Your National Forests- Summer/Fall 2010

Treasured Landscapes | Unforgettable Experiences

www.nationalforests.org SUMMER – FALL 2010

RETURNING SALMON TO OREGON’S RI ERS

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NURTURING LIFETIME LOVE OF CA PING WITH FAMILY ADVENTURE

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SUMMER OF 1910

CHANGES AMERICA

O F F I C I A L M AGA Z I N E O F T H E N AT I O N A L F O R E S T F O U N DAT I O N

Join the thousands of volunteers who play a part in helping to care for your National Forests everyday.

If you’re one of the millions who love to camp, hike, ski, hunt, fish, or paddle, we invite you to stay informed and get involved.

BE A FRIEND TO YOUR FORESTS

The Remington Outdoor Foundation and the National Forest Foundation.

Partners in conservation with a common goal.

For more than a hundred years, hunters have led the way in conserving America’s wild places and public lands. Today a new generation of conservationists continues that legacy. With access, awareness and education as its focus, Remington Outdoor Foundation has partnered with the National Forest Foundation

These forests belong to each of us. With use comes a responsibility to care for your National Forests. How will you exercise that responsibility? As a Friend of the Forest, we’ll show you how.

Become a Friend of the Forest at www.nationalforests.org.

to help conserve our valuable natural resources.

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INSIDE THIS EDITION

INSIDE THIS EDITION

4 Welcome

Raising our voices for conservation

DEPARTMENTS 5 Volunteer Perspective

Oregon community rallies

6 Forest News

Updates from our National Forests

8 Tree Spotlight

Black walnut tree

Photos by iStockPhoto.com / David Morgan and Mark Rose; fotolia.com / Vasik Olga

Photo by Vail Resorts / U.S. Forest Service

INTRODUCTIONS

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Unforgettable Experiences

Destination: Adventure

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10 Unforgettable

Experiences Family camping

Conservation

13 Field Reports

Returning Salmon to Oregon’s Rivers

National Forest Foundation partners in action

16 Sights Set on

Conservation

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Sporting clays event

20 Conservation Issues

Impacts of the “Big Burn�

Voices from the Forest

Campfire Tales and Conservation Lessons

25 Kids & Nature

Camping with kids

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31 Forest Perspectives

Thirty years later, Mount St. Helens

Featured Forest

Pike National Forest, Colorado

YOUR NATIONAL FORESTS

Business Development Jeff Olson 406-542-2805, x17

Editor-in-Chief Jennifer Schoonen

NATIONAL FOREST FOUNDATION

Official Magazine of the National Forest Foundation

Consulting Editor John Frandsen Contributors Lisa Dale, Kathleen Dowd-Gailey, John Frandsen, Karly Hedrick, Maret Pajutee, William J. Possiel, Kassia Randzio, Jennifer Schoonen, Dale Van Every Graphic Artist Jennifer Frandsen, Old Town Creative Communications, LLC

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Building 27, Suite 3, Fort Missoula Road Missoula, Montana 59804 406-542-2805

We welcome your letters and feedback, however, we cannot be held responsible for unsolicited manuscripts or materials. Š 2010 National Forest Foundation and Old Town Creative Communications, LLC. No unauthorized reproduction of this material is allowed.

ABOUT THE COVER PHOTO

Š Collection Mix Subjects / PunchStock Hiking through the Ice Lake Basin in the San Juan National Forest, Colorado

Your National Forests magazine is printed on recycled paper with 30% post-consumer content. This magazine’s FSC certification ensures the highest environmental and social standards have been followed in the wood sourcing, paper manufacturing and print production of this magazine.

To learn more log on to www.fsc.org.

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WELCOME

VOLUNTEER PERSPECTIVE

CONSERVATION

By Bill Possiel, NFF President

Under siege by plume hunters in the late 1800s, non-game species like the brown pelican were threatened by women’s fashion when a pound of feathers was more valuable than a pound of gold. Two concerned citizens, Frank Chapman and William Dutcher, led a campaign to pass legislation for protection of non-game species. Later they convinced President Theodore Roosevelt to create the first federal bird preserve in 1903. Chapman and Dutcher were voices of reason and action who made a difference that has stood the test of time.

Responding to the threats of their era, Chapman, Dutcher and Roosevelt could not have imagined human activity resulting in 1 million gallons of oil per day spewing into the Gulf of Mexico—compromising fish and wildlife habitat, as well as coastal communities and their economies. As I have watched the cleanup crews on the evening news, the image of an oil-soaked brown pelican struck a nerve. The New York Times responded similarly with a headline reading, “Pelicans, Back from the Brink of Extinction, Face Oil Threat.”

The human emotional response is always greatest to a catastrophic event like the Gulf oil disaster. Yet, we are seeing scientific evidence of dramatic changes taking place that deserve similar attention.

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William J. Possiel, President Mary Mitsos, Vice President Jeff Olson, Vice President

Photos courtesy of Sisters Area Chamber of Commerce

VOICES FOR

National Forest Foundation Building 27, Suite 3, Fort Missoula Road Missoula, Montana 59804 406-542-2805

Photo by iStockPhoto.com / Steve Byland

RAISING OUR

In a compressed timeframe, climate change, human settlement patterns, and increasing utilization of natural resources are having accelerating impacts on natural systems. Water quantity and temperature will be affected. Wildlife migration and habitats will change. And forests will be under increasing stress from fire, insects and pathogens. While there are many unknowns, we know from the response to recent environmental disasters that there are tens of thousands of citizens speaking out as today’s voices for reason and action.

In June, the National Forest Foundation and the Bolle Center for People and Forests at the University of Montana sponsored a symposium to foster a dialogue among conservation professionals around place-based approaches to landscapescale conservation and stewardship. The symposium attendees represented dozens of groups and communities and thousands of local stakeholders. Through our communitybased strategies, the NFF is proud to have supported nearly 400 nonprofits as they build partnerships with the Forest Service and communities to seek solutions to today’s stewardship challenges.

Just over 100 years ago, there were only a few voices sparking an extraordinary contribution to conservation. Today there are many voices. While our contributions are dispersed across the nation and around the world, the cumulative impact and continuity of purpose will help ensure that we are responding to current challenges and recognizing future changes. By coming together to design appropriate, place-based initiatives grounded in science, we can help counter the effects of the changes today to ensure a healthy environment that will stand the test of time.

NEW “VOLUNTEER BANK” HELPS

RALLY OREGON COMMUNITY

By Karly Hedrick

Board of Directors

Executive Committee Chairman, John Hendricks Founder and Chairman, Discovery Communications Inc. (MD) Vice Chairman, Craig R. Barrett CEO/Chairman of the Board, Intel Corporation (AZ), Retired

Vice Chairman, David Bell Creative Realities (NY)

Treasurer, Bradley K. Johnson CAO, CFO, Recreational Equipment Inc., Retired (WA)

Secretary, Timothy Proctor Schieffelin Source Capital Group (CT)

Committee Member, Peter Foreman Sirius LP (IL)

Tiki Barber, Chairman, Tiki Ventures LLC (NY); Coleman Burke, President, Waterfront Properties (NY); Robert Cole, Partner, Collins Cockrel & Cole, P.C. (CO); Bart Eberwein, Vice President, Hoffman Construction Co. (OR); Robert Feitler, Chairman of the Executive Committee, Weyco Group Inc. (IL); Scott Fossel, Jackson (WY); Lee Fromson, Vice President of Gear and Apparel, Recreational Equipment Inc. (WA); Robert Katz, CEO, Vail Resorts (CO); Thomas Tidwell, Ex-Officio, Chief, USDA Forest Service (DC); Jeff Paro, CEO, InterMedia Outdoors (NY); Susan Schnabel, Managing Director, Credit-Suisse (CA); Chad Weiss, Managing Director, JOG Capital Inc. (WY); James C. Yardley, President, El Paso Pipeline Group (TX) The official magazine of the National Forest Foundation, Your National Forests magazine, is published twice yearly by Old Town Creative Communications LLC and the National Forest Foundation. Copyright © 2010 Your National Forests Magazine, Old Town Creative Communications LLC and National Forest Foundation. All rights reserved.

Reproduction in whole or in part without written permission is prohibited.

As a child my family would make the 30-minute drive to Sisters, Ore., a few times each year. I’d watch as the landscape transformed from the low-lying clusters of twisted juniper east of Bend to the towering forests of ponderosas with their puzzle-piece bark in Sisters...

I’d look into the Metolius River for trout near the Camp Sherman Store or scuttle across the dry bed of Whychus Creek by Creekside Park. I knew then that Sisters has a way of charming people with its mountain views, old-western storefronts, clear rivers, and arts and culture. Now, returning as an AmeriCorps member working for the National Forest Foundation and the Sisters Area Chamber of Commerce, I’ve discovered the driving force behind Sisters’ success: a strong sense of community pride and an incredible amount of citizen involvement.

When the NFF designated “The Tale of Two Rivers—Metolius & Whychus” in the Deschutes National Forest as one of their Treasured Landscapes conservation campaign sites, they joined a community-wide effort in Sisters to restore Whychus Creek and revitalize the Metolius River. Everyone in town is buzzing about the salmon and steelhead returning to Whychus Creek. We passed around pictures of the first fry making its way to sea on the new fish passage system as if it

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Please recycle or pass on to a friend.

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Downtown Sisters, Ore.

were our grandchild leaving for college. And we aren’t just passionate about fish—we are passionate about restoring our environment and community, and working together to make Sisters an even better place to live.

As the Sisters Volunteer Bank coordinator, my job is to build on these community strengths and passions to establish the Sisters Volunteer Bank, a new volunteer center serving Sisters. The Sisters Volunteer Bank connects people with meaningful volunteer opportunities that make positive changes for the community. In return, volunteers are able to grow, learn new skills, meet people, and make a difference. It is through volunteerism that the Sisters Volunteer Bank hopes to create a more cohesive society striving toward the restoration of our public lands and the enhancement of our community spirit.

The Sisters Volunteer Bank was created through a ground-breaking partnership between the Sisters Area Chamber of Commerce and the NFF. This collaboration provides a base for connecting the community and business sector of Sisters with environmental conservation efforts in the area. The stunning landscape of Sisters draws thousands of recreationists and nature-lovers to Sisters-area businesses each year, and the Sisters Volunteer Bank partners with the NFF to offer unique opportunities for businesses to give back to the lands that support them.

Businesses can participate in the corporate volunteering program, offering employees the chance to volunteer at a Friends of the Forest® Day, or they can sponsor exciting NFF events in the area such as The Ride for Two Riverswww.nationalforests.org

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Metolius River Left: Cascade Range framing Sisters, Ore.

Metolius & Whychus, a 50-mile cycling tour just outside of Sisters that directly supports on-the-ground restoration.

The Sisters Volunteer Bank will also work with hoteliers to develop volun-tourism in the area. Volun-tourism is a growing form of tourism where visitors engage in supporting the well-being of their destination. Visitors might spend a week enjoying the scenic beauty of Sisters and the recreational opportunities it offers, and then give back by volunteering with local nonprofits like the Deschutes Land Trust or Sisters Habitat for Humanity. This will give visitors the chance to connect with locals and get a different perspective of Sisters.

