Sage, Zip Ties and Smokey Bear: Behind the Scenes at the Rose Parade

You’re given hundreds of zip ties, thousands of seeds, bins piled with pinecones and branches, plus lots of glue and wiring. You have four days to decorate the Forest Service wagon for the 135th Annual Rose Parade.

Nervous yet? We are as we stare at the piles of vegetation gathered from forests around California.

But our small-but-mighty team did this five years ago. We’re confident we can do it again. Read more…

Tree mortality from a bird’s-eye view: An audio documentary

When it comes to getting perspective on forest health, sky-high observations are a big help in California. With over 30 million acres of forested land throughout the state, there is a lot of ground to cover. So, each summer, USDA Forest Service aerial tree survey specialists spend several weeks in the aircraft gathering observations on tree mortality in lands of all ownerships. From above, they read the color of the forest below to determine where trees are recently dead and dying.

Climb inside a Cessna Turbo 182, put on a headset for inflight communication, and take off into a discovery of tree mortality at 1000ft above ground level. Read more…

Aquatic ambassadors: Sierra Nevada yellow-legged frogs can teach us about our planet

“Some think a frog face is one only a mother could love, but I think they’re cute. And in some ways, they’re both resilient and fragile,” said Pacific Southwest Research Station aquatic ecologist Karen Pope.

They can also teach us about the health of our planet, the interconnectedness of our food web, and how our actions have consequences. Read more…

Bark Beetles: The science of scents

There is an ongoing conversation in the forest between insects and trees. But this conversation has no words and no sound. Instead, it uses the language of subtle aromatic messengers called pheromones. Bark beetles communicate with pheromones to invite others to join them when they are infesting a tree.

A silviculturist and three entomologists take us into the Tahoe National Forest in California to tell us about a pheromone called verbenone. Bark beetles produce verbenone as a chemical messenger to tell other beetles that “this tree is full”. Through careful research, specialists have produced a formulation of verbenone, which can be applied to tree trunks in small doses or “dollops” to tell bark beetles “this tree is full,” protecting the tree from infestation. Read more…

Timber Tax Tips: Forest Service, partners offer advice for forest landowners

Of the 765 million acres of forests in the U.S., more than half – 443 million acres – is privately owned, of which 288 million acres are owned by private, non-corporate entities such as families. That means more than 10 million private owners control 50 percent of all forestlands in the U.S.

And all those lands have taxable value. The question then is: Are you ready for April 15?