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It’s time for the NCAA Men’s Final Four --- and all eyes are usually glued to the action on the court.  But this year special attention is being paid to the actual court itself.

This ‘Court of Champions’ comes from the Menominee Forest and Menominee Tribal Enterprises in Wisconsin.  It all began with a maple tree which provided the amazing physical properties that are perfect for the court.  The wood is beautiful, tough and does not splinter or sliver.

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.

As spring awakens across the country, outdoor recreation enthusiasts are beginning to look again for opportunities to enjoy the great outdoors. America’s spectacular national forests and national grasslands provide some of the greatest opportunities for outdoor recreation in the world.

But these beautiful and inspiring natural places are also under attack from hundreds of invasive plants, animals and pathogens. These exotic invaders disrupt natural ecological balance and can negatively impact the quality of outdoor recreation experiences. Invasives can threaten human health and safety and possibly reduce access to some areas.

Mark Haskell has perfected the school garden recipe: a green thumb, a passion for home-grown food, culinary expertise and partnerships with GreenSchools! and the U.S. Forest Service to whip up the excitement of urban school children connecting their garden to the food they eat.

Fire experts from the Ocala National Forest and instructors from the Prescribed Fire Training Center in Tallahassee, Fla., recently hosted a delegation of natural resource specialists from the Moroccan Government.

The three-day long program in Florida focused on fire management techniques and observing actual prescribed burns.

“We’ve been cooperating with a Moroccan government agency called the High Commission, an agency akin to the Forest Service as they manage forests and watersheds across their country,” said Natasha Marwah, Middle East and North African Program Specialist with the U.S. Forest Service. “For the past five years, we’ve been providing technical assistance on forest conservation and health, rangeland and watershed management, and most recently, fire management.”

Many tourists in the nation’s capital have stumbled into the historical Sidney R. Yates Federal Building which houses the Forest Service national headquarters by mistake --- they were looking for the Holocaust Museum or the Bureau of Engraving and Printing, which is just down the street.  But once inside the Forest Service facility, visitors from all over the world are surprised by the warm welcome they receive and the information available on the importance of forests and wildlife habitats.

This year the information center will welcome its 250,000 visitor.

To date, the Tale of Two Rivers conservation campaign has generated an original microbrew, an annual cycling event, a paint-a-thon and a movie screening.

Now up: a modern quilting bee.

When the U.S. Forest Service was established in 1905, the common belief was that only men were physically and mentally capable of working outdoors for the agency. In the early 20th century, women were limited primarily to roles as administrative clerks. But in 1913, Hallie M. Daggett was hired as the first woman employee to be assigned to field work. She worked as a lookout at Klamath Peak on the Klamath National Forest in Yreka, Calif. – for 14 years.

Today, women comprise 38 percent of all of the Forest Service’s more than 30,000 employees. Women hold positions in all aspects within the agency, including forester positions, scientists and senior leadership roles.

“We take a lot of our opportunities today for granted as if they have always been that way,” said Angela Coleman, Associate Deputy Chief of Forest Service Research and Development. “We don’t stop long enough to thank those pioneers, women and men, who helped break down barriers that allow the Forest Service to be more inclusive. We are stronger today because of the strength of our diversity.”

Imagine men mounted on horses, armed with rifles and sidearms, patrolling millions of acres of public land. These men were typical U.S. Forest Service rangers over a century ago. This is how the Forest Service first approached forest management.

Forest Service historian Dr. Lincoln Bramwell recently shared the history of the Forest Service to the agency’s Class of 2011 Presidential Management Fellows, a federal government leadership development program.

Back when Arizona was designated a U.S. territory, scientists had already been exploring its vast landscapes which start from nearly sea level and climb to over 12,000 feet. They were paying particular attention to Arizona’s diverse vegetation and climate.

In 1889, biologist C. Hart Merriam traversed northern Arizona and found six of the seven world life zones he would later describe by latitude and elevation. The existence of such varied life zones across a short distance, and often with just a few hundred feet of elevation change, fascinated scientists. One particular life zone, the extensive stands of ponderosa pine growing at higher elevations from west of Flagstaff, AZ, eastward into New Mexico was particularly interesting to scientists and foresters.