The Sisters Volunteer Bank will work with the NFF to further unite the strong arts and culture community of Sisters to local environmental efforts. Through events like the Plein-Air “Paint Out” at the Head of the Metolius in July, artists can offer their unique points of view and raise awareness of the need to care for our public lands. The “Paint Out” is an art competition that will invite artists to capture the iconic beauty of the Metolius River. The winning painting will be used to promote the Friends of the Forest® Day on National Public Lands Day on September 25, where volunteers will enjoy hands-on conservation projects that benefit the Metolius and Whychus watersheds.

In highlighting the unique volunteer opportunities that Sisters-area nonprofits offer, the Sisters Volunteer Bank will join the larger collaborative effort to take care of the public lands that are the backyard of Sisters.

In giving back to the local environment, we are strengthening our local economy and sense of community. I am proud to return to Sisters and do my part for the community that has given me so many fond childhood memories.

Each day the volunteers and collaborators that join me will write and tell “The Tale of Two Rivers” and it’s a story that is sure to have a happy ending.

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FOREST NEWS

Pacific Northwest forests rank tops at

storing carbon

President launches America’s

Great Outdoors Initiative This spring, President Barack Obama signed a Presidential Memorandum to establish the America’s Great Outdoors Initiative to promote and support innovative, community-level efforts to conserve outdoor spaces and to reconnect Americans to the outdoors.

On April 16, the President’s announcement brought together dozens of leaders representing recreation, farming, forestry, academia, conservation, local parks and more. The secretaries of Interior and of Agriculture, the administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, and the chair of the Council on Environmental Quality will lead the initiative. As outlined by the Presidential Memorandum, their goal

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will be to further conservation successes led by communities nationwide and promote increased community engagement in outdoor recreation and stewardship— particularly among youth.

“President Obama’s America’s Great Outdoors Initiative will play an important role in confronting the serious challenges our natural resources face today: climate change, air and water pollution, landscape fragmentation and loss of open space,” said Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack. “This effort will bring Americans from across the country together to look for new approaches to protect our national treasures.”

To learn more, visit doi.gov/

americasgreatoutdoors

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The lush, wet forests of Washington and Oregon work harder than any others when it comes to absorbing the most carbon dioxide per acre. A recent study of U.S. Forest Service data conducted by a senior resource analyst with The Wilderness Society found that the Northwest’s large stands of big, old-growth trees absorb more than 1-1/2 times as much carbon as the entire amount of carbon dioxide burned in fossil fuels throughout the country each year.

“Looking across the whole country, these Pacific Northwest forests are storing about twice as much as your average acre of forest land across the United States,” said study author Mike Anderson.

During photosynthesis, trees take in and convert carbon dioxide and water into sugar and oxygen. In doing so, they become a valuable depository for greenhouse gases that can contribute to climate change.

Oregon’s Willamette National Forest ranked number one in carbon absorption among a top 10 that also included: Washington’s Olympic, Gifford Pinchot, and Mt. Baker-Snoqualmie; Oregon’s Umpqua, Siuslaw, Mt. Hood, Siskiyou and Rogue River; and Alaska’s Tongass.

To read the study, download the PDF here wilderness.org/files/Top-Tencarbon-forests-analysis.pdf

Photos by iStockPhoto.com / Mark Rose and Judy Barranco; Marcus Alexander

Mt. Jefferson, Willamette National Forest

Photos by iStockPhoto.com / Danny Warren and ‘step2626’

Mt. Adams and Goat Rocks Wilderness, Gifford Pinchot National Forest

FOREST NEWS Forest Service retains senior discount After significant feedback and public comment, the Forest Service chose not to implement changes to the fees charged certain pass holders at Forest Service campgrounds and concessionaires. The decision means that seniors and those with disabilities will continue to receive 50 percent discounts at concession-operated campgrounds when they show their Golden Age or Golden Access Passports or Interagency Senior and Access Passes.

To enjoy both the discounts and the respite to be found in America’s public lands, purchase your public lands passes online www.nps.gov/fees_passes.htm at for your America the Beautiful Pass or store.usgs.gov/pass/index.html for the Interagency Pass.

Forest Legacy Program protects land in 33 states Recent grants through the Forest Legacy Program (FLP) will permanently protect private forestland in 33 states and U.S. territories—helping the program reach a total of more than 2 million acres protected.

The Forest Legacy Program works directly with states to protect privately owned forests from conversion to housing development or other uses that would threaten the conservation, management and restoration of America’s forests.

The program promotes voluntary land conservation through the principle of “willing buyer, willing seller.” Lands are protected through conservation easements or through acquisition by the states.

The competitive process to award FLP grants evaluates ecologically and socially significant projects facing the greatest threats. Projects that protect air and water quality, provide recreational opportunities, protect wildlife habitat, and provide natural resource-based jobs receive strong consideration.

The high-priority projects funded this year include protection of the San Pedro River ecosystem in Arizona, expansion of the Katahdin Forest in Maine, and protection of the McArthur Lake wildlife corridor in Idaho.

To learn more, visit www.fs.fed.us/ spf/coop/programs/loa/flp.shtml

Forest Service promotes youth activity through “More Kids in the Woods”

In late April, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack announced a Forest Service contribution of $500,000 toward the 2010 “More Kids in the Woods” program for projects that promote active lifestyles and connect kids to nature.

The contribution will be leveraged by $1.5 million in donations and in-kind services from partner organizations that contribute additional time, energy and resources toward revitalizing the relationship between youth and the outdoors.

The Forest Service selected 21 projects for funding this spring, all of which will encourage environmental stewardship and nature-based learning through handson activity. Project activities include summer camps, after-school programs and wilderness expeditions, and will ultimately serve more than 15,000 kids throughout the nation, including under-served and urban youth.

The innovative programs receiving funding this year include: Bronx River On-Water Education Program, where students use boats built

by their peers to implement environmental restoration projects on the Bronx River in New York; Science at the Station in Arizona’s Coronado National Forest, where a rejuvenated outdoor learning center will expose local children to diverse outdoor experiences; and, Kids Take Flight Program in Colorado, offering 500 kids hands-on wildlife experiences with songbirds, owls and more.

Katahdin Forest, Maine

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TREE SPOTLIGHT

TREE SPOTLIGHT

TREE OF MANY VALUES

Leaves of the black walnut

Guns, exfoliate, and ice cream. What do all these seemingly disparate things have in common? They’re all made from black walnut, a majestic shade tree that was once a ubiquitous species throughout the eastern and midwestern United States. After almost 400 years of harvest for its valuable timber, black walnut trees are increasingly scarce, but every bit as beautiful as when colonists first laid eyes on them.

From Massachusetts to Florida and across the Midwest, black walnuts can be found in mixed-hardwood forests and open meadows. Growing to a height of 90 feet and 2 or 3 feet in diameter, the trees have dark brown bark, broken into rough networks of furrows and ridges. The leaves grow on a foot-long stem with 15 or more slender, tapered leaflets. From April to June, catkins—long, narrow cylindrical flower clusters—welcome spring, pollinating one another on the breeze. The deep green leaves provide shade throughout the summer. In autumn, the leaves turn golden yellow and the fruit—2-inch green globes containing walnuts—falls from the tree, ready for squirrels or humans to collect the sweet nuts inside.

Walnuts ready for processing

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Black walnuts’ ideal growing conditions are rich bottomlands and fertile hillsides with plenty of sunshine, places where their roots absorb abundant nutrients and their branches create a towering canopy.

However, not surprisingly, nutrient-rich bottomlands and sunshine are also ideal areas for agriculture, places where early pioneers cleared the trees to make way for farmland. Although many pioneers leveled forests to create fields, the same pioneers also appreciated the walnut’s shady crown, planting the trees near houses and in pastures. Today, some of the oldest black walnuts are found in re-emerging woods near long-abandoned homes or historic pastures.

In pre-colonial times, the walnut would sometimes reach towering heights of 150 feet with an impressive diameter of up to 8 feet. The slow-growing trees, finding their way amidst established forests, were often clear of branches for the first 50 feet and developed a tight grain and dark pith, resulting in strong, rot-resistant, deep-

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brown wood. These qualities made the black walnut valuable for timber. The thenabundant wood was exported to England as early as 1610.

Although today the walnut is prized for its beautiful grain and dark hue, early colonists were more likely to paint the wood’s surface than to accentuate its natural beauty. And, being ubiquitous, the wood was used for things as mundane as split-rail fences and railroad ties. The wood’s strength and its ability to absorb vibrations made it a perfect medium for the best gunstocks, perhaps its highest use of the time.

As machine-made furniture became fashionable in the mid-1800s, walnut was increasingly sought after, making the trees ever scarcer across the landscape. By the 1960s, entrepreneurial lumbermen could be found going door-to-door throughout the countryside, seeking permission from

Photos by iStockPhoto.com / Frank van den Bergh and Majoros Laszlo

By Kassia Randzio

Photos by iStockPhoto.com / Nick Schlax, Dean Bergmann, and David Gomez; Bugwood.org / Robert Vidéki, Doronicum Kft.

BLACK WALNUT PRIZED AS A

Ripe walnuts popping out of the shell

private landowners to cut the grand shade trees. At the time, a single old black walnut tree could be valued at $20,000. With that price tag, the crime of “tree stealing” emerged and continues to this day. Thieves sneak out to parks, private lands and elsewhere to chop down the larger, more desirable walnut trees, then sell the timber.

Though best known for its use in fine furniture, the walnut is also famous as a

favorite flavoring in sweet ice creams and savory dinners. Black walnuts can be found on supermarket shelves throughout the country, but it’s never an easy trip from forest to market. Across the Appalachian Mountains and the Midwest, when the air gets crisp and the leaves turn golden yellow, families head to the forests with buckets and bags to collect the fallen fruits.

With patience and brute force, the thick outer hull is removed from the inner seed, a process so difficult that some experts recommend driving over the fruits to crack the hefty shells. Alternatively, throughout the Midwest, gatherers can bring their harvests to one of several collection stations, where middlemen pay 10 to 13 cents a pound, then professionally husk the nuts and deliver the raw walnuts to large distribution centers.

Lesser known but equally important, the walnut shells have uses of their own.

American Indians used the shells and bark medicinally, and the ingredients are still found in homeopathic remedies. If left to rot, the husk develops a dark color that can leave permanent stains, a natural item used

Catkins form in the spring.

in traditional dyes. More commonly, the dried shells are ground for use in household and industrial products. The abrasive grit is used in everything from jet engine cleaners to dental and cosmetic products, and provides texture for plaster-effect paints.

The black walnut is an important piece of American heritage in many ways. The tree typically conjures images of cooling shade, fine furniture, or savory nuts, but considering the black walnut’s storied past and diverse uses, you may also thank the majestic tree next time you wash your face or paint your walls.

Provide a Meaningful Tribute,

that leaves a lasting legacy.

Many of our lives are enriched by time spent savoring our National Forests.

