u.s. forest service

Last week, Ag Secretary Tom Vilsack announced his agency is expanding efforts to reduce the risk of wildfires in the western U.S.  Funds will be invested to directly protect at-risk communities and critical infrastructure in 11 additional landscapes in Washington Oregon, Idaho California, Arizona, Nevada, and Utah.   “...

The USDA is increasing efforts to improve forest resiliency through a variety of programs and approaches. "At the U.S. Department of Agriculture, we believe that with innovate policies and incentives, climate smart reforestation and forest management can be a meaningful tool to increasing forest health," said Ag Secretary Tom Vilsack. ...

Interior Secretary Deb Haaland and USDA Forest Service chief Randy Moore met with fire fighters and fire management officials recently to get a briefing on the upcoming, or ongoing, fire season. But also, "to highlight our collective efforts to protect our communities from the threat of wildfires ...

Scientists tell us that we cannot stop wildfires from happening, "But what we can do is begin the process of reducing the catastrophic nature of these fires," noted Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack. He recently announced a ten year plan to do more thinning out of forests, removing dead trees and brush, improving the health of forests and making communities near them safer ...

On Tuesday the Department of Agriculture announced a comprehensive response to the nation’s growing wildfire crisis. The effort is called “Confronting the Wildfire Crisis: A Strategy for Protecting Communities and Improving Resilience in America’s Forests.” The strategy o ...

When it comes to fighting wildfires here in the west, the Biden Administration is asking Congress for "a significant increase in the forest service budget, that would allow us to accelerate significantly hazardous fuel removal from our force ...

Forest Health took center state at a Senate Ag committee hearing last week. Joe Fox is President of the National Association of State Foresters. "To maintain our forests as carbon sinks we can't let them be destroyed by out of control wildfires we must reduce wildfire fuel loads in our forests ...

Late last week, a group of Senators announced the Joint Chiefs Landscape Restoration Partnership Act of 2021. The legislation would formally authorize the Department of Agriculture’s Joint Chiefs’ Landscape Restoration Partnership Initiative to better support forest and grassland restoration projects across public and private land, including NE Washington. The lawma ...

The USDA is seeking your input on Nonindustrial Private Forest Land related to technical and financial assistance available through conservation programs. The lands make up a large portion of the forested land base in the United States ...

The U.S. Forest Service is currently accepting funding applications for innovation related programs. The USFS' Kevin Naranjo says one program has been around for a while, and has become very popular. "Wood innovations grants really opened up in 2015 but that program itself has been around a little longer ...