The United States Forest Service (USFS) is an agency of the U.S. Department of Agriculture that administers the nation's 154 national forests and 20 national grasslands. The Forest Service manages 193 million acres (780,000 km2) of land. Major divisions of the agency include the Chief's Office, National Forest System, State and Private Forestry, Business Operations, and Research and Development. The agency manages about 25% of federal lands and is the only major national land management agency not part of the U.S. Department of the Interior, which manages the National Park Service, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and the Bureau of Land Management.
A ranger, park ranger, park warden, or forest ranger is a person entrusted with protecting and preserving parklands – national, state, provincial, or local parks.
Rothrock State Forest is a Pennsylvania state forest in Pennsylvania Bureau of Forestry District #5. The main offices are located in Huntingdon in Huntingdon County, Pennsylvania in the United States.
In the state of New Jersey, the New Jersey Division of Parks and Forestry is an administrative division of the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection. In its most visible role, the Division is directly responsible for the management and operation of New Jersey's public park system which includes 42 state parks, 11 state forests, 3 recreation areas, and more than 50 historic sites and districts. However, its duties also include protecting state and private lands from wildfire, managing forests, educating the public about environmental stewardship and natural resources, as well as growing trees to maintain and restore forests in rural and urban areas, and to preserve the diversity of the trees within the forests.
Nolde Forest Environmental Educational Center is a 665-acre (269 ha) Pennsylvania state park in Cumru Township, Berks County, Pennsylvania, in the United States. Programs are offered for youth and adult groups, school groups, and individuals. The center grounds provide opportunities for hiking, birdwatching, and nature photography. The park is open from sunrise until sunset. Nolde Forest Environmental Education Center is on Pennsylvania Route 625 just south of Reading.
Ralph Sheldon Hosmer was Hawaii's first territorial forester, a contemporary of Gifford Pinchot who was among the group of educated American foresters that organized what is now the United States Forest Service. Hosmer later joined the faculty of Cornell University as head of the department of Forestry, where he served for 28 years until his retirement.
Clemmons Educational State Forest (CESF) is a 825-acre (3.34 km2) North Carolina State Forest in Clayton. It is North Carolina's first educational state forest, and it is operated by the North Carolina Forest Service. The site features self-guided nature trails with audio exhibit stations, the Forestry Exhibit Center with interactive exhibits about the ecology of forests, soil, water, wildlife and the state's cultural history.
James Goodwin Forest is a 1,169-acre (473 ha) managed forest near Carthage, North Carolina. The forest is managed by the NC Natural Resources Foundation for NC State University's Department of Forestry and Environmental Resources.
Holmes Educational State Forest (HESF) is a 235-acre (0.95 km2) state forest, located in Henderson County, North Carolina. It is near the much larger DuPont State Recreational Forest, which is responsible for its management. The forest is in the Blue Ridge Mountains, and it has rugged terrain with a mixture of hardwood forest, rhododendron, and flame azalea.
Rendezvous Mountain State Park is a 1,800-acre (7.3 km2) North Carolina state park in Purlear, North Carolina. It was originally established as North Carolina's third state park. From 1984 to early 2022, the park was operated by the North Carolina Forest Service as Rendezvous Mountain Educational State Forest.
Turnbull Creek Educational State Forest (TCESF) is a 890-acre (3.6 km2) North Carolina State Forest in Elizabethtown, North Carolina. It is the only educational state forest located in North Carolina's coastal plain. Jones Lake State Park is adjacent to the forest, and both are surrounded by Bladen Lakes State Forest. The forest's primary purpose is public education of forestry practices.
A conservation officer is a law enforcement officer who protects wildlife and the environment. A conservation officer may also be referred to as an environmental technician or technologist, game warden, forest ranger, forest watcher, forest guard, forester, gamekeeper, investigator, wilderness officer, wildlife officer, or wildlife trooper.
The Ohio Department of Natural Resources (ODNR) is the Ohio state government agency charged with ensuring "a balance between wise use and protection of our natural resources for the benefit of all." ODNR regulates the oil and gas industry, the mining industry, hunting and fishing, and dams, while maintaining natural resources such as state parks, state nature preserves, state wildlife areas, state forests, and state waterways. It was created in 1949 by the Ohio Legislature.
Sun Pass State Forest is one of six state forests managed by the Oregon Department of Forestry. The forest is located 40 miles (64 km) north of Klamath Falls, Oregon near the southeastern corner of Crater Lake National Park. It is the largest single block of Oregon state forestry land east of the Cascade Mountains. The forest is managed as part of the Klamath-Lake District, comprising 21,317 acres (86.27 km2) of the 33,739 state-owned acres within the district.
The Virginia Department of Forestry (VDOF) was established in 1914 to prevent and suppress forest fires and reforest bare lands. Since its inception, the agency has grown and evolved to encompass other protection and management duties:
Starting in 1876, and undergoing a series of name changes, the U.S. Forest Service grew to protect and use millions of acres of forest on public land. Gifford Pinchot, an early advocate of scientific forestry, along with President Theodore Roosevelt and conservation organizations, led the effort to manage forest for the public good.
Henry Ernest Hardtner was a Louisiana businessman and conservationist regarded as "the father of forestry in the South." He founded and named the town of Urania in La Salle Parish and served single terms as a Democrat in both houses of the Louisiana State Legislature. In 1900 he was the Republican candidate for Louisiana's 5th congressional district, losing to future U.S. Senator Joseph E. Ransdell of Lake Providence in East Carroll Parish.
William Willard Ashe was an American forester and botanist. He was known as a prolific collector of plant specimens and an early proponent of conservationism in the Southern United States.
The New Jersey Forest Fire Service (NJFFS) is an agency within the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection. Founded in 1906 with a focus on wildland fire suppression and fire protection, the Forest Fire Service is the largest firefighting department within the state of New Jersey in the United States with 85 full-time professional firefighting personnel, and approximately 2,000 trained part-time on-call wildland firefighters throughout the state. Its mission is to protect "life and property, as well as the state's natural resources, from wildfire".