Through memorial or honoraria gifts, the National Forest Foundation offers a wonderful way to commemorate those experiences in memory of a loved one or in honor of a special occasion.

The National Forest Foundation puts your tribute gifts to work caring for the waters, wildlife habitats and wild places treasured by your loved ones— perpetuating a legacy to be enjoyed long into the future.

The NFF will notify the designated person(s) you specify regarding your gift on behalf of their loved one or special occasion. Tribute gifts and the honoree or special occasion will be recognized in our annual report.

May my life be like a great hospitable tree, and may weary wanderers find in me a rest. ~ John Henry Jowett

To learn more or to establish a tribute gift, please contact:

Deborah Snyder: 406-542-2805 ext. 19 • dsnyder@nationalforests.org • www.nationalforests.org

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UNFORGETTABLE EXPERIENCES

UNFORGETTABLE EXPERIENCES

in their “bedroom”

KOA Kampground in Springerville, Ariz.

FROM MOTORHOME TO WALL TENT A FAMILY ADVENTURE NURTURES A LIFETIME LOVE OF CAMPING

By Jennifer Schoonen In kindergarten, we were asked to draw pictures of our homes. My little crayon work of art included a steering wheel and four tires—a masterpiece that, to this day, still embarrasses my poor mother who had to explain my truly “mobile” home to the teacher.

In 1973, with two toddlers in tow, my parents temporarily lost their sanity and made a much out-of-character decision.

They departed the family business, sold our home, packed all of our belongings into storage, said goodbye to the state where they’d lived all of their lives (New Jersey), and loaded us into a mini-motorhome.

Like modern-day pioneers, we headed west across Canada and the United States, ready to start anew.

Our travels took us up through New York state, around the Great Lakes on the Canadian side, and back down through Minnesota, South Dakota and Wyoming.

We took a break from the road in Billings,

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Mont., where my dad went to “KOA (Kampgrounds of America) College.”

Seems my parents had decided that not only was camping a family gig, but also destined to be their livelihood. According to my mom, “Somewhere along the line, we came up with the idea that owning a campground would be a great family business.” This despite the fact that, up until this little adventure, “We had never camped before … ever.”

So, his campground education under his belt, my dad took the wheel of the motorhome once more and steered us toward Arizona. Setting up a new home, business and life in a different state is never easy, but when you have never even visited that state, it can lead to some misguided decision making. For all their courage in making this trek across the nation, my parents initially landed in one of the saddest little desert outposts of Arizona—Gila Bend. Their dreams of building a new KOA campground in Gila Bend disintegrated and blew away with the desert sand after a

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few months of living in and getting to know the struggling small town.

Having gotten so far, they didn’t give up easily and soon purchased a KOA campground in the White Mountains of eastern Arizona. Though no longer living in a camper, my sister and I savored tidbits of the campground life. We freely roamed the grassy, back reaches of the campground, tracked the occasional wildlife visitor, and joined sing-alongs around a blazing campfire with a local musician and campground guests.

But the fun of being campers and the reality of caring for a campground are two very different things. And it wasn’t long before the day-to-day battles with cleaning and repairing bathrooms, chasing rattlesnakes out of the tent sites, and answering the registration desk bell 24-7 proved to be too all-consuming. My parents reverted back to office jobs again and we settled into a three-bedroom home outside of town.

With camping now spliced into our

Photos by iStockPhoto.com / Mike Norton and Sascha Burkard; Wikimedia Commons; Flickr.com / ‘richdrogpa’

Photos by Jane McConnell

ter (left) Jennifer and her sis

genes and living in a small community where outdoor recreation was a way of life (and frankly there weren’t too many other options for weekend fun), my sister and I grew up with a blessed connection to the outdoors. Surrounded by the ApacheSitgreaves National Forest and lands that Aldo Leopold once roamed as a forest ranger, the sister towns of Springerville and Eagar offered us spectacular mountain scenery, abundant wildlife, and a rich classroom for learning to love and enjoy the outdoors.

And so inspired, by my early 20s I was stocking up on backpacking gear at the local REI and investigating a more minimalist style of camping. One lifechanging trek cemented my relationship with the outdoors and showed me that my camping and other outdoor experiences would ultimately be the headwaters from which sprung self-sufficiency, confidence and perseverance throughout my life.

I signed up to join a group of college students spending three weeks backpacking through the southern Sierras of California—traversing our way across much of Yosemite National Park and the Inyo National Forest. Along the way, we were studying the literature of the region written by conservationists, explorers, American Indians and others. Reading and journaling as we went from one camp to the next exposed the heart and soul of this tremendous landscape to us, while we came to realize the land’s strength and force through the physical demands of the trip.

We faced most of the challenges one can

Apache National Forest

imagine on an extended backpacking trip.

Black bears were abundant—and sadly not only unafraid of people, but also accustomed to seeking out food in campgrounds. So, while still camped in a lower-elevation campground packed with tourists, the pleasure of a night under the stars sans tents quickly faded to something between frustration and fear as bears wandered right past our feet snuffing around for food.

With a few ill-equipped and inexperienced people among our group, our progress was often slowed by blistery, sore feet—including a detour to the hospital for one young woman. And our final excursion—a 12-mile journey into an alpine lake was marred by the discovery that the group members responsible for packing camp stove fuel had forgotten to do so. An unforgiving guide sent the two on a 24-mile round-trip march back to the vehicle to retrieve the fuel. While we relieved weary muscles in the heart-stopping chill of the sapphire lake water, those two learned a tough and arduous lesson about checking and rechecking your supplies before heading off into the wilderness.

A whole new world of camping opened up to me with a move to Montana. For a time, I traded the backpack for a pack mule and connected with camping traditions dating back to the times of early explorers and settlers. A 12’x12’ wall tent heated by a blackened barrel wood stove feels like a palace in the backcountry. And by horse and mule you can certainly transport that palace deep into the wilderness. But the animals themselves bring unpredictability

Lolo National Forest

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Moose

into the adventure. Backcountry travel and camping with pack animals certainly keeps you on your toes—after all, you are depending on an animal with a mind of its own to get you and your things in and out of the hills in one piece.

On one glowing Indian summer day in October, I had ridden my horse out ahead of my fellow rider and the packstring—on our way to set up hunting camp. Completely absorbed in the warmth of the autumn sun, I nearly toppled out of the saddle when the rhythm of the horse’s footfalls came to an abrupt halt as we rounded a bend in the trail. My horse and a rather belligerent cow moose stood snorting face to face—neither one sure whether to back down first. With a few hops backward, my ride finally made the first move, and much to my relief, that moose was satisfied she had made her point and went on her way.

So many of my camping experiences are

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UNFORGETTABLE EXPERIENCES

memorable because of the unexpected.

In my family, we say it’s not camping if something doesn’t go haywire. And although camping out of a backpack presents physical challenges and involving pack animals may put you at the mercy of a stubborn mule, there is a whole new level of preparedness necessary when kids enter the picture.

Today, life has brought me full circle from those early motorhome days. I have two amazing girls—ages 13 and 3—who, thank goodness, love the outdoors like I do.

They are bold and confident when it comes to spending time in the woods and I know it will serve them well throughout life.

With the birth of my youngest, we invested in a pop-up tent camper. For this stage of life, it offers the best of both worlds—a feeling still of sleeping in the open air—but a welcome refuge to escape a sudden thunderstorm or to clean up a skinned knee.

Our earliest trips in the pop-up took place in southwest Missouri, when my youngest was an infant. A weekend outing to Roaring River State Park proved that, even in the craziest of camping experiences, silver linings shine through. When our new camper’s heater quit on the coldest night of the year, we all just snuggled closer together. When my oldest daughter found a scorpion in a corner of the vault toilet shack, we marveled at the fact that the Ozarks even had scorpions (okay, it did take some convincing to get her to use the bathroom after that), and when the wind and rain threatened to turn our little pop-

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up inside out, we found the next morning’s break in the weather and our hike up through the tangled, dripping forest was a glorious experience.

Beyond the pure enjoyment of nature that comes with camping, the experiences inspire us to relate differently as a family.

Distanced from work and school and home repairs, we chat and tell stories, we play games, we enjoy preparing a meal together.

The discovery of a spider on the camper wall becomes a learning opportunity rather than a freak-out moment because there’s a bug in the house.

Not many people look back to first memories of living in a camper. And as

Camping by pop up

Brookelynn

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Photos by Bugwood.org / Chris Evans (River to River CWMA) and Graves Lovell (AL Dept. of Resources); iStockPhoto.com / Ben Blankenburg

A backpacker’s lodging

a parent today, I can’t fathom the leap of faith my own parents took in leaving behind a secure, middle-class family life to explore the United States and Canada. But these are the roots that sprouted into my personal love for America’s wild places. This is the inspiration for relishing camping and hiking and fishing with my own children as often as possible.

Unwittingly, my parents presented a lifelong gift I appreciate more than any other—the innermost lure to spend a weekend simply—savoring the sound of a nearby stream, tasting meals roasted over an open flame, scavenging through the woods in search of little treasures.

And the simple pleasures of camping … well, no one expresses them better than a 3-year-old. “What I like about camping is cooking marshmallows,” says my little Brookelynn. “I like to sleep outside and see the shooting stars because it’s so much fun!”

Photos by Jennifer Schoonen; flickr.com / Katie Brady; and iStockPhoto.com / fotoVoyager

Family in the Ozarks

FIELD REPORTS

BATTLING AQUATIC WEEDS IN MICHIGAN Imagine a wilderness area. You may think of snow-covered peaks, alpine meadows, and deep forests. Planning a visit may find you packing sturdy boots, a backpack, or a tent… but how about a canoe? The aptly-named Big Island Lake Wilderness in Michigan’s Hiawatha National Forest is one backcountry destination to which you may want to bring your boat. The 5,856-acre wilderness includes 23 lakes ranging in size from 5 to 149 acres joined by short portages, making it an excellent destination for canoeists. However, this watery wilderness has unique management challenges.

In recent years, Michigan lakes have become home to Eurasian milfoil, an exotic aquatic weed from northern Europe and Asia that has the capability to reproduce from fragments and spread rapidly. Pieces of the plant are known to stick to the bottom of boats and get stuck in motors, hitchhiking from one lake to the next and invading freshwater lakes across the country. Once established, the invasive

species shades native aquatic vegetation and negatively affects fish and wildlife habitat, altering the native ecosystem.

To date, Big Island Lake Wilderness doesn’t have any known milfoil populations, and the Superior Watershed Partnership, with a grant from the National Forest Foundation, is helping to keep it that way.

This summer, the Superior Watershed

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Close-up of the Eurasion milfoil—shown above spreading in the water

Partnership will work to eliminate Eurasian milfoil from nearby lakes, increase public awareness of the invasive species, and build a database of invasive species information within the Big Island Lake Wilderness, all in hopes of keeping the wilderness wild and milfoil-free.

