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... (Read more…)

Here at the NFF, we work to engage Americans in the stewardship and care of their National Forests on a daily basis. From our grant programs, which fund local conservation organizations conducting community restoration, collaborative efforts, and local engagement efforts, to hosting dozens of Friends of the Forest ® Days on National Forests across the country, to sharing news and resources regarding National Forests through our bimonthly tree-mail™ , engagement is one of our... (Read more…)

For most of June and July, national news outlets reported on the growing wildfires in Arizona. Each week, dry, hot winds increased the fires’ intensity and size, forcing residents to flee communities in the path of the blaze and decimating hundreds of thousands of forested acres. As the fires intensified, the NFF began receiving calls from residents and businesses who wanted to help. Our initial response was to simply respect the intensely hard work of firefighters and other Forest... (Read more…)

By now most scientists around the world have come to the same conclusion: increased carbon dioxide in our atmosphere is rapidly changing our global climate. While changing weather patterns may mean snow in Dallas in January, or 50 degrees and sunny in Montana in February, the overall global temperatures are warming as compared to the last couple of centuries. Government scientists at the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) recently published data that the combined global... (Read more…)