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…)

As the bus climbed through the cloud layer, the dramatic views of the steep granitic slopes of the San Gabriel Mountains came into focus and the eager excitement of the 26 students from Los Angeles River High School embarking on an adventure into the Angeles National Forest became clear. The charred remains of the large trees and shrubs from the 2009 wildfire were still evident, but the vibrant green from the resurgent new growth was everywhere. Just the day before, on May 2, the... (Read more…)

Before I moved to Northwestern Washington to serve in a year-long AmeriCorps internship for the National Forest Foundation, I had visited the Seattle area a few times. Each time, the weather had been a typical overcast day, with showers ranging from a light sprinkle, to a heavy downpour. Having grown up in Central Oregon, where there are about as many sunny days as there are in Hawaii, I knew that it would take some time getting used to the cloudy, heavy grey skies. The first time I... (Read more…)

“There are some things you can’t learn from a book; you need to experience them to really understand,” Caitlyn Bonkoski explains to me as she stands thigh deep in Upper Dominguez Creek on the Uncompahgre Plateau.  Caitlyn and her classmate, Sarah Stalcup, are the first students to participate in the Delta High School Apprenticeship in Science and Engineering sponsored by the US Forest Service.  The 6-week summer apprenticeship offers local students the opportunity to job... (Read more…)