There's a miracle slowly starting to take off in the city of Detroit. A city so decimated by the collapse of the automobile is starting to remember that it started as a farming community. As such, entire Motor City neighborhoods that have been abandoned, better known as Brownfields, are now being turned into "urban farms;" i.e. neighborhoods who previously didn't even have supermarkets are cropping up farms...sometimes where the supermarkets even used to be. Even more important, other cities along the Rustbelt are starting to take notice and do it themselves. If you are interested in this, then you should learn about on line degrees.
With a new industry there's coming a new profession, one geared towards the reclaiming of the land. There's now even a name for these new professionals, Brownfield Recovery Specialists. It has the making of to be one of the fastest growing professions through 2020.
Brownfield is a term environmentalists stole from IT lingo to describe internet spaces needing new software systems. Those in the restoration industry thought it was a pretty good way to describe what they do with bona fide real estate. There is one important thing to consider though, a Brownfield is not a Superfund site. The latter are tantamount to environmental disaster areas.
Specialists develop or implement plans for re-vegetation of brownfield sites, then design and implement plans for structural demolition, debris removal, and ground and water reclamation. They don't just work on urban landscapes, but also military test sites, abandoned mine land or other contaminated sites. This also includes less hazardous waste sites than Superfund sites.
As it stands, recovery specialists are needed on all levels. One could just be a manual laborer picking up the trash, but the better jobs require vocational certification, if not outright college degrees. For those who want to go for the better paying positions they should start off with good secondary grades in their science, math and communications courses. From there, they should look for on campus/online colleges or trade school with a strong curriculum in the chemical, environmental and/or biological sciences.
Those seeking financial aid should also be a bit creative. Such major urban areas like Detroit and New York City have instituted financial aid programs. This is considered a STEM profession, so one can also see what they can get from those sources. There also is the Environmental Protection Agency, which has set up a fund through its American Recovery & Reinvestment Act. One should consult with financial aid advisors for other sources, too. Do not wait any longer, start learning more about college degrees.
Because this is a very young industry, the Bureau of Labor Statistics only started studying it in the last year. At present, all they can say is the average wage for a degreed Brownfield specialist is $44.50 an hour or $50,000 to $92,000, annually. A lot of this is depending on education, experience and position.


