washington

Hiking the backcountry in a national forest is a special experience where you will see wildlife and nature in its basic elements.  But just in case you run into problems, there are wilderness rangers on some trails to lend a hand.

Like many national forests, Washington’s Mt. Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest is home to visiting hikers, nature and recreation enthusiasts, fishers, and bird watchers.

One hour of hiking through rock towers and outcroppings daubed with wildflowers bring you to a stone staircase leading up to the deck of the Kelly Butte Lookout perched at 5,379 feet.

Local teens recently teamed up with the Forest Service to help clean-up an abandoned marijuana grow site on the Methow Valley Ranger District on the Okanogan-Wenatchee National Forest in Washington.

This past week, I traveled to the West Coast to connect with local leaders about President Barack Obama’s American Jobs Act, which will put Americans to work and get our economy back on track – all without adding a dime to the deficit.  It was a rewarding experience meeting the great people of California, Oregon and Washington, and it was apparent that they are ready to see the economy flourish again and believe this Act will get us there.

Seattle-Tacoma International Airport served as a dramatic backdrop today for an announcement by Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack that  delivers $136 million in research and development grants to public and  private sector partners in 22 states. In short, the grants look to make energy for autos and marine and jet crafts from plants. By unlocking that potential—known as bioenergy—Vilsack said a “next-generation of biofuels” would create new economies in rural areas across the United States. Eventually, these regional, renewable energy markets will generate sustainable jobs and decrease America’s dependence on foreign oil. And that future, said Vilsack, is closer than we think.

“This is an opportunity to take woody biomass from our forests to create fuel for jets to fly anywhere in the world,” said Vilsack. “This is a great day for our country. We’re building something new, creating jobs everywhere in the country.”

Last week, the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Administration and the Office of Human Resources and Management hosted the USDA-Asian American Pacific Islander (AAPI) Roundtable in Washington, D.C.

The USDA-AAPI Roundtable brought together over 70 participants, including over 35 AAPI community organizations and leaders, 6 Congressional offices, 5 AAPI business leaders and chambers of commerce, 3 media outlets, various academicians and 25 USDA officials. Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus Chair Judy Chu opened the event applauding USDA's efforts to establish partnerships between Congress and USDA to better increase AAPI outreach. USDA Deputy Secretary Kathleen Merrigan made introductory remarks discussing the need for diversity at USDA and the developments at USDA to address greater outreach to AAPI communities.  USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack provided keynote remarks highlighting USDA’s plan to increase diversity efforts to better reflect the face of America through the implementation of the USDA Cultural Transformation Initiative.

Earlier this week I had the opportunity to speak before a group of city and town planners at a forum hosted by the American Planning Association.  Before I spoke I asked the crowd to raise their hands if they had worked in a community of less than 50,000 population.  To my surprise, three-quarters of audience raised a hand.

When I then asked for people to keep their hands raised if they worked in communities under 20,000, and close to half the hands were still up.

It was another reminder that people who live and work in rural communities are highly engaged—enough so to attend a conference here in Washington D.C.—and intent on exploring solutions for small towns and rural areas.

I’m Brian McCluskey, Chief Epidemiologist for Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) Veterinary Services.  I’ve been with APHIS for more than 20 years and served in many different capacities.

I decided to become a veterinarian during my junior year in college, as a way to combine my interests in science, medicine and dairy cows.  As soon as I graduated and went into practice working with dairy cows, I found my skills challenged right away!  In my first five calls for calving assistance, four of them involved uterine torsions.  Now, this is a rare condition with a twist in the uterus making it difficult for the calf to come out.  I was able to successfully handle the calls, but I was really questioning my career choice at the time.

This week, I am taking 21 representatives of foreign embassies in our nation’s capital to Washington state and Oregon for the Foreign Agricultural Service’s 26^th annual orientation tour. These representatives are from Angola, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, Costa Rica, Egypt, Fiji, France, Ireland, Israel, Japan, Kenya, Malaysia, Mexico, Morocco, Norway, Philippines, South Africa, and Switzerland. Their expertise ranges from agricultural to environmental affairs and economic to commercial affairs.