Seeking a rewarding career that could balance the workload of forestry and motherhood, Anna Yarbrough ’14 forged her own path as the business owner of Free Range Forestry, where she now works as a consulting forester to her clientele of small landowners.
“I’m kind of like a general contractor for building a house, but for your trees,” Yarbrough explained. “A lot of times when people call me, they don’t know the paperwork side of things, or they don’t have contacts for planting crews or labor crews themselves, so they hire me to consult them on their forest and manage all the moving pieces for them.”
Yarbrough, who graduated from OSU’s College of Forestry with a degree in forest management, initially began her career working for big timber companies. The large-scale work, which could involve planting a million trees in a single year, was incredibly fulfilling for her, but the time commitment proved challenging after she became a mother.
“I started Free Range Forestry so I could still be a forester — because I love my job — but also be a mom,” Yarbrough said.
The work that she does now as a consultant for small landowners is done at a smaller, more individual scale, but Yarbrough finds it even more rewarding because of how different every project is when it’s tailored to fit a specific person’s dreams for their property.
“I loved my job as a forester for big timber companies, but with small landowners, it’s like every project is different — different goals, different ideas, different ways they want to go about things. It’s fun and a challenge to put all that together and know that a lot of the time I’m working in someone’s backyard, so they really want to get it right.”
Yarbrough is thankful for her time at the College of Forestry, which introduced her to different parts of the forestry industry and helped her step directly into timber company jobs after graduation — experiences that were vital to her development in the field. The College of Forestry also provided her with a very tight-knit community that blossomed lifelong friendships for her. Many of her current closest friends are people she met in different classes and study groups. She even met her husband in her Forestry 101 class!
“One thing that stood out to me is how personal the College of Forestry is. I actually didn’t go to Oregon State my freshman year, because when I visited, it felt so big. I was like, this is too big of a school for me!” Yarbrough said, noting that she had grown up in a small town and graduated with a class of only 100 people. “So when I visited Oregon State it was too big for me, but once I got to the College of Forestry it was such a tight knit community.”
That sense of community is something she still carries with her today as she leads her own business and continues to pursue her passion in forestry.