2024 Education Award
At the 2024 Annual Meeting on June 15, the N.C. Tree Farm Program recognized long-time volunteer Colby Lambert for his contributions to the N.C. Tree Farm Program and to the education of North Carolina’s woodland owners.
Lambert has worked with Cooperative Extension for 20 years, seven of those years as an area specialized agent in forestry. He serves 50 eastern North Carolina counties, working with county extension agents to provide training in forestry programming and providing technical assistance to landowners on forest management issues. He has been a member of the N.C. Tree Farm Program’s board of directors since 2017 and has served as vice president of outreach and education since 2018. Throughout his time on the board, he has been involved in almost every aspect of Tree Farm’s education program:
- Chairing the Education Committee, which develops our programming
- Recruiting speakers for workshops, field tours and webinars
- Giving presentations
- Reserving meeting rooms
- Transporting trams and driving vans for tours
- Arriving early to set up and staying late to clean up after events
- Helping with all of the behind-the-scenes logistics that make events successful
He’s one of the N.C. Tree Farm Program’s go-to people for answering landowners’ forest management questions. He’s quick to respond, easy to work with, always pleasant and reliable, and always shows up when the Tree Farm Program needs assistance. The N.C. Tree Farm Program would not be what it is today without his contributions.