faces of the forest

Christina Harper, a new forester on the Bienville National Forest in Mississippi, has travelled a busy road from a special student training program to a full-time U.S. Forest Service employee.

Harper graduated from the Student Career Experience Program, which provides work experience directly related to students’ academic programs or career goals. The program exposes students to public service while enhancing their educational goals.

When she was in high school, Bequi Livingston read a book about firefighting and was quickly intrigued. Little did she know that she would one day become one of the U.S. Forest Service’s pioneer women in wildland firefighting and fight fires for nearly 20 years.

After graduating from college, an article in her local newspaper caught her eye. The article was about the Young Adult Conservation Corps encouraging people to apply for its fire crew on the Smokey Ranger District. Livingston was accepted, but when she excitedly reported to work on her first day on the Lincoln National Forest, her office manager was surprised to meet a woman.

Originally, the young Lincoln Bramwell wanted to be a garbage man, what we call a sanitation engineer today.

“They swing on the back of trucks, find cool stuff occasionally.  I thought that was the coolest job ever,” he said. Bramwell explained that it changed later once “I had to take the trash out as a kid.”

Not many people can say that they took six months off from work to hike from one country to another. U.S. Forest Service civil engineer Alex Asai did.

How does a former dancer and theater technician end up in a career in forestry? Meet Mark Twery, a supervisory research forester on the Northern Research Station in Burlington, Vt., who is not only all of the above, but loves his unique job that incorporates forestry with dance.

Some people may not guess that Lindsay Campbell works for the U.S. Forest Service. After all, she does not work on a national forest. Rather, she loves her job in New York City and frequently travels the globe as a member of the U.S. National Team for fencing.

Can’t is a four letter word that is not in Karren Alexander’s vocabulary. Having lost both arms in an accident at a very early age has not stopped Karren from reaching for the stars and trying to spread joy and determination to others.

Karren’s philosophy and purpose in life is to encourage and inspire other people. She stated, “I’ve lived my life instructing, guiding, motivating, and teaching others to be more than they think they can be.” Karren believes nothing is impossible and looks at life as being a beautiful thing. She never lets obstacles get in her way, always finding a solution to any problem or situation.

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.

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.

Thousands of young people have successfully passed through the Anaconda Jobs Corps Civilian Conservation Center in a mile-high valley on the Beaverhead-Deerlodge National Forest.

The facility in southwest Montana is on the largest national forest in the state and boasts two wilderness areas and spectacular scenery that goes on for miles.