BY CLIFF SMELLEY
Telegraph Staff Writer
Rachel Kyle loved working outdoors in her home state of Virginia, but she decided she’d enjoy it more if she could do it in better weather.
Kyle eventually moved to Florida and is now the Florida Forest Service’s new county forester for Bradford and Union counties.
“I loved working outside, but I hated working in the snow,” Kyle said. “I was like, ‘Where can I do outdoors work and not have to deal with the snow?’ Florida came to mind.”
Kyle, who went to Daytona State College before transferring and graduating from the University of Florida, is in her first year of working for the Florida Forest Service after a stint in the Florida Park Service. She’s been the Bradford/Union county forester since June after working in Baker County.
“I’m just kind of starting to get to know the community and some of the landowners,” Kyle said.
Though she came from another state, the new county forester feels right at home in Florida — especially this part of Florida.
“I grew up in a pretty rural area,” Kyle said of Chesterfield, Virginia, which is south of Richmond. “It’s actually pretty similar to Union County. There wasn’t much around where I was. It was so far from the public schools that I went to a little, private, Christian school for 10 years.”
Kyle entered the public school system when she got her driver’s license. That enabled her to drive to the nearest high school, which was 45 minutes away.
She enjoyed where she lived, though, saying she participated in all the “typical country stuff.” She enjoyed fishing and was around chickens, goats and horses.
“I always wanted to be outdoors,” Kyle said.
Yet she once contemplated a career path that had nothing to do with the outdoors and nature.
Theater a dream, but not her true passion
At first, Kyle had the childhood dream of being a zoologist.
“I wanted to be Steve Irwin,” she said. “Who didn’t want to be Steve Irwin?”
Along the way, though, she developed an interest in performance arts, participating in theater in high school. What Kyle discovered was she enjoyed the camaraderie that comes with the theater more than the desire to actually act for a living. While in high school, she was part of a trip to Broadway. She and her fellow students had the chance to meet the cast of a performance.
“These people were living in a shoe box, eating Ramen noodles and being rejected every other day,” Kyle said.
She discovered many actresses worked as waitresses for five to 10 years. Many continued that work even while they had stage work so they could make ends meet.
“I kind of realized I enjoyed the socialization of theater more than I enjoyed the actual theater,” Kyle said.
While still in high school, she took advantage of a volunteering opportunity cleaning up trash at Pocahontas State Park. She was invited back to work in the park by her fellow volunteers. Once-a-week trips to the park eventually became twice-a-week trips to the park.
Kyle said she did that for about a year before the volunteer coordinator suggested she look into working for AmeriCorps, which was how she got introduced to such concepts as prescribed burning.
The experience also showed her that numerous opportunities exists when it comes to outdoors-related career fields. Before, when she thought of outdoors jobs, she thought of something like marine biology. Her view, she said was very narrow.
“(AmeriCorps) showed me there are a lot of different things you can get into,” Kyle said.
The same can be said of the Florida Forest Service.
“I like the Forest Service because it’s versatile,” Kyle said, adding, “The Forest Service is great because there are so many different job positions. It’s not like the military, but it has a lot of opportunities like the military has.”
Helping neighbors
Though she enjoys working with prescribed fires, one of her main roles as a county forester is providing assistance to private landowners.
She’s more than happy to do that, saying getting out and meeting landowners in person is her favorite part of her job.
“They remind me of my neighbors that I grew up with,” Kyle said. “They see the importance of having land and wanting to make it productive and planning for your legacy and wanting to get the most out of your land. I want to help people do that.”
Kyle will make inspections and/or collect samples if landowners have trees that are sick or dying for unknown reasons of if they think they have a presence of Southern pine beetles or other pests.
Her job also entails helping landowners get the resources they need and to help those interested in harvesting timber aware of the Florida Tree Farm Program, which is available to those with 20-plus acres of timber. Kyle said it’s hard for small landowners to achieve the certifications that large companies like Rayonier can. Many mills will buy timber that only comes from farms with such certifications.
“The biggest part of the Tree Farm Program is to protect our landowners so they can sell their wood,” Kyle said. “They won’t have limited options. They can sell their wood to pretty much any mill.”
Kyle is also available to help create land planning, even if it has nothing to do with wanting to harvest timber.
“Some people just want wildlife,” Kyle said. “Some people call me and say, ‘Hey, I want to get more deer and quail and turkey. What do I have to do to do that?’ I get up with an FWC (Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission) biologist, get her out there and write a plan and try to get that happening for them.”
Kyle looks forward to educational and tree-planting opportunities. She’s already participated in a career day at Lake Butler Middle School and has two Arbor Day events scheduled in January where she will work with FFA students in both counties to plant trees.
She also wants to work with Lake Butler and Starke in recertifying their Tree City USA status.
On the job and off
When she’s not devoting her time to the Florida Forest Service, Kyle said she enjoys fishing — both freshwater and saltwater. When it’s saltwater, she likes to fish for pompano.
Kyle also enjoys rock climbing, or at least the indoor version of it since she lives in Florida. However, she looks forward to future opportunities to do it outdoors, which she got a taste of on a recent trip to Colorado.
“I’m not prepared for real rock climbing yet, but I’m working toward it,” Kyle said. “There’s a lot of gear involved and a lot of different styles of climbing.”
When she’s on the clock, Kyle is continuing to learn the ins and outs of her role as county forester, with one eye also cast toward the future.
“I’m still learning the position,” she said. “A lot of trial and error right now. I’m looking forward to working with the community a little bit more and maybe getting a tree-planting workshop on the way this winter.”
Bradford and Union counties are a long way from Broadway, and that’s just fine for the outdoors enthusiast who once gave thought to reciting lines on stage.
“I love this job,” Kyle said.