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FIELD REPORTS

FIELD REPORTS

Working together for wildlife in the Ozarks The Ozark Mountains, with their high plateaus, rugged mountains, and hardwood forests, are one of America’s most treasured landscapes. As part of the Treasured Landscapes conservation campaign, the National Forest Foundation is working with the Forest Service and partner organizations to create healthier wildlife and fish habitat, restore intact ecosystems that benefit natural communities, and enhance outdoor recreation opportunities.

Elk in the Ozark Mountains

This spring, the NFF organized a conference to help develop a strategy for wildlife habitat and watershed restoration in Arkansas’ Ozark National Forest and guide the investment of $500,000 over four years.

During a two-day workshop, more than 20 representatives from a variety of conservation groups and agencies offered presentations on their current restoration work and outlined their goals for the landscape. The participants collectively decided on the restoration priorities for the area.

For 2010-2011, work will focus on the 320,000-acre Bearcat Hollow integrated restoration project, with additional projects added in coming years. Through forest thinning and planting of native forage, the Bearcat Hollow project will effectively double the high-quality habitat available for Arkansas’ elk population and improve habitat for many other species native to the area.

ABOVE: The NFF and partners are working to improve wildlife habitat amidst the forests and rocky bluffs of the Arkansas Ozarks.

RIGHT: The Upper Deschutes River Coalition works with Oregon communities to reduce wildfire fuels and risks to private property.

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In facilitating and supporting forest stewardship, the National Forest Foundation offers a combination of funding, capacity-building support and technical assistance to help local community-based conservation organizations grow and sustain their efforts.

One beneficiary of this well-rounded package of assistance is the Upper Deschutes River Coalition (UDRC) in central Oregon. The UDRC works to restore and sustain healthy, fire-resistant forests in communities of the Upper Deschutes River watershed. Since its creation in 2003, the UDRC has engaged its 21-neighborhood collective in teaming with local partners on natural resource issues in their watershed. For example, the UDRC works cooperatively with the local Forest Service to reduce wildfire risk on federal lands that surround their neighborhoods.

The UDRC has grown and developed through the continuum of support offered by the NFF. The NFF’s Western Collaboration Assistance Network (WestCAN) program provided a strategic planning facilitator that assisted the UDRC in the development of their operational plans. Most recently, the UDRC received a grant through the NFF’s Forest Stewardship Fund, a program that is supported by guest contributions at lodges operating in or near National Forests.

Through this grant, implementation of onthe-ground work to restore fish and wildlife habitat along the Upper Deschutes River is underway.

“We value our relationship with the NFF, whose educational programs have helped us move the organization to a higher level of performance,” said Jerry Hubbard, UDRC executive director.

Photo by Forest Roundtable

wildfire risk in Oregon

Photos by Adam Liljeblad; iStockPhoto.com / Clint Spencer; Upper Deschutes River Coalition

Reducing community

The next time you set foot on a hiking trail or enjoy a secluded camping spot in a National Forest, you can most likely thank one of the National Forest Foundation’s many partners for their hard work.

By engaging in collaborative partnerships, providing grants to local organizations and encouraging community participation in on-the-ground conservation projects, the National Forest Foundation (NFF) helps the Forest Service meet complex challenges to forest health. Here are just a few examples of how the NFF and its partners make a difference in National Forests throughout the country.

Forest fragmentation in Vermont threatens wildlife habitat.

Tackling forest fragmentation in Vermont With the rising scale of challenges to our natural resources, “collaborative conservation” has become a popular and effective strategy. This phrase isn’t anything new for the National Forest Foundation, which has long focused on using collaborative, community-based strategies to solve complex National Forest stewardship challenges. Each year, many nonprofit groups apply to the NFF for funding to carry out collaborative work, with most of them located in the West. But a recent wave of applications from groups cropping up in the East demonstrates that collaboration isn’t a tool reserved for sprawling western forests, but one that

promises to make a difference across the country.

In Vermont, the Forest Roundtable is bringing together diverse stakeholders to address issues of forest fragmentation in the Mad River Valley. In and around the Green Mountain National Forest, the valley includes iconic places like Camel’s Hump and the Northfield Mountain Range, natural features that attract new residents and, with them, new subdivisions. This growth threatens critical wildlife habitat linkages and ecological resources.

In the past, each town has addressed these challenges individually, but landscape-scale challenges deserve landscape-scale solutions,

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which is where the Forest Roundtable comes into play. Supported by the National Forest Foundation, the group of representatives from the U.S. Forest Service, State of Vermont, and over 60 stakeholders meets Forest fragmentation in Vermontrefine threatens regularly to share information, work wildlife habitat. plans, and engage in strategic discussion.

With the information gathered, the group will convene annual summits to design a coordinated approach to conservation and development. Through this open, collaborative process, the Roundtable will develop a plan to promote growth in strategic locations, while minimizing forest and habitat fragmentation, a win-win solution to a complex problem.

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SIGHTS SET ON

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DENVER’S PLAYGROUND

NSERVATION

At 4 p.m. on Sunday, June 9, 2002, Carol Ekarius walked out of her home in tiny Hartsel, Colo. She smelled smoke and hiked up to the top of the ridge behind her home for a better look. The winds were whipping around her, and the view from the ridge was nothing short of shocking: “It was a mushroom cloud,” she recalls. The Hayman Fire, ultimately the largest wildfire in Colorado history at 138,000 acres, had begun burning in the Pike National Forest.

On May 7 and 8, many generous sponsors and friends of the National Forest Foundation gathered for a special two-day fundraiser. In Bedford Hills, N.Y., the GlenArbor Golf Club hosted a reception and live auction event on Friday evening, followed by the annual sporting clays team competition at the Pawling Mountain Club in Pawling, N.Y., on Saturday. This event is a vital fundraiser for the NFF’s conservation mission and we are deeply grateful for the participation and generosity of all.

TITLE SPONSOR EVENT SPONSORS Craig & Barbara Barrett Betteridge Jewelers John & Maureen Hendricks InterMedia Outdoors Paul & Sonia Jones Tiki Ventures Verizon Business

STATION SPONSORS

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Photos by iStockPhoto.com / amygdala_imagery, Duncan Walker

NFF Board of Directors Ralph Bailey GyroHSR Steve Schram and the Turks & Caicos Sporting Club The Gregory Family Spencer & Tomoko Haber Timothy & Susan Schieffelin Outdoor Channel Waterfront NY Peter and Siri Burki

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View from the Rampart Range, Pikes Peak

The Lure of Minerals and Mountains

Our special thanks go out to the following sponsors:

YOUR NATIONAL FORESTS

By Lisa Dale

PIKE NATIONAL FOREST

National Forest Foundation 16th annual sporting clays invitational may 7–8, 2010

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Rises from the Ashes

Zebulon M. Pike first explored this uncharted land when it was newly added to the United States as part of the Louisiana Purchase in 1806. After trying and failing to summit what would later become his namesake mountain, he declared it unclimbable. He was soon proven wrong, and, by the end of the 19th century, a horse-drawn carriage track reached the summit and the Pikes Peak Cog Railroad was in place. A localized gold rush created the moniker “bowl of gold” for the western slopes of the Cripple Creek area and contributed to the rush to settle the region.

The Pike National Forest now contains just over a million acres of mid- and highelevation forest in the absolute center of the state of Colorado. Sprawling from pinion–juniper forests along the foothills to lodgepole pine forests to high alpine tundra, the Pike hosts some of the most spectacular public land in the country and, indeed, the world. The forest sits atop a massive geologic formation of granite called the Pikes Peak batholith, a remnant of volcanic activity over a billion years ago.

The pinkish granite is visible in formations throughout the forest. These striking natural oddities, combined with the forest’s location along the heavily populated metropolitan corridor between Denver and Colorado Springs, have rendered the Pike National Forest an exceedingly popular oasis for urban warriors.

Administratively managed in conjunction with the neighboring San Isabel National Forest, the unit hosts nearly 5 million

visitors each year, making it one of the country’s most heavily recreated National Forests. Visitors come to fish the gold medal South Platte and Arkansas rivers.

They hike, bike, or travel by motorized vehicle along 1,750 miles of trails found in the Pike-San Isabel. They come to lose themselves in the two wilderness areas— the Mount Evans and Lost Creek—which together comprise over 140,000 acres.

They view or hunt abundant wildlife such as elk, mule deer, bighorn sheep, black bear, Canada geese and mountain lion. They stay at dozens of campgrounds that offer both accessible and remote locations for weary visitors to spend the night.

The ultimate goal for many is to climb the seven “fourteeners” found in the Pike—among the 56 peaks in Colorado

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that exceed 14,000 feet and are powerful draws for climbers, mountaineers, and amateurs alike—including iconic Pikes Peak. “America the Beautiful” was inspired in part by the view of that mountain, and the “purple mountain majesty” is said to be a reincarnation of its striking ridgeline.

Now, the 19-mile Pikes Peak Highway, paved for part of the way, and a cog railroad make the summit attainable for all visitors.

Every year this road is occasionally closed for adventure racers who challenge the power of Pikes Peak by foot, bicycle, or ski.

The Rampart Range, on the east side of the forest, harbors a mesmerizing 400-acre reservoir and offers two large campgrounds for visitors. Trails in that area include both motorized and non-motorized recreation opportunities, and horseback riders also

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The Many Challenges of Stewardship

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Colorado is fighting back. The Southern Rockies Conservation Alliance argues that damage to wildlife habitat, and sensitive areas such as owl research zones, as well as substantial trail erosion make the current level of motorized use unsustainable. Currently, forest managers have proposed a total ban on motorized traffic on 14 miles of roads in highly-impacted areas, and the idea is working its way through the public process.

Such management challenges facing the Pike mirror those faced by land managers across the West: too much work to do on the land and not enough product of value to pay for it. Fire risk reduction and ecosystem health projects usually mean biomass removal, but contractors have long struggled to bid on logging projects when the small-diameter timber they will remove doesn’t have reliable local markets. One innovative solution to this problem is being tested on the Pike: in partnership with the neighboring Arapaho-Roosevelt National Forests, plus the Cimarron, Comanche, and

THE HAYMAN RESTORATION PARTNERSHIP

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Photos courtesy of U.S. Forest Service and Vail Resorts

The geologic and natural treasures of the Pike were under siege that week in June 2002. Fueled by high winds, low humidity levels, and topography that allowed the fire to spread incredibly quickly, the Hayman Fire became a test case for fire scientists. The fire compromised water supply for millions of Front Range residents, destroyed 132 homes, and severely affected recreational opportunities as well as habitat for fish and wildlife. The forest’s highly erodible decomposed granite soils were especially susceptible to the heat from the flames and have posed some of the trickiest long-term recovery challenges.

But there is good news, too. The Hayman Fire burned in terrain that has a long history of fire dependence. After extensive analysis, Forest Service scientists concluded that many of the ecosystems in the Pike National Forest, including aspen, cottonwood, shrubs and grasses, were likely to regenerate without any help from managers. Especially in places where the fire intensity was low, researchers expected a quick recovery; even in areas that burned with higher intensity—within the ponderosa pine and Douglas-fir forest types, for example—natural recovery was expected albeit over many decades. Still, rapid and

intensive rehabilitation efforts were needed for soils and water systems. Mulching and seeding to reduce sedimentation were priorities for the Burned Area Emergency Response (BAER) teams.

