forestry

A 63-foot Sierra white fir from Stanislaus National Forest arrived Monday morning and is now gracing the west front lawn of the Capitol.

Marla Emery looks at plantain – an ordinary weed to most people – with an eye on how some people will use it. After all, her work with the U.S. Forest Service as a research geographer leads her to interesting conversations with people who forage in rural and urban forests.

The annual ritual dance by the chicken-sized male Greater sage grouse attracts potential mates and perpetuates the species. However, this important mating ritual is a rare experience in the Devil’s Garden, a region in northeastern California where the greater sage grouse populations are in serious decline.

Oregon Wild works on wilderness protection, listing of indicator species, and protecting old-growth stands through legislative and administrates campaigns. They interact with the Bureau of Land Management and Forest Service agencies located in Oregon to reduce the old-growth logged and increase the amount restored. In the past, they have been at odds with the agencies, but now, in some instances, they are seen partners.

“I’m originally from Michigan, where I grew up a ‘nature geek,’ wandering around the woods and countryside,” Chandra Le Gue, Old-Growth Campaign Coordinator for Oregon Wild explained. “From this experience, I gained a love for nature. I was really amazed at the natural beauty of Oregon when I moved here for my graduate studies. I fell in love with the forests and landscapes. Oregon Wild’s mission matched my ideology on the importance of these areas….and I have been with the organization now for six and a half years.”

Miles Cary Johnston lives in the rolling countryside east of Richmond, Va., on land that’s been owned by his family for more than 12 generations. His acreage in New Kent County stretches down to the Pamunkey River and includes open fields, mixed hardwood forests and 16 acres of pine he planted for timber production.

Johnston keeps track of what’s going on with his forest land, and in 2010, he figured it was time to thin his 16 acres of loblolly pines. The stand was starting to look closed in, and Johnston knew from his consulting forester that this would make his trees more susceptible to southern pine beetle, a native bark beetle considered the most destructive forest pest in the South.

Roughly 100 people shrugged off cold weather near Sedona, Ariz., to attend a Dutch oven cooking contest and talk about the Coconino National Forest’s work to create a motorized and non-motorized trail system on the Red Rock Ranger District.

The 65-foot white fir from California’s Stanislaus National Forest was harvested and embarked on its journey toward the nation’s capitol on Nov. 5.

Year three of the “Garlic Mustard Challenge” produced a bumper crop, not for hot dog relish, but bags of the non-native invasive species garlic mustard.  The goals of this challenge and the weed pull are not simply in eradicating the invasive garlic mustard plant, but also in educating and inspiring individuals to get out and enjoy our national forests and grasslands.

When Estelle Bowman was a little girl, she tagged along to meetings with attorneys who worked with her mother in the Bureau of Indian Affairs in Shiprock, N.M. As she grew older on the Navajo reservation town, she knew that she would one day become an attorney and serve her Navajo community.

Over the years, Bowman has done both and more. Today, the former district prosecutor for the Navajo Nation Department of Justice is the assistant director of the Office of Tribal Relations in Washington, D.C. for the U.S. Forest Service.

When the 65-foot Californian white fir from the Stanislaus National Forest arrives at the Capitol at the start of the holiday season, it will arrive with several thousand of its friends from California.

The Californian friends will be ornaments, as many as 5,000, that will decorate the Capitol Christmas Tree. Each ornament, which will stand 9 to 12 inches tall and be built strongly enough to endure Washington D.C.’s winter, will be handmade by residents of the Golden State.