USDA Blog

Stop by any trailhead or boat landing on a national forest or grassland and take a moment to ask folks to explain the origins of their love for the outdoors. You will likely hear people return time and again to some formative experience they had in grade school. For some, the smell of the pine...

The USDA Forest Service is charged with caring for 193 million acres of the nation’s forests and grasslands and solving some of the most complex land management challenges. Across the country, forests densely packed with trees are at high risk of catastrophic wildfire as well as insect and disease...

Lately, when we hear about bats in the news it's often in the context of emerging infectious diseases. Yet, despite potential public health threats, bats are extremely important to the health of our natural ecosystems.

Usually when an event as wonderful as the lighting of the U.S. Capitol Christmas Tree has its 50 th anniversary, the events surrounding it are packed with people ready to celebrate. That was the plan this year, but the Covid-19 pandemic changed everything and yet nothing.

This bear can fly. The new Smokey Bear balloon debuted in last year’s Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade (USDA Forest Service photo.)

For 50 years, the arrival of the U.S. Capitol Christmas Tree has brought enormous excitement to the workers who deliver the tree across the country and then hoist the towering conifer into place on the West Lawn of Capitol Hill.

Mangrove forests along the coastlines in the Asia-Pacific region provide building materials for traditional homes, shelter fish and wildlife, protect communities from tsunamis and typhoons, and store more carbon than any other forested ecosystem in the world. Despite all they do for humans and the...

As silvery moonlight washed across the Montana meadow, it sent long shadows over the grass. Tonight, I didn’t need the gentle clang of the grazing bell to tell me where the horses were feeding. My leggy quarter horse was as brightly silver-white as the full moon. The distant lowing of cows across...

When most people think of the lighting of a national Christmas tree, they are often thinking of the ceremony near the White House during which the President flips a switch and lights the tree.

After weeks of searching, Washington State Department of Agriculture (WSDA) entomologists–—using a radio tag provided by USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service and a trap developed by the USDA’s Agricultural Research Service–— have located and eradicated the first Asian giant hornet (AGH)...