The Lambs: A Family in Forestry
Published on Wednesday, December 10th, 2025
In Spring 2025, MCC welcomed Erick Lamb, Sr. to its Forest Management Technology faculty. Lamb, a 2019 graduate of MCC’s Forestry Program, transferred his credits to North Carolina State University where he earned a bachelor’s of science from NC State’s Department of Forestry & Environmental Resources in 2021.
Erick Sr. heard about the MCC faculty opportunity from his son, Erick Jr., who is a student in the program. “He heard they were searching for a new instructor, and I decided to put my hat in the ring,” explained Erick. “I was so pleased they reached out, giving me the opportunity to teach.” The following semester in Spring 2025 he was teaching three classes: Botany, Mensuration and Pesticides.
The Lamb family now lives in Montgomery County, with Erick Sr. teaching, and both kids pursuing degrees at MCC. Erick Jr. is a 2023 graduate of Seventy-First High School in Fayetteville, and is wrapping up his degree at MCC. Erick Jr. graduated from MCC in May 2025. He has been accepted into the Forestry Program at NC State, but may delay his journey to Raleigh to take a few more low-cost electives here to transfer towards his bachelor’s degree.
Samantha (Sammi) is a 2024 graduate of Seventy-First High School in Fayetteville. Though she considers herself outdoorsy (both kids are Eagle Scouts) she is studying in the medical field, pursuing an Associate in Applied Science- Medical Assistant degree. She has already earned a Phlebotomy Certificate. Still early in the process, she is not yet sure if she will enter the workforce upon graduation, or pursue a bachelor’s degree at a four-year school.
Erick Sr. is a Scoutmaster, and Erick Jr. started scouting at age 11, completing his journey as an Eagle Scout. In 2019, girls became eligible to join Boy Scouts. Sammi Lamb was the first member of her all-girl Troop to earning the Eagle Scout rank. Their final projects were meaningful achievements; Sammi upgraded the greenhouse at her high school, and Erick Jr. renovated the picnic shelter and camping site at their local American Legion Post.
Erick Sr. is looking forward to upcoming projects in the MCC Forestry Department. The team hopes to develop a section of trees on the MCC campus affectionately known as The Fran Stand. They hope to plant and nurture a wide variety of North Carolina-native trees not normally found in this part of the state, to allow MCC students to see them firsthand while here in college.
“The students we have in the program are very curious, and they have a wide variety of interests and ideas,” explains Erick Sr. “Forestry is such a tremendous field for a career because it is so diverse- from powerline maintenance, to land inventory and logging, production and marketing, silviculture and even newer fields like agroforestry where livestock are coexisting with forests- there is something for every student in the field of forestry.”