Strong community partnerships, established well before the Hayman Fire, have contributed to the recovery. The Coalition for the Upper South Platte (CUSP) is an especially high-profile local nonprofit that seeks to enhance the watershed for drinking water, fisheries, recreation opportunities and wildlife habitat. The group, led by Carol Ekarius, has worked since 1998 with the Forest Service as volunteers, mapping experts, and liaisons for neighboring communities.

Many of the problems that CUSP so ably tackles can be traced to the fact that the Pike/San Isabel is located within an hour’s drive for millions of metropolitan residents.

Whether they come for the blue-ribbon fisheries, the rock-climbing, or to head into the backcountry by foot, bicycle, or motor, there are bound to be some conflicts.

Forest Supervisor Bob Leaverton notes that his forest “has always had social issues.”

Perhaps predictably, one of the most heated recreation conflicts has been over motorized access to the forest. An active off-road vehicle contingent has fought to keep unofficial but highly popular routes open for their use; a coalition of environmental groups in

Photo by iStockPhoto.com / Shelley Dennis

find many miles of trails to explore. North of the Rampart is the Kenosha Pass area, where a trailhead provides access to sections of the Colorado Trail, which stretches from Denver to Durango. Wheelchairaccessible interpretive trails are also available, leading out of the Kenosha Pass Campground, providing opportunities for everyone, regardless of physical condition, to experience the sights and smells of the high-elevation forest.

An old pack trail used by early explorers to span the distance between Leadville and Breckenridge has now become the welltraveled Boreas Pass. Visitors to the area can still see remnants of its rich history: narrow-gauge rail track, the still-standing Section House at the pass, and even some remaining buildings in the tiny town of Como. Now, instead of miners and railroad workers, Boreas Pass hosts backcountry skiers in the winter, some of whom stay at the 10th Mountain Division huts that have been restored there.

Pawnee Grasslands, thousands of acres have been placed under a long-term stewardship contract. Only the third such project in the country, the stewardship contract provides a guarantee of supply and the ability to treat larger tracts of land at a time, both key pieces for cost effectiveness. Contractors have found local markets for pellets, mulch, and biomass, an outcome Bob Leaverton calls “awesome.”

Nearby Colorado Springs Utilities is in the process of upgrading its coal plant to utilize local woody biomass, reducing their dependence on coal and natural gas.

It expects its new plant to be operating within two years, effectively creating reliable demand for up to 100,000 tons of biomass per year. Since the stewardship contract is designed to run for 10 years, the project is falling into place to create a national model that combines improved forest health, local forest product utilization, economic stability, and partnership development.

Another beneficiary of the stewardship contract has been the town of Woodland Park, located in the heart of the Pike National Forest. In 2008, the Front Range Roundtable—a coalition of state and federal land managers, community leaders and stakeholders facilitated in part by the National Forest Foundation—offered a competitive application process for communities to bid to become a highprofile “demonstration” model. Criteria

included local level leadership on forestry issues and the existence of building blocks that would allow the community to hit the ground running if given capacitybuilding support. Woodland Park was chosen in part because of existing strength in its volunteer organizations and publicprivate partnerships. With the support of CUSP, the Woodland Park Healthy Forest Initiative was formed with the goal of intensively treating its defined project area and serving as a model of community-based forest management. Treating areas prone to fire and focusing on the Wildland-Urban Interface, working to address challenging cross-boundary lands has been the group’s

hallmark. Leaverton boasts, “It’s going gangbusters!” The project won the coveted Regional Forester’s Honor Award in 2009.

Bob Leaverton estimates that of the 138,000 acres burned in the Hayman Fire, the majority of those lands are “doing well.”

Some 30,000 acres, mostly in riparian areas and dotted along cross-boundary watersheds, are still showing signs of sedimentation and erosion (see photos below). But when Carol Ekarius climbs to the top of the ridge behind her house, she now sees new aspen trees, towering alpine peaks, signs of a thriving wildlife population—indisputable evidence of the commitment Coloradoans share to the forests that define their state.

Although many sections of the Pike National Forest have begun to recover from the Hayman Fire—some without any intervention and others following salvage, seeding, and other post-fire rehabilitation efforts—several watersheds in the forest are still suffering the effects. More than 75 percent of Colorado’s residents get their drinking water from the South Platte watershed, so the health of those ecosystems is of paramount importance.

The National Forest Foundation, Vail Resorts, and the U.S. Forest Service have formed the Hayman Restoration Partnership to restore the critical watersheds impacted by the Hayman fire. The overall project aims to restore the Trout Creek, West Creek, Manitou, and Fourmile watersheds and increase ecosystem resiliency. The total project area for the partnership spans more than 115,000 acres, with work focused on 45,000 acres of the most severely affected

watersheds feeding into the Upper South Platte River, Denver’s main water supply.

“The health of the Upper South Platte River is vital to a lot of forest resources and millions of Colorado citizens,” said Bob Leaverton, forest supervisor of the Pike and San Isabel National Forests. “The jump start we are receiving from this partnership will help the forest accomplish critical restoration that would otherwise take years to complete.”

Over the course of the next three years, work will focus on debris removal, trail construction, invasive species treatment, road decommissioning, biomass removal, and tree thinning. A key site within the NFF’s Treasured Landscapes national conservation campaign, the project will cost approximately $4 million, fundraising catalyzed by early funding commitments from Vail Resorts, the U.S. Forest Service, and a challenge grant from the Gates Family Foundation.

In addition to generating critical financial

support for the restoration needs, the project will benefit from a collaborative, community-based approach that will engage area volunteers, conservation organizations and local governments in pooling their time, energy and resources.

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CONSERV ATION

Friend or foe? Instrument of destruction or renewal? Natural cycle or unwelcome force?

Over the decades, the American perception of wildfire has roared from one extreme to another. Our battles over whether to fight it fast or let it burn stretch back 100 years to what is viewed as a seminal moment in fire management and Forest Service history—the “Big Blowup” of August 20-21, 1910.

Long before European settlers landed in North America, American Indians intentionally used fire to their advantage.

Fire enabled them to alter and improve

wildlife habitats, manage for agriculture, and clear travel routes, among many other suspected uses. So, in addition to the natural fires that shaped the continent’s forest landscapes, human-set fires further controlled forest fuels and perpetuated fire-adapted ecosystems.

But as new settlers spread across the land—living within and depending upon the resources of the nation’s forests—fire posed a threat to homes, livelihoods and lives. Wildfire was soon viewed as a beast to be tamed, like much of the wildness that was the West.

That was certainly the case by mid-August 1910. In a drought-ridden year, hundreds

Result of wildfire “hurricane” in a heavy stand of Idaho white pine on Little North Fork of St. Joe River, Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, 1910. Photo by National Photo Company

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Photo courtesy Forest History Society, Durham, N.C.

BLAZING BATTLES THE 1910 FIRE AND ITS LEGACY TODAY

of small fires were burning across the Northern Rockies of Idaho and Montana.

The Forest Service had pulled out all the stops to subdue the blazes, deploying 4,000 troops to supplement the thousands of civilian firefighters already at work.

But nothing could prepare them for what August 20 would bring. Hurricaneforce winds blasted into the region, inciting embers and low flames into a conflagration of shocking proportion. Forester Edward Stahl described flames hundreds of feet high that were “fanned by a tornado wind so violent that the flames flattened out ahead, swooping to earth in great darting curves, truly a veritable red demon from hell.”

In the short two days that the great blowup’s life spanned, more than 3 million acres burned. Smoke from the fire reached New England and soot floated as far away as Greenland. Small communities were

obliterated and more than 85 lives were lost. The absolute devastation left not only scars on the land, but also lasting and fervent opinions about how forests and wildfire should be managed.

At the time of the 1910 fires, the Forest Service was a fledgling agency—just five years old—and struggling to establish its purpose and identity. The fire’s timing solidified support, funding and a mission for the new Forest Service, but it also laid a misdirected course for fire management that unwittingly set up the country for more extreme wildfires in the future.

“The young U.S. Forest Service had the memory of the conflagrations spliced into its institutional genes, shaped as profoundly by the Great Fires as modern China by the Long March,” wrote fire historian and expert, Stephen J. Pyne, in Year of the Fires: The Story of the Great Fires of 1910. “Not for more than thirty years, until its founding generation had passed from the scene, would the trauma of the 1910 fires begin to heal and would the nation’s leading agency for administering wildlands consider fire as anything but a hostile force to be fought to the death.”

In the aftermath of the 1910 fires, a double-edged sword of sorts arose from the ashes. The Forest Service gained the stature it needed to elevate the concept of “the greatest good” of our National Forests—an important moment in conservation history.

Yet the rigorous policy of fire suppression that accompanied this turning point set up decades focused on extinguishing every wildfire at all costs. Fire suppression policy reached its extreme in 1935 with the 10 a.m. rule—mandating that any fire spotted in a given day must be controlled by 10 o’clock the following morning.

In its own way, the new fire suppression policy was effective—for many years fires like those that simmered prior to the big blowup were quashed. But over time, the exclusion of fire from forested landscapes resulted in accumulating and dried-out fuels; denser, less diverse forests; and a recipe for catastrophic blazes once more.

Add in a changing climate—with longer, hotter, drier summers—and it’s clear that the “fight at all costs” approach to wildfire couldn’t be sustained.

Recent decades have seen some of

The 1910 fire blazed through this lodgepole pine forest in Idaho.

the worst fire seasons on record and astronomical firefighting budgets, but also a more tempered attitude about dealing with fire. In the early 1990s, Forest Service Chief Jack Ward Thomas backed away from the blanket fire suppression strategy, declaring that some fires should be fought, but others allowed to burn. “Fire is neither good nor bad,” Thomas said. “It just is.”

Today, the approach to fire combines suppression with preventative measures like fuels reduction and prescribed burning.

Communities are more actively engaged in protecting their perimeters and caring for surrounding lands at risk from wildfire. Fire science is teaching us more everyday about how fire behaves under various conditions so that a fire’s path and impacts can be better predicted. And in some cases, forest and fire managers have decided that it’s just okay to let the flames run their course.

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While the loss and devastation that wildfire can bring will always garner headlines, we see more positive attention paid to the renewal that comes out of fire— particularly those blazes moderated by fuels treatment and stewardship. The horror of watching Yellowstone burn in 1988 has been erased by images of new young forests and verdant meadows filled with grazing elk 20 years later.

With Smokey Bear still one of America’s most recognizable advertising icons, our relationship with wildfire remains tense and dynamic. “Humans are a uniquely fire creature on a uniquely fire planet, so fire has a lot to say about the character of each,” Stephen Pyne said in a 1994 interview.

“Fire history shows people—humanity at large—facing questions and making choices about who they are and how they should behave.”

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CONSERV ATION Photo courtesy of National Photo Company

Photos courtesy Forest History Society, Durham, N.C. and US Forest Service

them with others soaked in water. But I, too, finally sank down unconscious. I do not know how long I was in this condition, but it must have been for hours. I remember hearing a man say, “Come outside, boys, the boss is dead.” I replied, “Like hell he is.”

