Daniel Boone National Forest

Daniel Boone National Forest

Encompassing a section of the Cumberland Mountains in eastern Kentucky, the 708,000-acre Daniel Boone National Forest features some of the most rugged terrain between the nearby Appalachian Mountains and the Rocky Mountains on the far side of the Great Plains....
Gila National Forest

Gila National Forest

The Gila National Forest in New Mexico is home to Earth’s first wilderness area, established by the Forest Service 100 years ago today and 40 years before the Wilderness Act was signed into law. Aldo Leopold, a Forest Service supervisor working in New Mexico at the...
Burned Redwoods Recover From 2020 Fire

Burned Redwoods Recover From 2020 Fire

In August 2020, the CZU Lightning Complex fire burned through Big Basin Redwoods State Park near Santa Cruz, California, consuming all of the foliage on some of the oldest redwoods. “It was shocking…. It really seemed like most of the trees were going to die,”...
Reforestation Contributes to Cooling Temperatures

Reforestation Contributes to Cooling Temperatures

Researchers have shown that reforestation in the southeastern U.S. has had a cooling effect on the region. The findings of Mallory Barnes and her associates are documented in a Feb. 13 research article in Earth’s Future, published by the American Geophysical Union....
asSAuLTing a Unique Forest on the Toiyabe

asSAuLTing a Unique Forest on the Toiyabe

Reaching 11,918 feet above sea level, Mt. Charleston is the highest peak in the Spring Mountains, a forested oasis on the Toiyabe National Forest west of Las Vegas. Because of its high elevation and drastically different ecosystem than the surrounding Mojave Desert,...
The Northwest Forest Plan Amendment

The Northwest Forest Plan Amendment

The Northwest Forest Plan — the world’s largest ecosystem management plan — was adopted in 1994 after President Bill Clinton essentially imposed the Plan on the Forest Service and other reluctant federal agencies. Of the Washington, Oregon, and California lands...
Researchers Sequence Whitebark Pine Genome

Researchers Sequence Whitebark Pine Genome

Among efforts to stave off the rapid decline of whitebark pine trees, researchers have recently sequenced the genome of this keystone species and are publishing their findings. Conifer genomes can be challenging to sequence as they are 3-10 times larger than the human...
2023 Brings Quietest U.S. Fire Season in Decades

2023 Brings Quietest U.S. Fire Season in Decades

The most current data show 2023 was a relatively quiet fire year. The National Interagency Fire Center reports 54,273 wildfires burned 2,627,112 acres through Dec. 18. While the number of fires was in line with the 10-year average, the number of acres burned was the...
Mount Hood National Forest

Mount Hood National Forest

The Mount Hood National Forest encompasses 1.1 million acres, with about a third of those acres designated as wilderness within eight wilderness areas. The Forest has a rich history and offers year-round recreation opportunities. Its watersheds provide drinking water...