U.S. Forest Service

COMMENTARY
U.S. Forest Service firefighters prepare to battle the Caldor Fire on Aug. 31, 2021, in Meyers, California. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

Wildland firefighter pay gains could go up in smoke

BY: - August 14, 2023

At any given moment during this smoky summer of 2023, hundreds of wildfires were blazing in the United States — more than 850 as of late July, according to the nonprofit Fire, Weather & Avalanche Center. Most of those wildfires ignited in the forests of the American West. Fires were also burning by the thousands […]

A portion of the Black Hills National Forest near Mystic. (Seth Tupper/South Dakota Searchlight)

USDA to use outdoors recreation to boost economy around national forests, grasslands

BY: - January 30, 2023

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Department of Agriculture began planning this month to develop outdoor recreation opportunities near national forests and grasslands, part of a broader Biden administration push to help communities reap economic rewards from the growing recreation sector. Three USDA agencies — the U.S. Forest Service, the National Institute of Food and Agriculture and […]

Pine trees in the Black Hills National Forest. (Seth Tupper/South Dakota Searchlight)

South Dakota, Wyoming governors call for re-do of Black Hills forest data

BY: - December 2, 2022

Gov. Kristi Noem has joined her counterpart in Wyoming to ask the U.S. Forest Service to redo forest condition reports that the governors call inadequate, as part of a long-running feud over current and future logging levels in the Black Hills. Noem and Wyoming Gov. Mark Gordon made the request in a letter to Forest […]