We counted our number. Five were missing … As the air outside became clearer, we gained strength, and finally were able to stagger to our feet and start toward Wallace.

When walking failed us, we crawled on hands and knees.

How we got down I hardly know. We were in terrible condition, all of us hurt or burned. I was blind and my hands were burned from trying to keep the fire out of the mine. Our shoes were burned off our feet and our clothing was in parched rags …

My experience left me with poor eyes, weak lungs, and throat; but, thank God, I am not now blind.

Betty Goodwin Spencer North Idaho Author

Edward C. Pulaski

Forest Ranger, Coeur d’Alene National Forest (Pictured at left)

IN THEIR

OWN WORDS The great blowup of 1910 certainly left its mark upon American history—but it also impacted thousands of lives and generated many fascinating and terrifying individual stories. To help understand the war with fire that came out of 1910, here are a few of those stories from those who endured the fire firsthand.

Excerpts courtesy of U.S. Forest Service Northern Region Archives

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Note: Edward Pulaski earned legend status during the blowup of 1910 when he led his men to safety and held them there in an abandoned mine shaft (shown above) while the fire passed.

Today, many will recognize his name in association with the axe-like “Pulaski” tool he invented for digging and chopping—often used on fire lines.

The whole world seemed to us men back in those mountains to be aflame. Many thought that it really was the end of the world. Under such conditions, it would have been worse than foolhardy to attempt to fight the fires. It was a case of saving our lives. I got on my horse and went where I

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could, gathering men. Most of them were unfamiliar with the country, and I knew that if they ever got out they would have to be led out … I finally collected forty-five men … Had it not been for my familiarity with the mountain trails, we would never have come out alive, for we were completely surrounded by raging, whipping fire.

My only hope was to reach an old mine tunnel which I knew to be not far from us.

We raced for it. On the way one man was killed by a falling tree. We reached the mine just in time, for we were hardly in when the fire swept over our trail.

The men were in a panic of fear, some crying, some praying. Many of them soon became unconscious from the terrible heat, smoke, and fire gas. The wet blankets actually caught fire and I had to replace

The forests staggered, rocked, exploded and then shriveled under the holocaust.

Great red balls of fire rolled up the mountainsides. Crown fires, from one to 10 miles wide, streaked with yellow and purple and scarlet, raced through treetops 150 feet from the ground. Bloated bubbles of gas burst murderously into forked and greedy flames …

Fire brands the size of a man’s arm were blasted down the streets of towns 50 miles from the nearest fire line. The sun was

completely obscured in Billings, 500 miles away from the main path of the fire …

You can’t outrun wind and fire that are traveling 70 miles an hour. You can’t hide when you are entirely surrounded by redhot color. You can’t see when it’s pitch black in the afternoon. There were men who went stark raving crazy, men who flung themselves into the on-rushing flames, men who shot themselves.

run through it. The heat was so great that we couldn’t stand in the open door of a box car … It is possible that such burning conditions might again occur, but with the present organization of the Forest Service it is not likely that sufficient fires will ever again be un-controlled at one time to build up such a widespread conflagration.

Mr. Swaine Idaho resident

Elers Koch

Forest Supervisor, Lolo-Bitterroot National Forest, July 30, 1940

No one can claim to be a real oldtimer in the Forest Service unless he went through the 1910 fire season … I was supervisor of the Lolo Forest at the time. In the night of August 21 the telephone bell at my bedside awakened me. “Mr. Koch, the fires have all gone wild. The flames are just breaking into Wallace. I don’t know where my family is, and my men and pack strings are all out in the path of the fire, and I am afraid many of them can’t escape alive.” …

In the morning I went out with a special Northern Pacific train to see what could be done. About three in the afternoon we pulled into Deborgia. The head of the big fire had just reached the town, and some of the buildings were afire. It was black dark and everybody was carrying lanterns.

We loaded the residents of the town on the train and started back down. Between Henderson and St. Regis the whole canyon was afire on both sides and the train had to

Much of Wallace, Idaho, was destroyed.

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For days the air had been laden with smoke, flying embers, ashes, singed twigs and moss—some pieces as large as a hand or foot falling promiscuously about.

Needles from the fir and pine trees rained profusely through the air, falling like showers upon roofs and the ground. The sound was identical with that of rain. It was evident that fires were raging in almost every direction and that day by day, they were drawing nearer to us. Our constant prayer was for rain …

You will wonder what we were doing all this time. Our guest, Mrs. Swaine, the children and I spent our time serving meals to the firefighters who could not leave their posts except in small relays. However, there came an hour when we bade farewell to the little home, the heat and smoke forcing our departure, and sought a place of safety each with a blanket for protection, quite reconciled to the loss of everything if only our lives might be spared. We took refuge in the schoolhouse—a brick structure situated on a roomy cleared space near the river. This we thought would be the last place to burn although there was danger of suffocation. We remained only about three hours when we returned duly and truly thankful for the tableful of dirty dishes which greeted us, and truly thankful for a sink in which to wash them. We all felt very benevolent after the ordeal and allowed the vagrant livestock, driven as we had been from their homes, to graze unmolested upon our lawns. And we realized as never before, how affliction reduces us to a common level. We had all been one united in a single cause, that of saving our all, be it a pocket knife, a home or a fortune. And I echo Mrs. Swaine’s remark: “It was a terrible ordeal, but I wouldn’t have missed it for anything.”

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UNFORGETTABLE EXPERIENCES

KIDS & NATURE

Inyo National Forest, California

Mono Lake (pictured above) Unusual limestone “tufa towers,” some as tall as 30 feet, surrounded by a deep blue lake, make this a memorable destination. The Mono Lake waters, saltier than the oceans and as alkaline as household ammonia, have evolved unique species of plants and animals found nowhere else in the world. This ecosystem is vital for millions of migratory and nesting birds, making it a great place to view wildlife on shore or by canoe.

Hoosier National Forest, Indiana

Hemlock Cliffs This one-mile trail leads to towering sandstone cliffs, waterfalls, and unique rock outcrops. The box canyon walls, surrounded by tall hemlocks and beautiful waterfalls, make Hemlock Cliffs a cool destination on a warm summer day.

Francis Marion National Forest, South Carolina

Wambaw Creek Canoe Trail (pictured below) This 9-mile canoe trail through tidal Wambaw Creek is a great way to explore the majestic cypress-tupelo stands. Visitors may be treated to views of prothonotary warblers, swallow-tailed kites and river otters.

Cimarron National Grassland

White Mountain National Forest, Maine

Deer Hill Purple amethyst abounds at Deer Hill, where, with a $3 Forest Service permit, you can spend the day digging through glacial sediment and searching for purple quartz crystals.

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Green River Lakes Campground (pictured below) After a 23-mile scenic drive, visitors are awarded with views of Square Top Mountain and the headwaters of the Green River. Choose a campsite with views to the lake, then hike, swim, or paddle around the clear waters.

Land Between the Lakes, Tennessee

The Homeplace This 19th-century working farm features 16 original and restored log buildings.

Visitors can stroll through the structures, visit with interpreters, and witness the working farm still using techniques and tools of the Revolutionary War era.

Osceola National Forest, Florida

Francis Marion National Forest

Barclay Creek Trail Travel 2 miles through lush, old-growth forest, cross rushing streams along the way, and arrive at beautiful Barclay Lake where Baring Mountain rises 3,700 feet above the water’s edge. Bring a picnic and spend the afternoon or select a lakeside campsite and spend the night—a great first backcountry camping trip.

Bridger-Teton National Forest, Wyoming

Cimarron National Grassland, Kansas

Sea of Grass (pictured right) The Sea of Grass auto tour is a self-guided, 50-mile tour through Cimarron’s expansive grasslands. Passengers will see prairie dog towns, historic homestead and railroad structures, learn about giant, prehistoric creatures that lived on the prairie, and have opportunities to view the flora and fauna that inhabit the prairie today.

Mount Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest, Washington

Ocean Pond This 1,760-acre natural lake offers excellent opportunities for picnicking, swimming, boating, and camping. With spectacular sunsets above the cypress-lined lake, it’s worth spending the night.

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Bridger-Teton National Forest

Allegheny National Forest, Pennsylvania

Tionesta Scenic Area Reminiscent of the forests that greeted early settlers, area trails pass through 300to 400-year-old beech, hemlock and sugar maple stands, remnants of the original forest that once covered the Allegheny Plateau.

Atop the plateau, ponds and forests provide secluded habitat, making Tionesta a great place to view wildlife and birds.

Photos and artwork by iStockPhoto.com: Iryna Dobrovynska, Sean Locke, Nicooolay, Morgan Lane Studios, Susan H. Smith, and Duncan Walker

Inyo National Forest

Within our 193-million-acre National Forest System, countless destinations and adventures await travelers across America. So plot out your route, slip on your hiking boots, and load up the camping gear; we’ve got some great suggestions the whole family will enjoy. Whether you are interested in watchable wildlife, rugged adventure, or breathtaking scenery, you can find it all in our National Forests.

Photos by iStockPhoto.com / Rick Whitacre; USDA Forest Service; Wikimedia Commons; and Zack Porter

DESTINATION: ADVENTURE TEN GREAT National forest sites to explore

Not every child takes instantly to the idea of camping. Here are some suggestions for making the family camping trip a little more appealing to everyone involved.

Few activities can bring a family with children closer together than a camping trip.

The cooperative effort, the time together experiencing the outdoors and new places, the shared laughter—all have the potential for lifetime-memory creators. These are the types of experiences parents want to give their children: great family times that grown kids can look back upon and cherish.

Not every child, however, takes instantly to the outdoor/camping experience (heck, not all adults do, either). While some kids seem to revel in all-things-outdoors, others may not find the occasional rigors and inconveniences of not having a flush toilet for a weekend all too appealing. Particularly younger kids may need some gentle prodding to become campers.

While no child should be forced into the wilderness against his or her wishes, there are plenty of ways to make even the most timid of children come to love camping. A bit of forethought, some pre-planning on mom’s and dad’s parts, and the kids will be asking, “When are we going again?” on the way home.

Here are several suggestions for making the family trip an enjoyable one for all.

Get everyone equally involved Start and keep a family camping journal. Each day have a different child fill out the day’s entry of activities, with input from everyone. Past entries make for fun campfire reading.

Have each child be “in charge” for a day, deciding what activities will be undertaken (swimming, hiking, games) that day.

Assign a rotating chore list, so that each child gets involved in the various responsibilities (cooking, setting up and cleaning up the campsite, firebuilding, gathering kindling) and has the opportunity to learn. Obviously, depending on age and safety factors, mom and dad will be assisting here.

Start family traditions Whether it’s sing-alongs, ghost stories (maybe an ongoing ghost story), the sharing of family history, or a nightly game of charades, the after-dinner campfire is the perfect time

MAKING MEMORIES

WITH THE FAMILY

CAMPING TRIP

by Dale Van Every

to begin regular traditions that may be carried on from trip to trip, year to year.

