U.S. Forest Service

The U.S. Forest Service is spending nearly $19 million to fight invasive species threatening the nation’s forests, including several in the Mountain West.

The Forest Service is awarding more than $1 billion nationwide in grants to plant trees in cities, tackle climate change and make green spaces more accessible to less wealthy neighborhoods.

The Partnership for Public Service, a nonpartisan nonprofit, recently released its annual rankings of the best places to work in the federal government. It found that working at a national park is no picnic.

As wildfire seasons stretch longer and fires burn hotter, researchers are digging into the resiliency of soil microbes critical to forest recovery.

This fire year is on track to be as extreme as the last few. At the same time, some Forest Service areas have had a hard time hiring enough wildland firefighters.

The U.S. Forest Service recently announced a 10-year plan that includes a dramatic increase in treating forests through thinning and prescribed burns. That plan includes treating 20 million acres of Forest Service land, and 30 million acres of other federal, state, tribal, and private lands.

Wildfire activity generally slows at night as winds die down, temperatures drop and humidity rises. But a a new study suggests that's changing.

The fire, floods and massive debris flows of the past year in Glenwood Canyon could help answer an aeons-old question — where exactly does the underground source of water that feeds Hanging Lake begin?

Colorado's ski areas spend about $25 million a year in fees in exchange for being on federal land, and only a small fraction returns to those forests for management. The Denver Post reports on a bill recently introduced in Congress that would allow forests that bring in large amounts of ski fees to allocate some of that money for staffing.

The U.S. Forest Service has faced budget cuts, and underfunding for years. So, with the agency’s blessing, around 200 conservation groups around the country have created volunteer wilderness ranger programs to help patrol the backcountry. But are volunteers a good substitute for funding full-time staff?