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... (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…)

On the Mt. Baker-Snoqualmie (MBS) National Forest in Washington, we are constantly looking for ways to engage urban youth by providing unique opportunities to learn new skills and see amazing places while meeting the needs of the forest. This year the MBS partnered for the first time with a youth program managed by the Tulalip Indian Reservation aimed at providing environmental education to youth living on the reservation. The 22,000-acre Tulalip Indian Reservation is located north... (Read more…)

Children in the U.S. spend 50 percent less time outdoors than they did 20 years ago. With the goal to motivate families and their children to get outside more often and re-connect with nature, the USDA Forest Service and the Ad Council recently launched new public service advertisements (PSAs) to encourage families to take the time to discover the forest. We are proud to join their efforts as a 2011 campaign partner. Studies show that kids who spend more time outside are... (Read more…)

The subject of invasive  plants, what they are, and what they do to the environment can get quite technical, which makes talking about them to young kids a little tricky. Words such as allelopathy, monoculture, biodiversity, and niche can be difficult concepts for adults to understand, let alone kids whose primary educational experiences have been in languages other than English.  Last week, at a stewardship learning event, the National Forest Foundation and the US... (Read more…)