USDA Forest Service

The USDA Forest Service is an agency of the United States Department of Agriculture that administers the nation's 155 national forests and 20 national grasslands. Major divisions of the agency include the National Forest System, State and Private Forestry, and the Research and Development branch.

History

In 1876, Congress created the office of Special Agent in the Department of Agriculture to assess the state of the forests in the United States. Franklin B. Hough was appointed. In 1881, the office was expanded into the newly-formed Division of Forestry. The Forest Reserve Act of 1891 authorized withdrawing land from the public domain as "forest reserves," managed by the Department of the Interior. In 1901, the Division of Forestry was renamed the Bureau of Forestry. The Transfer Act of 1905 transferred the management of forest reserves from the General Land Office of the Interior Department to the Bureau of Forestry, henceforth known as the USDA Forest Service.

Other significant legislation includes: the Multiple Use Sustained Yield Act, P.L. 86-517; the National Forest Management Act, P.L. 94-588; the National Environmental Policy Act, P.L. 91-190; the Cooperative Forestry Assistance Act, P.L. 95-313; the Forest and Rangelands Renewable Resources Planning Act, P.L. 95-307; and the National Forest Management Act of 1976.

Since 1978 several Presidents trusted the USFS with the administration of National Monuments inside of preexisting National Forests.

• Admiralty Island National Monument- Alaska
• Giant Sequoia National Monument- California
• Misty Fjords National Monument- Alaska
• Mount St. Helens National Volcanic Monument- Washington
• Newberry National Volcanic Monument- Oregon
• Santa Rosa and San Jacinto Mountains National Monument- California (jointly with the Bureau of Land Management)

The Forest Service also manages Grey Towers National Historic Site in Milford, Pennsylvania, the home and estate of its first director, Gifford Pinchot.

Across the United States, there are 155 national forests, organized into ranger districts employing district rangers and other personnel. The districts construct and maintain trails, operate campgrounds, regulate grazing, patrol wilderness areas, protect culturally significant heritage sites, and manage vegetation and wildlife habitat. The Forest Service also has seven Regional Research Stations, including the International Institute of Tropical Forestry and Forest Products Laboratory, that study the ecosystems of the National Forests. The Forest Service also provides funding and technical assistance to non-federal land owners through a branch called State and Private Forestry.

Although a large volume of timber is logged every year, not all National Forests are entirely forested. There are tidewater glaciers in the Tongass National Forest in Alaska and ski areas such as Alta, Utah in the Wasatch-Cache National Forest. In addition, the Forest Service is responsible for managing National Grasslands in the midwest. Furthermore, areas designated as Wilderness by acts of Congress, prohibit logging, mining, road and building construction and land leases for purposes of farming and or livestock grazing.

In order to help prevent forest fires, the Forest Service and the Wartime Advertising Council started to release fire education posters featuring a Black Bear on August 9, 1944. The poster campaign was a success and the Black Bear would later be named "Smokey Bear" who for decades was the "spokesbear" for the Forest Service. Smokey Bear has appeared on TV commercials, pleading to the public to help prevent forest fires. His popular catch phrase, "Only YOU can prevent forest fires", is one of the most widely recognized slogans in the United States; a recent study revealed that 95% of the people surveyed could complete the phrase when given the first few words. Unfortunately, in certain fire-adapted ecosystems the ensuing decades of fire suppression unintentionally caused a buildup of fuels that replaced the historically natural fire regime of slow-burning, relatively cool fires with fast-burning, relatively hot wildfires in the fire-adapted forest lands across the nation.

The U.S. Forest Service Law Enforcement & Investigations (LEI), headquartered in Washington, D.C., is a federel law enforcement agency of the United States government. Law Enforcement covers enforcement of federal laws and regulations governing National Forest Lands and resources. Special agents are primarily used for investigations. Patrols are done primarily by Uniformed Law Enforcement Officers (LEO), completely provided with firearms. The LEI also operates with K-9 and mounted police units.

ref: Wikipedia - United States Forest Service