Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack announced today the publication and start of a 90-day comment period for the proposed Colorado Roadless Rule, developed collaboratively to address the needs of Colorado’s unique and precious roadless areas.

This proposed rule, in development since 2005, is the product of extensive public involvement that included more than 200,000 written comments and reflects local and national and concerns. Read more »

My team at the U.S. Forest Service Northern Research Station recently completed a study of the District of Columbia’s urban forest using the publicly available, free iTree software suite. Understanding an urban forest’s structure, function and value can promote management decisions that will improve human health and environmental quality. Urban trees clean our air, capture stormwater and provide huge energy savings. Read more »

The legacy of the Weeks Act is shown by looking at photos of the White Mountain National Forest a century apart. Nearly a 100 years later after being decimated by logging, this photo depicts a healthy restored forest at the same location.

The Weeks Act, which went into effect on March 1, 1911, has been identified as one of the most important pieces of environmental legislation in American history.

In the early 1900s the public began to embrace a more proactive attitude toward conserving public lands. Just the year before, in 1910, Gifford Pinchot started the Forest Service. Before the Weeks Act, lands set aside for conservation were all located in the West and were created from large blocks of land in the public domain. Millions of acres of bare, eroded lands dotted the Eastern states from cut-over and farmed-out lands. In the West, the epic wildfires of 1910 fueled support for the Act. Read more »

“Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!” Talented fifth graders from Bailey’s Elementary School in Falls Church, VA caroled to Forest Service employees in the Yates Building at the Chief’s annual Open House on Monday, Dec. 6, 2010. The students cheerfully sang a holiday mix of carols including Let It Snow, Here We Come A-Wassailing and a compilation medley. Read more »

Actress Betty White holds the certificate and Forest Ranger badge presented to her by US Forest Service Chief Tom Tidwell (left) and Deputy Chief Hank Kashdan, as Smokey Bear looks on. White was named an Honorary Forest Ranger in a ceremony at the Kennedy Center for the performing Arts in Washington DC November 9. (US Forest Service photo by Karl Perry)

It isn’t part of the agency’s mission statement to make childhood dreams come true – but it became our privilege today at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, DC. U.S. Forest Service Chief Tom Tidwell had the honor of making a childhood dream come true for actress Betty White. Read more »

"Family Hike" masterpiece created by Robert Bateman.

The “Family Hike” masterpiece by Canadian wildlife artist Robert Bateman will be presented to the USDA Forest Service this Friday, October 22, at the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto. The Forest Service is acquiring the original painting to support the growth of the Robert Bateman Get to Know Program in the United States. Read more »