Mother Nature did plenty of favors for those in Central Oregon for Earth Day weekend, blessing us with blue skies and warm afternoons. In celebration, a group of Sisters High School biology students gave back to Mother Nature too, planting about 400 trees near Whychus Creek.

The students volunteered as part of the National Forest Foundation’s (NFF) and U.S. Forest Service’s Tale of Two Rivers conservation campaign to restore the Metolius River and Whychus Creek.

 “We really wanted to bring the high school group to this area that is notorious for misuse,” said Maret Pajutee, District Ecologist for the Sisters Ranger District. “We hope that today their efforts really invest them in this place and that they will start to care for it.”

In addition to tree planting, the group helped to naturalize closed roads, working to blend them with the forest floor. The U.S. Forest Service and NFF hope to limit destructive use with the road closures while protecting sensitive riparian zones and upland habitat. The new Whychus Creek trail invites recreationalists to explore while diverting them away from these fragile areas.

“With the trail and with this Earth Day event, we are trying to grow stewardship in the community for Whychus Creek,” Pajutee said. “Working with kids is such a great way to do that.”

“I thought it was really fun and would definitely do it again,” said biology student, Breanna Perry.

Perry and another student, Maddi Boettner, kept count of the trees they planted together throughout the day. The pair’s final count was 60 trees.

“It felt really rewarding to plant so many trees,” said Boettner. She even showed up with extra trees to plant during the volunteer day, donated to the project by her mother, Sue Boettner.

“It’s so great to see kids like that,” said Gary Guttormsen of Sisters Trails Alliance, a partnering organization at the event.  “The work they’ve done today really shows me that the future is in good hands,” Guttormsen continued.
Trout Unlimited was also on hand to support the Earth Day efforts of the students. Together all the organizations and students made a visible impact, restoring multiple acres of habitat and planting and caging hundreds of trees.

“I thought it was great to hear students say that they wanted to come back,” said Kalin Emrich of the Garden Angel. Emrich came to the event to volunteer and lend his expertise.

“The students I worked with wanted to come out and work more,” Emrich said. “They even mentioned coming back in 5 or 10 years to see how their trees have grown.”

Glen Herron was happy to have his students outside in celebration of Earth Day.

“I guess there’s three words that come to me when I think about Earth Day—sustainability, stewardship and appreciation,” said Herron. “It’s time we give back and it will pay down the road,” he told his students.

NFF’s Earth Day Friends of the Forest Day with Sisters High School was sponsored by Ray’s Food Place, Columbia Sportswear, and the Garden Angel.

The U.S. Forest Service today announced its My Neighborhood Forest photo contest, celebrating America’s urban and community forests.

The Grand Prize winner will receive $200 in outdoor gear courtesy of the National Forest Foundation.

The contest, which runs from April 11 – July 22, seeks to highlight the natural beauty that spring and summer bring to U.S. neighborhoods, communities and cities, as well as the crucial role of trees in the places we call home.

Those interested in competing should visit Challenge.gov for more details on the prizes and contest rules.

Urban forests broadly include urban parks, street trees, landscaped boulevards, public gardens, river and coastal promenades, greenways, river corridors, wetlands, nature preserves, natural areas, shelter belts of trees and working trees at industrial brownfield sites.

“Urban forests are different from the forests you might normally think of, but they are functioning, hard-working ecosystems just the same,” said Tidwell. “As our neighborhoods warm up, trees add a crucial element of beauty to the places where we live, learn and work. We hope this photo contest will encourage people to go outside this season, and maybe they’ll learn a little more about their own neighborhood forests in the process.”

With 80 percent of the nation's population in urban areas, there are strong environmental, social, and economic cases to be made for the conservation of green spaces to guide growth and revitalize city centers and older suburbs.

Urban forests, through planned connections of green spaces, form the green infrastructure system on which communities depend. This natural life support system sustains clean air and water, biodiversity, habitat, nesting and travel corridors for wildlife, and connects people to nature.

The Forest Service’s Urban and Community Forestry office is actively engaged in more than 7,000 communities across the United States, providing technical, financial, research and educational services to local government, non-profit organizations, community groups, educational institutions and tribal governments.

This article was originally published in the Summer/Fall 2010 issue of Your National Forests, the official magazine of the National Forest Foundation. To read the complete issue, click here. 

Shaped by Water

Dripping methodically from cavern ceilings, meandering through shady oaks and hickory trees, tumbling over the edge of rocky bluffs – water feeds and shapes and defines the landscape of northern Arkansas and its Ozark National Forest. This sculptor of the Ozarks landscape has carved canyons and caves, filled copious rivers and streams, and nurtured a verdant swath of mixed hardwood forests.

Though people commonly refer to the region as the “Ozark Mountains,” geologists define this range as the “Boston Mountains.” These rugged hills began as a collection of ancient plateaus, uplifted with few folds or faults 300 million years ago. Weather and water have since created the dramatic v-shaped canyons, river valleys and exposed sandstone and limestone cliffs that make this such a fascinating land to explore.

The wealth of water resources – critical to both the region’s natural character and to local communities – led President Theodore Roosevelt to sign the proclamation creating the Ozark National Forest in 1908. Broken into five distinct sections, the forest encompasses 1.1 million acres bounded by major waterways – from the Arkansas River along its southern section to the White River in the north. Today, water is not only the lifeblood of northern Arkansas’ community water systems but of the regional recreation economy as well.