Perhaps it will become routine or tradition that on a given day of each trip, your family always takes the big hike. Rotate the responsibility of who chooses the hike and who leads it. Back at camp, today’s journalist can record the highlights through words, art and photographs.

Make camping a learning experience The opportunities for children to learn while spending time outdoors are almost endless. With the aid of field guides (or perhaps mom’s and dad’s own impressive knowledge), just a few of the possibilities are: wildflowers, trees, plants, animals, animal tracks, birds, cloud types/weather, stars/astronomy, survival skills, knot-tying, fire-building and many more.

Consider making your family camping trip a geo-camping trip. Combining the quickly growing outdoor activity of

geocaching with camping is about as kidfriendly as it gets. What child doesn’t love a treasure hunt? And it’s a great way to learn navigating one’s way through the woods.

Finally, for those very young or very timid children, consider easing into the outdoor experience by first renting a cabin or an RV. The family can still enjoy outdoor activities during the day, cook out, and have a campfire, but the comfort and familiarity of a real bed at the end of the day may be just enough to put that child at ease.

Regardless of sleeping quarters or activities chosen, family camping trips have the potential to bring the whole family closer together and create lasting memories.

A child who is comfortable in the out of doors becomes an adult who is comfortable in the world. What better gift can a parent give a child?

Madison getting ready for fishing with Grandpa Jim

SUMMER CAMPING with the cousins 2009

Grandma Helen

Kaylee & Madison Sammy, Eric and Josh

Kaylee, Madison and Nick

Kids had fun learning how to roast hot dogs. Nick kept stealing marshmallows from the girls... maybe that’s why he had such a belly ache. Grandpa Jim told us some good fish tales from when he was a kid and we found out that Grandma Helen is a way better paddler than we thought!

CAMPING Grandpa taught Madison how to fish and she caught 3 the first day! Zoey discovered a huge blue and green beetle.

She wanted so badly to keep it as a pet but as soon as she tried to tie it up with a string, it ran away.

We really had fun this trip. Girls made a song about the squirrel that kept running up the tree and throwing pine cones at Sam! “ Nature’s gonna get ya Sam so run, run as fast as you can! ”

Aunt Brenda and Zoey

Sam and Zoey

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TREASURED LANDSCAPES

Sockeye salmon spawning

OREGON’S SALMON RUNS Sun-kissed mountains, fragrant pine forests, and icy rivers are what many people see when they come to Sisters, Ore. However, if you take a closer look at what lies below the water’s surface, the area is rich with history—a history that is being reversed and rewritten today. For centuries the rivers of this region were home to robust salmon runs. With the installation of dams and water diversion programs, however, many of these salmon runs disappeared. Ocean-going fish that once travelled to these mountain waters to spawn included shimmering steelhead, huge Chinook salmon, and iridescent sockeye—a central component of the rivers’ ecosystems.

Lake Creek, located just below Suttle Lake, once sustained one of only two sockeye salmon runs in Oregon. These brilliantly colored fish had a long journey from the Pacific Ocean up the Columbia River into an intricate network of smaller waterways: up the Deschutes, Metolius and Lake Creek to Suttle Lake. Eventually they reached their spawning grounds in Link Creek, a little stream which connects Suttle Lake and Blue Lake. Sockeye runs died out as early as 1940 because of a newly constructed dam on Lake Creek, intended to raise the level of Suttle Lake, which blocked the fish’s entrance to their spawning grounds. As part of a comprehensive watershed restoration Route of salmon run to Suttle Lake

Photos by Kathleen Dowd-Gailey

By Kathleen Dowd-Gailey (NFF Northwest Regional Director) and Maret Pajutee (District Ecologist, Sisters Ranger District)

NFF AND PARTNERS WORK TO RESTORE

Photo by iStockPhoto.com / Roman Krochuk

RETURN TO TWO RIVERS

TREASURED LANDSCAPES

project currently underway with the U.S. Forest Service and numerous local partners, this dam is scheduled to be redesigned in the next year to restore fish passage again— after the absence of salmon for more than 70 years.

So it was poignant when, on the 40th anniversary of Earth Day, volunteers gathered at Suttle Lake Lodge to complete the first project of the National Forest Foundation’s “Tale of Two Rivers” conservation campaign site, part of the overall Treasured Landscapes conservation campaign. The Lake Creek Trail, which has its terminus at Suttle Lake just above the old dam, was the focus of the enthusiastic volunteer energy on this special Earth Day. Partners included the Forest Service, the Friends of the Metolius—a conservation group dedicated to protecting the legacy and natural resources of the Metolius basin—and the Deschutes Land Trust, which owns and carefully manages a key piece of Lake Creek riverfront property.

All were excited about the imminent return of the sockeye. They envisioned a tranquil path far from the highway for people to walk alongside the fish on their journey from the Metolius River along Lake Creek. And thus the Lake Creek trail was born.

Through long-term recreation planning from the Forest Service and hands-on trail-building support and leadership from the Friends of the Metolius, Earth Day volunteers helped connect old logging roadbeds and install trail markers designed to lead people by foot, bike, or horse from the towering conifer forests at Suttle Lake

to the sunny ponderosa pine forests nearly 5 miles downstream.

This connecting trail is a small but significant component of a suite of regionwide restoration efforts currently underway in and around the Deschutes National Forest.

The critical link in spearheading the return of numerous fish runs in the region was initially made possible by the installation of a redesigned fish passage facility over the larger Pelton-Round Butte dam complex. Once that river connection was restored, other watershed conservation efforts in the region were possible and several organizations came together to restore riparian and in-stream habitat, and reduce water diversions in the creeks in order to make the homecoming of these fish a success.

Restoration of this complexity and scale takes a community effort and the work of many dedicated partners, each bringing their own expertise to the project. In addition to the local nonprofit organizations, support for the Lake Creek trail project was further bolstered by a few local businesses in this region, known locally as Sisters Country.

Through the National Forest Foundation’s Forest Stewardship Fund, which collects voluntary contributions from area resort guests, five local lodges helped facilitate the restoration and trail signage work along the newly established Lake Creek Trail. These lodges (Best Western Ponderosa Lodge, Black Butte Ranch, Five Pine Lodge, Lake Creek Lodge, and The Lodge at Suttle Lake) also help promote the restoration work being done and encourage their visitors to

explore the tremendous recreation resources in the area to witness the results of their contributions.

As people come together in central Oregon, on Earth Day or any other day, to rewrite this piece of history and help set the rivers and their salmon on a new trajectory, it is inspiring to think how this region will look in several years. Will the trail system be repaired to reduce the impact from eroding trails and access points? Will streams and riparian areas have fewer invasive plants and be able to support the return of their long-lost fish? Will we see an ever-larger cadre of committed volunteers engaging in the ongoing stewardship of their shared public lands? All of these are goals of the numerous restoration efforts currently underway. After seeing the work completed along Lake Creek trail and the collective energy behind these efforts, it seems the answer is a resounding yes!

Volunteers construct trail along central Oregon’s Lake Creek.

Proud volunteers install signage along the Lake Creek Trail.

The NFF is working with partners to prepare watersheds in central Oregon for the return of native salmon.

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VOICES FROM THE FOREST

VOICES FROM THE FOREST Nebraska National Forest

LEFT: Family fishing at Juanita Lake in Klamath National Forest, California

By Suzi Dow

CONSERVATION LESSONS Fred and Suzi Dow

No matter what corner of our National Forests one may choose to explore, we share a common takeaway in the cherished memories and unforgettable experiences that stick with us. Fred and Suzi Dow have explored all corners of our National Forests and Grasslands—in their quest to camp in every developed National Forest campground. Their goal has been to provide a comprehensive guide to our National Forest System campgrounds for all other camping enthusiasts. But along the journey toward that goal, they have collected memories that can inspire the hiker, camper and explorer in us all.

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In my early teens, I sold $75 worth of canned peanuts door-to-door (as a very shy girl this was a difficult thing for me) to earn a trip to a youth camp in the Los Padres National Forest. That was the beginning of my love for the out-of-doors and National Forests. Life kept me out of the forests for awhile, but my husband, Fred, and I have found a way back—as researchers and authors of the “U.S. National Forest Campground Guide” web site and books.

We’ve driven over 300,000 miles, surveyed more than 2,300 campgrounds, and met hundreds of fellow campers and lovers of our National Forests and Grasslands.

Over the years we have accumulated lots of memories and learned that, while Americans build connections with these lands in different ways, we all treasure our public lands just the same.

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Collecting campground memories One of our earliest memories took place in a National Forest in the South. We set up camp at a small developed campground with a little pond nearby. Down the narrow dirt road that linked the campground and pond, a grandfather and his granddaughter walked hand-in-hand with their fishing poles in tow.

We watched as grandpa taught the young girl how to bait her hook and, later still, cheered her on as she landed a little panfish. As she held up her first fish, you couldn’t tell who was prouder—the girl or grandpa.

Traveling the eastern National Forests, we marveled at acre after acre of pine trees planted with military precision. Those trees, marching over the landscape, are compliments of the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) efforts back in the 1930s.

Staring at the stately trees, we envisioned

Photos by Fred and Suzi Dow

CAMPFIRE TALES AND

the crews of hard-working young men improving our forests while bettering their own lives thanks to the CCC—which has left a long-standing mark on our National Forests.

Out west, the prairie in the Nebraska National Forest gave us an appreciation for the vast and once endless expanse of American grasslands. The beauty of openness, the meadowlark’s song, the blanket prairie’s wildflowers, and the quiet splendor of grass blowing in waves on the horizon remain with us indelibly.

We treasure memories of wildlife sightings everywhere. Once, in the Pacific Northwest when I was helping Fred back our motorhome into a Forest Service campsite, I heard some snuffing behind me. I turned to see a black bear rooting around in the firepit. That startling sight is imprinted on my brain. In Alaska’s Chugach National Forest, we stood amazed, watching wild salmon battling their way up the Russian River. And that moose at Falls Campground in the Shoshone National Forest peeking around the back of our rig is a sight my dog will never forget.

Appreciating a Changing Landscape Throughout our travels, National Forests have inspired us not only with their natural beauty, but also with a rich history told

by the landscape. Maintaining the health and vitality of these lands, we’ve learned, has developed into a complex puzzle in the century since the Forest Service was established.

One hundred years ago, an area the size of Connecticut, stretching from the western edge of the Idaho panhandle to Montana, was devastated by a massive wildfire some call “the big burn.” Today, unless you know what to look for, there is little evidence of that massive fire’s destruction. One afternoon, after a day of researching the St. Joe National Forest, in what had been the heart of that massive fire, Fred and I decided to stop at a wilderness lodge perched next to the St. Joe River for some liquid refreshment. There, we had an eye-opening experience.

