forestry

Upcoming Veterans Day, November 11, marks the fourth time this year that the U.S. Forest Service is offering national fee waivers on recreation sites it manages. The choice of this date has been made to honors the country’s veterans, members of the armed services, and their families.

The 2010 Capitol Christmas Tree will be harvested and prepared for its cross-country journey this weekend. This year’s tree is coming from the Bridger-Teton National Forest in Wyoming, the first time the tree has come from Wyoming. The tree, a 67-foot Engelmann Spruce, will be harvested at 8 a.m. local time in Wyoming.

The “Family Hike” masterpiece by Canadian wildlife artist Robert Bateman will be presented to the USDA Forest Service this Friday, October 22, at the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto. The Forest Service is acquiring the original painting to support the growth of the Robert Bateman Get to Know Program in the United States.

From New England through the south and across the upper Midwest to the Rockies and Pacific Northwest, many people anticipate that this weekend will be a showcase for a vast array of brilliant fall colors.

Most people do not realize that more than half the water in the United States comes from watersheds managed on forests. Used in homes, on ranches, in industry and for energy production, water resources in forests provide important services to people, as well as habitat for a wide variety of aquatic life. Our rapidly changing climate, however, is challenging our watersheds with both wet and dry extremes - more severe droughts, more frequent and larger floods, more soil moisture stress and lower stream flows during the dry season, less of a snowpack reservoir, and other effects. In a unique pilot project, 11 national forests around the country are assessing the vulnerability of their water resources and watersheds to such changes.

Renowned wildlife artists Robert Bateman and Wyland, in partnership with the U.S. Forest Service, invite American youth to “get to know” their wild neighbors of other species. The Get to Know contest encourages young people to develop a deeper appreciation of biodiversity through art, writing, photography and video. Entries based on a first-hand experience with nature can be submitted at www.gettoknow.ca from October 1 to November 30, 2010.

The USDA Forest Service will join the public this Saturday, Sept. 25, for National Public Lands Day – the largest, annual, hands-on nationwide volunteer effort to improve America’s public lands. National Public Lands Day is coordinated by the National Environmental Education Foundation with the support of the Forest Service and other federal agencies.

The Forest Service played an integral role with USDA and DOI being selected as recipients of the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation (ACHP) Award for Federal Preserve America Accomplishment.

On Sept. 16, both Departments were  recognized at a ceremony in Washington, D.C. for their outstanding support for Colorado Preserve America Youth Summits over the past five years provided by the Forest Service, National Park Service (NPS) and Bureau of Land Management (BLM).

The recapture of the two fugitives on a National Forest last month made headlines across the nation. An alert Forest Service employee became integral to the recapture and the successful end to this situation. In a matter of just a few moments, this employee made several key decisions and took specific actions that prevented a potentially violent outcome.

Written By Jessica L. Morrison; USDA Forest Service Conservation Education Intern

As a volunteer intern for the Conservation Education department of the Forest Service, I was not expecting much more than to be cooped up in a cubical somewhere; making copies and filing things away into nonexistence. But almost as soon as I arrived at the agency’s big red building, my supervisor made that wouldn’t happen. Besides getting to weed the USDA’s roof gardens and learning how to pet bumblebees, I was given the opportunity to tag along as the film crew of PollinatorLIVE interviewed the youngest beekeeper in the D.C. area.