By Boat or By Boot

Visitors and locals alike savor some of the nation’s best water-based outdoor recreation on the Ozark National Forest. World-class trout fishing lures anglers to the White River on the forest’s northern Sylamore Ranger District. For many anglers it’s not trout that come to mind with the Ozarks, but the challenge of battling smallmouth bass hunkered down in deep, clear Ozark fishing holes.

The Ozark’s rivers offer everything from lazy, scenic canoeing excursions to thrilling Class II, III and IV rapids for more adrenaline-pumping whitewater adventures. Six of the Ozark National Forest’s rivers are congressionally designated Wild and Scenic Rivers, including the popular Mulberry River and Big Piney Creek, providing remote floating experiences for visitors looking to truly get away from it all. 

But one doesn’t have to be a water lover to love the Ozarks. Several nationally designated scenic byways cross the Ozark National Forest presenting particularly stunning views in the fall when the lush hardwood forests glow in reds, oranges and golds, as well as in the spring when the delicate branches of dogwoods erupt with soft, white blossoms and the bushy redbuds break out in brilliant magenta flowers.

When it’s time to stretch your legs, hundreds of miles of Ozarks hiking trails can accommodate. The Ozark National Forest is home to the highest point in Arkansas – Mount Magazine – which tops out at 2,753 feet. Through a partnership with the Arkansas State Parks, the mountain offers a full catalog of outdoor adventure, used by hikers, rock climbers, hang gliders, mountain bikers and more.

Serving up one of the most scenic hikes east of the Rockies, the Ozark Highlands Trail stretches more than 165 miles, traversing the forest from near the Oklahoma border at Lake Fort Smith State Park on up to the Buffalo National River. Along the way, the trail crosses more than 60 named creeks and rivers, passes hundreds of seasonal waterfalls, and skirts rocky bluffs with expansive vistas.

The splendor of rushing rivers and blooming trees above ground is rivaled by the Ozark’s unique underground treasure. As the largest “living cave” administered by the U.S. Forest Service, Blanchard Springs Caverns transports visitors into a subterranean wonderland. Seeping and dripping water continue to shape this limestone cavern, which harbors a 65-foot formation named the “Giant Column,” a car-sized pile of antique bat droppings, and yards of “cave drapery.” Two developed cave trails wind through water-carved passageways alongside an underground river and the world’s largest flowstone.

Thanks to northern Arkansas’ karst topography, the region harbors hundreds of caves, many of which provide habitat for the Ozark National Forest’s rarest wildlife species. The Ozark big-eared bat and Indiana bat are among the 14 federally endangered species that call this forest home. More common forest residents include white-tailed deer, wild turkeys, black bears, raccoons and numerous songbirds.

In 1981, the state of Arkansas reintroduced elk – a once-native species that had been absent from the landscape for decades. With the herd now numbering about 500, bugling bulls have become a popular attraction along the Buffalo National River and in parts of the Ozark National Forest. So popular are these Ozarks wapiti that each year the town of Jasper, Ark., hosts an annual Buffalo River Elk Festival, featuring elk bugling contests and the crowning of “Miss Elk Fest."

See for Yourself

The sheer cliffs and rugged mountains that made Ozarks life and travel so hard centuries ago have helped to preserve a landscape that seeps with natural beauty and eons of geologic transformation. With twisting tentacles of river valleys and miles of underground caves, it’s not hard to imagine your own stories of undiscovered critters. But don’t let your imagination have all the fun – the Ozark National Forest is a land worth exploring from mountaintop to cavern floor.

On a recent spring morning, more than 100 volunteers from the Alcoa Fastening Systems Carson Operations arrived at Vogel Flat Picnic Area on the Angeles National Forest for a Friends of the Forest day. Alcoa adopted the picnic area last fall and employees were eager to continue their work.

Damaged in the 2009 Station Fire and subsequent debris flows, the picnic area required a variety of improvements and repairs. Despite the presence of half a dozen or so large and majestic oak trees, oak regeneration at the picnic area has been limited. Volunteers pitched in to plant 100 native oak tree seedlings, clear weeds in tree planting locations, construct tree cages to prevent deer from nibbling on the seedlings, and water the newly planted trees. Six youth from the Los Angeles Conservation Corps guided volunteers in proper tree-planting techniques.

“It feels good knowing that we can do something for our environment,” said Emmanuel.

A team of particularly hardy volunteers grabbed shovels and McLeods and dug out a concrete wall that had been over-topped by eroded sediment, while others reinstalled BBQ grills that had been hastily removed by Forest Service staff before the post-fire winter floods reached the picnic area. Volunteers removed debris and brush, cleared sediment that had piled up around the base of the oak trees, and cleared weeds from around picnic tables.

Wildly popular among the 30 or so youth volunteers were the two painting projects. Children as young as two years old grabbed paint brushes to slap a new coat of paint on the restroom facility and the newly constructed parking lot barriers.

“Painting was my favorite!” declared Samantha.

Adults shoveled out the several-inch layer of mud caked to the restroom floors and hosed it down before a new coat of paint was applied to the walls. Native shrubs were planted in the two planter boxes outside the restrooms and volunteer ‘reporters’ snapped photos and asked their fellow volunteers for their thoughts on the day.

Near lunch time Smokey Bear and his firefighting buddies made a surprise visit and volunteers crowded around to get their picture taken with the forest celebrity.

Tired volunteers enjoyed a picnic lunch together at the end of the work day before heading home, excited about the visible progress they had made in restoring the picnic area.

Reflecting on his experience volunteering that day, Bill Carrigan, Director of Operations at AFS Carson, said, “Helping the community – it’s the right thing to do.”