The large, log-cabin style lodge had a vaulted ceiling and a veritable zoo of stuffed animals perched in the rafters. Sitting at the bar were two men in a heated debate. One man, dressed in coveralls with a flannel shirt, was loudly disagreeing with the other man who wore a multi-colored sweater and neatly pressed slacks. We thought the debate was over logging practices but we soon realized they were arguing over what tree species should be planted on a mountainside ravaged by the 1910 fire. The man in the sweater was the foreman for a tree-planting crew and the guy in coveralls was a lumberjack. The “whys” and “wherefores” of their discussion were interesting, but what we found most important was that these guys were talking

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basic conservation practices. There were no selfish motives to their discussion. A healthy robust forest was the foundation of their livelihoods and such a forest should be maintained by using sound principles. They are probably still debating tree species and soil erosion techniques—but in the end they shared a common goal.

South of the St. Joe National Forest is the Clearwater National Forest and one of our favorite areas to camp along the Locsha River. This area was also devastated by the wildfire but has recovered beautifully.

However, not all the recovery stems from wildfire. When we first camped at Jerry Johnson Campground, it sat on a pleasantly shaded bend of the Locsha River. Today, all those towering conifers have been removed.

A root disease was killing the campground’s trees, making it unsafe for campers. Recently, insect infestation is forcing similar action in many other National Forest campgrounds.

Cutting down trees in campgrounds is not an action anyone wants to see, but it is part of the Forest Service’s continuing effort to ensure we have a robust, safe and healthy forest today, tomorrow, and far into the future.

Some may not consider such action as conservation but, just as planting a tree can be good for the forest, so can the removal of a sick tree. Jerry Johnson Campground may not currently be the best place to camp in the middle of summer, but today it offers a wonderful unobstructed view of the night sky and a place to enjoy warm sunlight on a frosty morning. And the trees, tall and healthy, will return in time for our children and theirs to enjoy.

Jerry Johnson Campground

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VOICES FROM THE FOREST

This doe found residence in Washington’s Klipchuck Campground first, so we moved on to find another campsite.

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Beargrass at the Jerry Johnson Campground

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Suzi’s Favorite

Moments

30 YEars later

Maintaining our forest camping web site gives me the chance to take many little trips down memory lane. Looking back tells a powerful story of a system of public lands that offers beauty, serenity and history—not to mention an inexpensive vacation with hundreds of destination options. Some of my favorites include:

May 18,1980, Mount St. Helens

THE ERUPTION OF Mount st. Helens Gifford Pinchot National Forest, Washington

A splintered stump is what remains of a large conifer (see the shovel for scale) on a ridge between the North Fork Toutle River and South Coldwater Creek. The volcano blast pulled the tree apart.

Watching the weather move in from the boulder-top mountains at Dolly Sod in the Monongahela National Forest.

Glimpsing a humpback whale as it glides through open water near Alaska’s Tongass National Forest.

Discovering an unexpected waterfall like the one at Singletree Campground in the Fishlake National Forest. (Never imagined water could be so cold on such a hot day.)

Finding petroglyphs in a little cave in the Ouachita National Forest (the forest staff knew about them but we still felt like Columbus discovering America).

Waking up in the Manti-LaSal National Forest’s Gooseberry Reservoir campground in the middle of a flock of sheep in the morning and having a blizzard move in that evening.

Watching a wily old beaver steal fish bobbing off the end of an angler’s line at Twin Lakes campground in the Allegheny National Forest.

Listening to: the coyotes at Steer Creek campground in the Samuel McKelvie National Forest; the loons on Bear Lake in the Nicolet; the screams of eagles, osprey and peregrine throughout the Lolo; the modern-day mule skinner at Land Between the Lakes Recreation Area; and, how the wind sounds change passing through an aspen stand, cottonwoods, or pines.

Photo by S.W. Kieffer Skamania County, Washington. 1980.

Photos by USGS Cascade Volcano Observatory; USDA Forest Service, Todd Cullings

From campers to conservationists Conservation isn’t limited to the actions of big organizations or agencies. That pond where we saw the grandpa and his granddaughter fishing may have been built or improved by the CCC or another large organization, but it is the conservation ethic passed from one generation to the next that ensures good fishing will endure at that little pond.

While enjoying the Nebraska National Forest, we learned many of the trees that provided blessed shade were planted by girl scouts decades ago. In one grove of these hand-planted trees, we met a young man doing some dispersed camping with his horse. He presented a mini-lecture to Fred and me on the importance of good range management and using weed-free feed. His concern was for the health of his beloved prairie and he cared enough to share that concern with us.

Conservation efforts also go beyond the trees and grass to the health and well-being of the natural residents of our National Forests. Seeing a bear sniffing around a campsite firepit, a moose wander through a campground, or watching salmon return to fight the current of a creek once polluted by mining, all provide important indicators as to how the forest is doing. You see such sights and ask: Is the bear or any other critter, coming into the campground because there is a lack of food in its natural habitat? Or has the animal learned that places like campgrounds are a source for an easy meal? How many times have you looked into a firepit and seen charred but recognizable cans, sheets of aluminum foil,

food, plastic bottles, and such?

There was one campground host we met years ago, who encouraged young campers to collect litter with him early each Saturday morning, helping the children understand the importance of Woodsy Owl’s signature phrase, “Give a Hoot! Don’t Pollute.”

Volunteers at the Norway Beach Visitor Center in the Chippewa National Forest of Minnesota would hold regular aquatic bug hunts to illustrate the importance of clean water for wildlife.

Fred and I have seen these lessons reflected in our fellow campers’ actions. At one campground, we watched a mom and dad pack their tent, while their son raked the campsite for any litter that might have dropped during their stay. As he raked, his sister, maybe a year or so younger, made sure the campfire was cold and dead. These simple actions of caring for our forests seem to grow out of the positive outdoor experiences Americans enjoy while hiking, fishing and camping.

Such simple tasks may not be seen as acts of conservation but, in truth, these small individual actions are the foundation of conservation. Time and time again, Fred and I have seen examples of individuals, young and old, and organizations, such as the National Forest Foundation, practicing conservation, teaching the ethics of conservation, and providing the benefits of their conservation efforts to others. But nothing nurtures that commitment better than the experiences and memories we all take away from sitting around the campfire, glimpsing rarely seen wildlife, and sleeping under the stars. Fred and I would like to thank you, young or old, big or small, individual or group, for your acts of conservation and hope others will join in this effort.

FOREST PERSPECTIVES

A TRANSFORMING LANDSCAPE

1. May 17, 1980

2. May 18, 1980 4. July 10, 2009 1. Mount St. Helens on May 17, 1980, taken from the Coldwater II observation post (Johnston’s Ridge) one day before the eruption. Photo by USGS Geologist Harry Glicken 2. Eruption of Mount St. Helens on May 18, 1980. Skamania County, Washington. USGS Photo 3. A changed mountain on Sept 10, 1980, as viewed from Johnston’s Ridge.

Photo by Harry Glicken, USGS 4. Vegetation returns to the flanks of Mount St. Helens. Photo taken in summer of 2009 near Johnston’s Ridge. Photo by Todd Cullings, USDA Forest Service

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3. Sept. 10, 1980

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FOREST PERSPECTIVES VANCOUVER!

Smart Office Technology

VANCOUVER!

THIS IS IT!

Leaves Nothing to Waste

May 18, 1980

Mount St. Helens

Greening your document output means utilizing technology that prints smarter and more efficiently.

Making efficient use of paper not only saves vital forests, it also cuts CO2, fuel and water used to manufacture and transport paper. Here are a few tips for reducing paper waste in your workplace or home office.

Gifford Pinchot National Forest, Washington Photo of David A. Johnston at the Coldwater II observation post, taken by Harry Glicken on May 17, 1980, at 7:00 p.m., 13 1/2 hours before the 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens

e Use both sides of the page when printing or making copies.

Did you know Photos by USGS/Cascades Volcano Observatory; iStockPhoto.com / Daniel Slocum

At 8:32 a.m. on May 18, 1980,

David Alexander Johnston was staffing an observation post for the U.S. Geological Survey about 6 miles from Mount St. Helens.

He was the first to report the eruption of the volcano, transmitting the message back to the USGS Vancouver, Wash., branch, “Vancouver! Vancouver! This is it!” Seconds later the radio signal went blank and he was killed by the lateral blast created when the mountain’s entire north flank exploded.

Facing a public skeptical of the mountain’s immediate threat, and growing impatient with the closure of the surrounding lands, Johnston told reporters that being on or near the mountain was like “standing next to a dynamite keg and the fuse is lit.” Together with other volcanologists, Johnston successfully fought pressure to reopen the mountain area to the public.

Because of the closure, the May 18 eruption claimed 57 lives, instead of potentially thousands of lives.

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e Purchase imaging equipment that can print multiple pages on one sheet to save even more paper.

e Reuse blank sides of pages by placing back into your printer or copier tray.

e Digitize your documents. Purchase imaging equipment that

has scan-to-distribute options, and utilize web-based document storage.

e Use recycled paper or look for brands with FSC certification. e Recycle paper after use. It takes 40% less energy to

manufacture paper with recycled content than virgin materials.

More on green office solutions at www.ricoh-eco.com/tgos

Preserving Forests Worldwide Ricoh Americas Corporation is proud to support the National Forest Foundation’s efforts to preserve our vital natural resources. For more information about Ricoh’s commitment to sustainability, including our reforestation projects around the world, visit www.ricoh.com/environment.

TOP: Monitoring Mount St. Helens from the Coldwater II observation post, May 4, 1980 LEFT: USGS geologist, David A. Johnston, with gas-detection equipment, April 4, 1980 RIGHT: View from Johnston Ridge Observatory (Coldwater II observation location)

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In the US, annual office paper consumption is enough to build a 10-foot wall from New York to Tokyo?

Set print options on your copier, printer or multifunctional device to duplex your print output by default so you never forget.

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t h e t o t a l g r een o f f i c e s o l u t i o n

Whatever the Reason.

Whatever the Season.

Give yourself, or someone else, the gift of vibrant wild places, with a National Forest Foundation membership.

For just $35 per membership, you can wrap clean air, fresh water, and wildlife habitat into one great package. Membership benefits include: • a one-year membership with the National Forest Foundation (NFF).

• subscription to the official magazine of the NFF—Your National Forests.

• five trees will be planted to restore one of America’s National Forests.

If you wish to give a gift membership, your gift recipient will receive the above benefits with a card notifying them that this special gift came from you.

Four easy ways to order: Mail: Return the form below to: NFF, Bldg 27, Suite 3, Fort Missoula Rd, Missoula, MT 59804 Phone: 406.542.2805 x 19 Email: dsnyder@nationalforests.org Online: www.nationalforests.org

Your contribution is tax deductible!

Yes ~ I want to support our remarkable National Forests and Grasslands. _________ Enclosed is my membership for $35.

YOUR NAME ADDRESS CITY

STATE

ZIP

EMAIL

I wish to order _________ gift membership(s) at $35 each.

(If you wish to order more than one gift, please enclose additional recipient information with this form.)

NAME OF RECIPIENT ADDRESS CITY

STATE

ZIP

EMAIL Enclosed is my check in the amount of $ Please charge my:

VISA

Mastercard

[Payable to: National Forest Foundation] OR American Express

Card Number NAme on Card

Discover Exp. Date

/