Board Member Profile:
Rachel Habig-Myers
10 CityTREES
Based in Northern Virginia, Rachel Habig-Myers is the Field Coordinator for
the Forest Pest Branch of the Fairfax County Urban Forest Management
Division. She monitors and manages invasive exotic insects and dis-
eases affecting forest health in the largest local jurisdiction in Virginia
as well as the Washington DC metro area (1.14 million residents and
growing). Rachel is an ISA Certified Arborist and an SMA Board Member.
Can you tell us about your
educational trajectory?
Rachel Habig-Myers: My interest in
studying forestry started with concern
about the environment. I found studying
how to grow forests very rewarding, and it
seemed like a good way to make a differ-
ence. I have always sought out interesting
new experiences, the search for which led
me to study and work in German forests for
a year following my undergraduate degree
at Mississippi State University. A couple
rounds of graduate school (Mississippi
State University and the State University of
New York College of Environmental Science
and Forestry) allowed me to study many
different things, including social science
research, outdoor recreation management,
environmental interpretation, arboricul-
ture, and invasive threats. I learned various
ways of understanding how and why
people spend time in the woods and share
concern about the environment, or not.
Rachel and son Foster took the train to visit family in
Alabama. "I used to go visit my Alabama grandparents
that way when I was a kid," she says. "Foster loved our
room with bunks on the train, and eating onboard."
