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Consider the bat - you know, the flying type that swoops out of urban eaves or rural caves usually at dawn or dusk. What do you know about the central roles they play in controlling insect populations, balancing ecosystems or pollinating flowers, fruits and vegetables? Last week, students in grades...

When President Obama recently called on federal agencies to help young people find more work in the great outdoors, the U.S. Forest Service – with 193 million acres of prime outdoor space —responded quickly with jobs for hundreds of underserved youths. The America’s Great Outdoors: Developing the...

The Weeks Act 100-mile Legacy Trail has recently been unveiled as a virtual self-guided driving tour of the White Mountains in New Hampshire. The tour is named after the watershed conservation legislation of 1911 known as the Weeks Act that led to the creation of national forests east of the...

Rappellers are firefighters who are delivered to remote and inaccessible wildfires by means of dropping down a rope from helicopters hovering 250 feet high. Earlier this month over 50 veteran Forest Service rappellers throughout the West prepared for a new fire season with training and...

On any given day during grazing season, Black Angus cattle amble across areas of the Oglala National Grassland in northwestern Nebraska. Yet they play a bigger role than just grazing for their daily meal. They help support the local economy, are the lifeline of a family business and have a role in a...

Mississippi staff recently commemorated the 150th anniversary of the U.S. Department of Agriculture and its work on behalf of agriculture, rural America and people throughout the country and world who benefit from the work of the agency. Mississippi agencies USDA Rural Development (RD), National...

The USDA Forest Service, along with our Federal, state and local partners operate the largest wildland fire management program in the world. To help manage these wildland fires the partners have created interagency incident management teams. These teams have responded to many incidents including...

More and more folks live fulfilling lives well into their senior years but it’s especially noteworthy when an octogenarian is still working on environmental conservation issues like Florence LaRiviere. This year the Environmental Law Institute honored LaRiviere with its 2012 National Wetlands Award...

This post is part of the Science Tuesday feature series on the USDA blog. Check back each week as we showcase stories and news from USDA’s rich science and research portfolio. To many of locals in western North Carolina, they’re called wild leeks. Some call them ransoms and still others call them...

During an early April annual volunteer awards ceremony held in Clovis, Calif., the Sierra National Forest recognized the dedication, commitment and accomplishments of more than 400 individuals and groups that provided services valued at more than $770,000 to the forest in 2011. “Our volunteers...