Agriculture—U.S. Forest Service
About the U.S. Forest Service
The Forest Service was established in 1905 and is now part of the Agriculture Department. It manages 193 million acres of national forest and grassland, an area about the size of Texas or 8.5 percent of the United States. There are 155 national forests and 20 national grasslands, organized into nine regions overseen by the Forest Service chief.
Unlike the Park Service, whose primary mission is to preserve America's treasured tracts of land, the Forest Service goal is to offer places for recreation and preserve the environment. The environmental community and the timber industry regularly disagree on the right balance for these goals. The Forest Service has hundreds, if not thousands of lawsuits pending against it, (though not all are over land management issues.)
Timber from federal forests is offered for auction at timber sales. The Forest Service also offers other ways to extract the potential resources from its lands, including leases to mine and licenses to harvest mushrooms.
The agency also works closely with the Interior Department to prepare for and fight wildfires, as well as other emergency response assistance.
Location
Address
1400 Independence Ave., SW
Washington, DC 20250
Outside sources
Many of the folks mentioned in the USDA profile.
The Society of American Foresters: Director of Corporate Relations, Bill Brumby, 301-897-8720 ext. 129, brumby@safnet.org
American Forest and Paper Association, an industry trade group. Jessica McFaul is press secretary, Jessicamcfaul@afandpa.org, 202-463-2466
American Lands Allicance, an environmental group: Jen Sawada, Campaign Associate, jksawada@americanlands.org, 202-547-9400
Earthjustice, the organization that often provides attorneys for the environmental community, 202-667-4500. John McManus is media director, 510-550-6707.
The Wilderness Society. Christopher Lancette is communications director, chris-lancette@tws.org, 202-429-2692. Find a list of press contacts at http://wilderness.org/content/media-contacts
National Environmental Trust. Lisa Cutler is deputy director of communications, lcutler@pewtrust.org, 202-552-2169
Does this agency's information need updating? programs@nationalpress.org
Contact Information
- 800-832-1355
- info@fs.fed.us
Press Office Contacts
Press Office: 202-205-1134
Leo Kay, communications director
lkay@fs.fed.us
Joseph Walsh, program manager
jwalsh@fs.fed.us
Donna Drelick, media officer
ddrelick@fs.fed.us
The National Interagency Fire Center press office (Boise, Idaho): 208-387-5050