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Since 2009, Smokey Bear and Woodsy Owl have been making the rounds from coast to coast on a green-built, interactive traveling exhibit called Smokey Bear & Woodsy Owl: Home Sweet Home created by the Betty Brinn Children’s Museum in collaboration with the Forest Service.

The educational exhibit features Smokey and Woodsy inspiring children and families to discover and care for natural resources. Visitors are led into imaginary woodland and urban settings where children learn to be explorers and caretakers of the land. Hands-on activities underscore the importance of protecting forest ecosystems and highlight ways to reduce, reuse and recycle valuable resources.

It’s that time of year again to be amazed by a brilliant display of nature—spectacular fall colors in your national forests. The color and beauty of something as simple as a leaf in autumn turns the landscape of many forests into a painter’s pallet of stunning hues of red, yellow and orange. And the U.S. Forest Service wants to help you find the best viewing spots.

U.S. Forest Service research indicates that climate change will affect habitat suitability for maple trees, threatening the multimillion dollar maple syrup industry. Changes in climate have already had an impact on the iconic sugar maple trees of the Northeastern U.S.

Flow of maple sap, which is boiled down to make syrup, is controlled by alternating freezing and thawing cycles in the late winter. Maple trees also rely on snowpack during this time to protect their roots from freezing.

The Central California Consortium (CCC) celebrated the completion of its intern program at the 16^th Annual Intern Awards Ceremony. CCC partner, Center for Advanced Research and Technology (CART), hosted the event on August 9, 2012 in Clovis, CA. The CCC was honored to host USDA and Forest Service leadership, as well as over 125 guests comprised of Forest Service staff, community partners, and family members.

Imagine traveling 2,000 miles from home for the first time to trade high-rise buildings for towering trees, city lights for twinkling stars, and an urban cacophony for the melodies of songbirds.

For most of us, this would be a vacation.  For six Baltimore teenagers, it was a journey to work long, hard days to restore the wilderness character of the Carson National Forest in New Mexico.

The US Forest Service has launched a Leaf Viewing in Western North Carolina webpage for 2012 featuring scenic drives and areas in the Nantahala and Pisgah National Forests for enjoying fall foliage. Visitors to the site will see pictures and get directions to enjoy the kaleidoscope of glorious leaf colors North Carolina has to offer.

Leaf Viewing in Western North Carolina describes the types of mountain trees that visitors will see during peak season at high, middle and low elevations. For example, the Cherohala Skyway in Graham County enables travelers to enjoy a variety of colorful, high-elevation trees in late September.

While conducting patrol and mop-up operations on the north end of the Chips Fire burning on the Plumas and Lassen National Forests in Northern California on Aug. 25, the Mad River Hand Crew encountered a remarkable sight; a baby bobcat!  It was found wandering along the side of the road, alone and dazed.  “It seemed to be confused,” said Tad Hair, the Mad River Hand Crew superintendent who spotted the kit.

According to Hair, it was the size of a domestic kitten and seemed to have impaired vision, perhaps from the smoke and ash in its eyes.  “It was walking in circles near a stump” said Hair.  Once they verified that there were no obvious physical injuries on the kit the crew attempted to walk away, but she swiftly followed the sounds of their movements. Each time the crew would stop, she would curl up on Hair’s boots, snuggling into his chaps.

The beauty of a partnership involves dedicated partners on both sides. The volunteers with the Winston County Smith Lake Advocacy Group donate their time each year to protect shorelines on the Bankhead National Forest, an effort greatly appreciated by the forest’s staff.

Managing wildland fire is pretty much the same anywhere in the world. You need to think carefully about when and where to apply it and how to starve the fire of fuel in places you don’t want it. There are several ways to do it—but you need to know how.

As a U.S. Forest Service fire applications specialist, managing wildfire, monitoring ecosystem response and teaching others how to do so has been Tonja Opperman’s job for years. She is so good at it that recently the Forest Service International Programs invited her to teach fire monitoring in Zambia’s Kafue National Park.

With fires raging across the Western states dramatic images of wildland firefighters attempting to contain the flames are a regular visual in newspapers and on TV and computer devices across the country. These striking visuals rouse the fighter in some of us and we might ask: Can I fight a wildfire?

The answer is you can—if you meet certain criteria. Both federal and state agencies have varying requirements to award what is referred to as a Wildfire Qualification Card. Like a driver’s license, this card says you’re certified to fight wildland fires. So how do you get one? Aside from hours of online testing, you’ll have to enroll in a week long fire training-type boot camp where you’ll take more tests and be given a large spiral bound book called the Fireland Handbook.