Forestry

A female (hen) wild turkey in front of a male (tom). Photo courtesy of the National Wild Turkey Federation.

To some people, hunting is a foreign concept. In the era of readily-packaged meats easily purchased at a nearby grocery store, the need—outside the sport of it—might seem outdated.

Numerous tribes throughout the US are growing native plants for reforestation and restoration. For many of them however, there are deeper connections with the plants they’re propagating. Sure, the plants fulfill an ecological purpose for the projects they’re intended for, but often there can be deeper cultural connections as well. That is, seedlings intended for a restoration project may contain species of plants the tribe used traditionally.

You probably have not heard of the Kirtland’s warbler. It is a songbird that migrates between breeding habitat in northern Michigan and its winter range in the Bahamas.

UPDATE: The Capitol Christmas tree successfully completed the journey from the Carson National Forest (New Mexico) to Washington, D.C.! The U.S. Capitol Architect will prepare the tree for a lighting ceremony on Wednesday, December 4.

At about 9 a.m. MST, in a remote section of the Carson National Forest in New Mexico, workers gently loaded a massive 60-foot blue spruce onto a very long trailer bed — the first stage of the tree’s 2,000-mile journey to Washington, D.C. The National Capitol Christmas Tree will stop in more than 25 communities as it makes its way across the country before arriving on the West Lawn of the U.S. Capitol Building on Monday, Nov. 25.

In 2017, Trout Unlimited started a program with an aim to raise awareness around America’s public lands and native fish. During this 10-week journey, the 5 Rivers Odyssey takes college students from across the country to fish rivers for native trout and salmon.

Perched at the edge of the Great Basin, the city of Susanville, California, has experienced high winds, heavy snowfalls, and wildfires that disrupt power supplied on the regular grid. Fortunately, the city’s 20,000 residents, as well as those in surrounding rural communities, aren’t left in the dark for long.

When we think of a renewable resource, the first thing that usually pops in our head are the solar panels on our neighbor’s roof or perhaps the water that flows from the mountains. Rarely does a stand of trees root in our idea of a renewable resource.

Nestled in a small cutout of the Green Mountain National Forest in Vermont is a town named Lincoln. The very epitome of a small town, Lincoln, is home to around 1,200 people, depending on the season. It’s far enough off the highway that during the winter months, there’s limited traffic coming into town.

There are so many beautiful songs and poems written about autumn. And images! Amazing Fall Colors Flickr pictures and Forest Service YouTube videos of trees and flowers aglow with brilliant reds, yellows and oranges among the many iridescent shades of the color spectrum—see what I mean! Fall just brings out the poets in us.