USDA Blog

Recently, 1,400 goats reported for duty with the U.S. Forest Service. Their mission: Lend their appetites to the removal of fuels buildup on the Cleveland National Forest. The goats were a part of a 100-acre forest-thinning project that begin in late April to clear a 300-foot community fuel break...

From the top of Limestone Ridge, 6,000 feet up, the scars of a massive wildfire on Arizona’s White Mountain Apache Reservation in east central Arizona are still visible. As far as the eye can see are bare mountain ranges where century-old ponderosa pines once stood. A decade ago, the Rodeo-Chediski...

With a view of majestic mountains in the background, visitors to the Cranberry Mountain Nature Center of the Monongahela National Forest find themselves immersed in a bevy of beautiful plants in bloom and fluttering monarch butterflies. Beneath the natural grandeur, a very essential ecosystem...

Finding a sense of place is a huge factor in the life of this district interpreter on the world’s largest temperate rainforest - the Tongass National Forest in Alaska. Corree Seward Delabrue has either lived in or travelled through many of our nation’s states. But Alaska holds the allure of the...

The United States has 757 wilderness areas covering nearly 110 million acres of public land, but just one of your photographs could be among those displayed at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History as part of a year-long celebration of the 50th anniversary of the Wilderness Act of...

Sometimes, a story speaks for itself. Although Smokey Bear was created on August 9, 1944, when the U.S. Forest Service and the Ad Council agreed that a fictional bear named Smokey would be the symbol for their efforts to promote forest fire prevention – what later happened is simply amazing. Imagine...

Our farmers and ranchers are the most productive on earth, largely due to their innovation and their ability to adapt to new challenges. As new threats emerge for American agriculture, USDA will be there to provide assistance – and this week, we announced new steps to help producers create solutions...

Recently, U.S. Forest Service scientist Andy Scott took his son’s first-grade class on a nature hike to talk about forestry, soil, and anything else the kids wanted to know. They walked along the newly created Bradford Creek Greenway behind Heritage Elementary School in Madison, Ala. Noah captured...

Listed as an endangered species in 1967 and ultimately de-listed in 2007, the effort to recover the American Bald Eagle ( Haliaeetus leucocephalus) on national forests has been a rewarding endeavor for the San Bernardino National Forest. As the district wildlife biologist for the San Jacinto Ranger...

The beauty of watching a flock of birds migrating on the wing is a sight many enjoy. Protecting their habitats to help them on their journeys is part of the work that U.S. Forest Service employees across the nation do every day. “Forests and grasslands managed by the U.S. Forest Service are critical...