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…)

“It’s like a wilderness out here.”  These were some of the first words overheard as the crew from North Lawndale College Prep High School in Chicago disembarked for their first day of work at Midewin National Tallgrass Prairie.  The crew of eight students, two student mentors and a faculty leader was hired by the National Forest Foundation to work on projects at the US Forest Service unit located 50 miles southwest of Chicago.   “As part of the National Forest... (Read more…)

Once upon a time, in the late 1800s to be precise, there was a booming mining town deep in the Mt. Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest (MBS). The town was called Monte Cristo and it became a mining attraction because of its rich mineral deposits. With the help of a railroad and financers like John D. Rockefeller, the town grew to support over a thousand residents (mostly miners), several shops, a schoolhouse, a brothel, a hotel and many homes. Not long after its peak, mining... (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…)