Department of Environmental Conservation — Forest Rangers starts at $67,796 a year — about $32.59 an hour on a 2,080-hour year, before overtime. That is $594 below the median of the 1,681 agencies on this list, and $2,798 above the median for state agencies.
Cost of livingPrices in New York run about 8% above the national average, so this is worth roughly $62,820 somewhere at average prices — $4,976 less than the headline figure. Most of that is utilities, at 134 against a national average of 100, where goods are 107. Based on state-wide price levels, because this agency is not tied to a single metro area, from the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, 2024. The salary above is what the employer publishes; this line is our arithmetic on it, and nothing on this site is ranked on it.
What New York State Department of Environmental Conservation — Forest Rangers says about itself
The mission of the Division of Forest Protection is to provide public safety and state land protection through expertise in wildland search, rescue, fire, law enforcement, and incident management throughout the State of New York.
What New York State Department of Environmental Conservation — Forest Rangers does
New York Forest Rangers are sworn police officers within the Department of Environmental Conservation. They enforce environmental and other state laws, patrol state lands, conduct search-and-rescue operations, suppress and manage wildland fires, protect natural resources and assist with natural and manmade emergencies statewide.
Where the figure comes from
Checked 8 August 2026. New York State Department of Civil Service — Forest Ranger 1 — open the source document
$67,796.
Entry-level base salary only. Overtime, bonuses, education incentives, shift
differentials, locality pay and lateral rates are excluded, so most officers earn more
than this.
How this level compares
Where New York State Department of Environmental Conservation — Forest Rangers sits is partly about the agency and partly about which level of policing it belongs to. The three levels do not pay the same.
| Level | Lowest | Median | Highest | Agencies |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Municipal | $35,006 | $71,287 | $163,619 | 1046 |
| County | $36,492 | $65,374 | $132,263 | 416 |
| Special jurisdiction | $31,200 | $60,195 | $107,954 | 69 |
| State | $33,994 | $64,998 | $102,692 | 143 |
| Federal | $70,477 | $73,502 | $86,530 | 5 |
| Territory | $16,640 | $28,236 | $43,354 | 9 |
Federal agencies pay the most to start
The middle federal agency starts at $73,502 — about $2,200 more than the middle municipal agency and about $8,100 more than the middle county agency and about $13,300 more than the middle special jurisdiction agency and about $8,500 more than the middle state agency and about $45,300 more than the middle territory agency. New York State Department of Environmental Conservation — Forest Rangers starts at $67,796, so $2,798 above the state middle.
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How it ranks
Common questions
How much does a New York State Department of Environmental Conservation — Forest Rangers officer make?
New York State Department of Environmental Conservation — Forest Rangers starts a new officer on $67,796 a year, about $32.59 an hour on a 2,080-hour year. That is base salary before overtime, bonuses, education incentives, shift differentials and locality pay, so most serving officers earn more. The figure comes from New York State Department of Civil Service — Forest Ranger 1.
Is that good pay for a police officer in New York?
It ranks #8 of 23 agencies we have verified in New York — 15 pay less, 7 pay more in the state — and #872 of 1,681 nationally. Against the national median it is $594 below, and against other state agencies $2,798 above.
Compare with another department
Put New York State Department of Environmental Conservation — Forest Rangers side by side with any other agency on the site — the two salaries, what each is worth once local prices are counted, and which comes out ahead.
The agencies either side of it
Other agencies in NY
| # | Agency | Level | Sworn # | Entry pay | Vs New | National |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | New York State Department of Financial Services — Investigations | State | — | $86,681 | +$18,885 | #269 |
| 2 | New York State Police | State | 5,373 | $85,292 | +$17,496 | #288 |
| 3 | New York State Park Police | State | 269 | $73,796 | +$6,000 | #602 |
| 4 | Onondaga County Sheriff's Office | County | 217 | $71,764 | +$3,968 | #681 |
| 5 | Yonkers Police Department | Municipal | 625 | $70,229 | +$2,433 | #755 |
| 6 | Erie County Sheriff's Office | County | 175 | $69,274 | +$1,478 | #800 |
| 7 | Livingston County Sheriff's Office | County | 66 | $67,808 | +$12 | #871 |
| 9 | Yates County Sheriff's Office | County | 27 | $66,389 | −$1,407 | #956 |
| 10 | Albany Police Department | Municipal | 269 | $65,066 | −$2,730 | #1,017 |
| 11 | Rochester Police Department | Municipal | 622 | $63,812 | −$3,984 | #1,068 |
| 12 | Nassau County Sheriff's Department | County | 2,591 | $62,657 | −$5,139 | #1,123 |
| 13 | Monroe County Sheriff's Office | County | 346 | $62,086 | −$5,710 | #1,153 |
Base pay is only part of the year
Whatever the figure above, the rotation is what decides your year — which weekends you lose, when the changeovers land, what you can plan around. Save yours once and BlueShifts shows it a year ahead, with the off-duty jobs you take and what each one paid.
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