My name is Christiean Todd Smith. I was born in Los
Angeles, California, but I was raised in Baton Rouge,
Louisiana. Trees have been a part of my life ever since
I can remember. As a young kid, I was always outside
playing in nature and around trees. It's safe to say that
a single tree even changed my life. During Hurricane
Gustav in 2008, a gigantic water oak (Quercus nigra)
came crashing down on our house while my whole
family was inside. The tree was so massive that it
destroyed the whole house along with two cars—so you
can only imagine how terrified we were. This caused
my family to separate; my brother and I moved in with
my neighbor and my parents moved across town.
Fast forward to my deciding to attend Southern
University and A&M College and major in Civil
Engineering. After spending some time in the major, I
decided it wasn't for me. I thought I would leave college
to pursue becoming a firefighter, but just as I was about
to make this decision, I had a life-changing conversa-
tion with my academic counselor. She told me about the
field of urban forestry and how I could stay in college
and do wildland firefighting, so I took the opportunity.
Currently, I am an Urban Forestry PhD student
studying with Dr. Zhu Ning at Southern University,
where I also recently accepted the position of
Program Coordinator of Urban Forestry for the
Urban Forestry and Natural Resources Department.
I am excited about this new opportunity!
This field has allowed me to see the world and has
helped me grow so much: I been able to study abroad
in China at the Chinese College of Forestry Science
for three consecutive summers; I had to oppor-
tunity to teach intro-level Urban Forestry at my
University; I have been an arborist for Bayou Tree
Service; I have worked for the U.S. Forest Service
PNW FIA as an urban forest technician; and I even
had the opportunity to become a firefighter as well
as wildland firefighter while serving in the Army.
Christiean Todd Smith
Christiean representing the PNW FIA team at the 2022 Society
of American Foresters Conference in Sacramento, California.
18 CityTREES
