Everything about United States Forest Service totally explained
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 the head of the office. 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.
Gifford Pinchot was the first Chief Forester of the USFS.
Significant federal legislation affecting the Forest Service 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.
In March 2008, at the request of the House Appropriations subcommittee on interior, environment and related agencies, the
Government Accountability Office began an evaluation of whether it would make sense to move the Forest Service from USDA to the
U.S. Department of the Interior. The Interior Department now includes the
National Park Service, the
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and the
Bureau of Land Management, which in total manage of public land.
Activities
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.
Since 1978, several
Presidents have directed the USFS to administer
National Monuments inside of preexisting National Forests.
The Forest Service also manages
Grey Towers National Historic Site in
Milford, Pennsylvania, the home and estate of its first director,
Gifford Pinchot.
The U.S. Forest Service Law Enforcement & Investigations unit (LEI), headquartered in Washington, D.C., is a
federal law enforcement agency of the U.S. government. It is responsible for 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, all of whom carry
firearms. The LEI also has
K-9 and
mounted police units.
Controversies
The history of the Forest Service has been fraught with controversy, as various interests and national values have grappled with the appropriate management of the many resources within the forests. These values and resources include
grazing,
timber,
mining,
recreation, and wildlife habitat. Because of continuing development elsewhere, the large size of National Forests have made them de facto wildlife reserves for a number of rare and common species. In recent decades, the importance of mature forest for the
spotted owl and a number of other species led to great changes in timber harvest levels.
In August 1944, to reduce the number of
forest fires, the Forest Service and the
Wartime Advertising Council began distributing fire education posters featuring a
Black Bear. The poster campaign was a success; the Black Bear would later be named "
Smokey Bear", and would, for decades, be the "spokesbear" for the Forest Service. Smokey Bear has appeared in untold TV commercials; 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 found 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.
In the 1990s, the agency was involved in scandal when it illegally provided surplus military aircraft to private contractors for use as
airtankers. (See
U.S. Forest Service airtanker scandal.)
Another controversial issue is the policy on road building within the National Forests. In 1999 President Clinton ordered a temporary moratorium on new road construction in the National Forests to "assess their ecological, economic, and social values and to evaluate long-term options for their management."
(External Link
) Five and half years later the Bush administration replaced this with a system where each state could petition the Forest Service to open forests in their territory to road building.
Further Information
Get more info on 'United States Forest Service'.
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