United States Forest Service

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United States Forest Service
- USFS -

Logo of the United States Forest Service.svg
State level Federation
Supervisory authority United States Department of Agriculture
founding February 1, 1905
Headquarters Washington, DC
Authority management Thomas L. Tidwell, Chief
Mary Wagner, Associate Chief
Servants 28,330 permanent + 4,488 seasonal workers (2008)
Budget volume $ 5.806 billion (2008)
Web presence www.fs.fed.us

The United States Forest Service ( USFS , German  Forest Administration of the United States ) is an authority subordinate to the United States Department of Agriculture , which is entrusted with the administration of the national forests of the United States . It emerged in 1905 from the Bureau of Forestry , which in turn was attached to the Ministry of the Interior as a forestry department as a result of a Forest Reserve Act of 1891 . The first director was Gifford Pinchot from 1905 to 1910 . The first major test was the great fire of 1910 . When it was taken over by the Ministry of Agriculture, the agency was renamed to its current name and now manages, in addition to the 155 national forests, six National Monuments , 20 National Grasslands (large protected areas in the Great Plains ) and 17 National Recreation Areas, such as B. Hells Canyon .

tasks

Smokey Bear

The main function of the Forest Service is the forestry use of the federally owned forests. For this purpose, felling licenses are issued to private forest companies, a comprehensive network of forest roads and forest paths is maintained and the economic and ecological value of the forests is recorded, monitored and improved. This also includes the prevention, reporting and fighting of forest fires . To this end, the Forest Service and the Wartime Advertising Council (committee for the publication of advertising material for the purpose of recruiting for the army in times of war) published educational posters on August 9, 1944, to inform citizens about possible dangers. At the center of this campaign was a black bear nicknamed the Smokey Bear , which for decades became something of a symbol for the United States Forest Service . Another environmental icon of the Forest Service is Woodsy Owl , an owl figure who has stood for the fight against litter and pollution since 1971 . The USFS Wildland Fire Assessment System WFAS was set up to inform users and visitors to the forests promptly about the risk of fire and to encourage them to adopt appropriate, low-risk behavior as a preventive measure.

The 155 National Forests of the United States are each divided into several ranger districts, in which the so-called rangers (forest workers) are responsible for the economic use and biomonitoring of the habitats of plants and animals. The forest administration also has regional research stations that study the ecosystems of the national forests. The Forest Service also makes its expertise available to private forest owners and the forest administrations of the states, distributes subsidies and provides technical equipment for private forests. The department responsible for this is called State and Private Forestry .

Since many national forests are also used for tourism, the Forest Service also takes care of the establishment and maintenance of trails and campsites wherever a National Forest explicitly to wilderness area ( Wilderness Area was declared). It also conducts intensive information and educational work based on the concept of nature and culture interpretation ( heritage interpretation ), which is widespread in the USA .

Since 1978, US president repeatedly National Monuments reported inside existing national forests and the Forest Service to transfer the management. It refers to:

Web links

Commons : United States Forest Service  - collection of images, videos, and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Office of the Chief , fs.fed.us, accessed December 22, 2011.

Coordinates: 38 ° 53 '14.1 "  N , 77 ° 1' 57.1"  W.