Evergreen Mountain Bike Alliance received funding from the NFF Matching Awards Program for 2012 projects—including replacing the bridge at Deep Creek. Stacy Karacostas, Communication and Membership Director of Evergreen MTB recaps an impressive day of trail work on the Mount Baker-Snoqualmie Forest as told to her by Graham Turnage, Evergreen’s Backcountry Trails Crew Lead.  Five of us met at the trailhead with light snow falling on a chilly Saturday morning in October – four... (Read more…)

Sometimes restoration activities can take months or even years to appreciate the results. Tree-planting for example, can take ten years to even look like new trees—or longer. Stream restoration can take several seasons for the first fish to return. Road removal however, can have nearly instant results—at least to the eye.   This past summer and fall, the Mountains to Sound Greenway Trust removed 11 miles of unused roads on the Mt. Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest and surrounding... (Read more…)

On October 20, 2012, twenty-five volunteers gathered on the Willamette National Forest in Sweet Home, Oregon for the community’s first Friends of the Forest Day. The volunteer stewardship event was not only an opportunity for the local community to get their hands dirty with on the ground restoration project in their “backyard forest,”  but was also a celebration of the Sweet Home Ranger District’s “All Lands Collaborative Approach” to promoting a healthy landscape (and healthy... (Read more…)

In Sisters, Oregon and throughout the Northwest, recent forest fires have reminded us just how much local forests impact our quality of life. With the Pole Creek Fire burning just 5 miles from Sisters, Central Oregonians came out in droves to volunteer at the National Forest Foundation’s Friends of the Forest® Day.  More than 115 volunteers were escorted through the fire closure area, driven past charred landscapes, and taken to the beautiful and lesser known river, Whychus Creek.... (Read more…)

As a plein air painter and visual artist, I don't often use words to express the beauty I find in our National Forests and their waterways. I usually just try to paint them, capturing their essence, beauty, energy, vitality and diversity by putting oil paint on canvas. We plein air painters want to give viewers the feeling that they are there, experiencing the moment right alongside with us. The forests and the natural world have been the steadfast, eternal muses of mankind since... (Read more…)

On September 13, 2012 twenty-seven Cycle Oregon cyclists rode to the top of Mt. Ashland…on a yellow school bus. During “Day 5” of Cycle Oregon’s week long ride the enthusiastic cyclists volunteered to give back to one of the National Forests they had been riding through.  The project site straddled two national forests, the Rogue-River Siskiyou National Forest and the Klamath National Forest. The volunteers vigorously worked to deconstruct on old wood pole fence once used to... (Read more…)

For more than two years Grand Trunk Goods has supported the National Forest Foundation by offering a unique giving opportunity to their customers. For each online purchase, Grand Trunk customers have the option of donating five percent of their purchase to the National Forest Foundation, supporting on-the-ground restoration efforts on our National Forests across the nation.  As a manufacturer of outdoor equipment and travel and lifestyle products, Grand Trunk customers expect the... (Read more…)

Originally posted on The Nature Conservancy Blog on August 27, 2012. A Volvo 480 crawler excavator is a big yellow machine. Weighing in at well over 50 tons, it will move just about anything, such as a 17,000-pound log. Massive logs like these are key ingredients in restoring salmon streams but only if they’re put in the right place. In all, a crew from a local contractor, Southeast Road Builders, carefully placed 325 logs in just the right spots in and along Alaska’s... (Read more…)

Evergreen Mountain Bike Alliance received funding from the NFF Matching Awards Program for 2012 projects—including Kettle Fest. Stacy Karacostas, Communication and Membership Director, of Evergreen MTB recaps a fun day of trail-building on the Colville National Forest. The overcast sky is just starting to break on a beautiful July morning as 30-some mountain bikers mill around a campground clearing, swilling coffee and waiting to start the day. They’ve come from all over... (Read more…)

This summer I interned with the USDA Forest Service National Partnership Office as a William A. Demmer Scholar  with funding from the National Forest Foundation.  I secured the internship because one of my professors at Michigan State University referred a class to me about natural resources advocacy and I jumped at the opportunity.  It turned out that Mark Rey, the former Undersecretary for Agriculture and Natural Resources, taught the class!  Luckily, I earned a 4.0... (Read more…)