The United States secretary of agriculture is the head of the United States Department of Agriculture. The position carries similar responsibilities to those of agriculture ministers in other governments.
The United States Forest Service (USFS) is an agency within the U.S. Department of Agriculture that administers the nation's 154 national forests and 20 national grasslands covering 193 million acres (780,000 km2) of land. The major divisions of the agency are the Chief's Office, National Forest System, State and Private Forestry, Business Operations, as well as Research and Development. The agency manages about 25% of federal lands and is the sole major national land management agency not part of the U.S. Department of the Interior.
Thomas James Vilsack is an American politician serving as the 32nd United States secretary of agriculture in the Biden administration. He previously served in the role from 2009 to 2017 during the Obama administration. A member of the Democratic Party, he served as the 40th governor of Iowa from 1999 to 2007. During his tenure, Iowa experienced a peak in new CAFO construction.
Smokejumpers are specially trained wildland firefighters who provide an initial attack response on remote wildfires. They are inserted at the site of the fire by parachute. This allows firefighters to access remote fires in their early stages without needing to hike long distances carrying equipment and supplies. Traditional terrestrial crews can use only what they can carry and often require hours and days to reach fire on foot. The benefits of smokejumping include the speed at which firefighters can reach a burn site, the broad range of fires a single crew can reach by aircraft, and the larger equipment payloads that can be delivered to a fire compared to pedestrian crews.
Roadless area conservation is a conservation policy limiting road construction and the resulting environmental impact on designated areas of public land. In the United States, roadless area conservation has centered on U.S. Forest Service areas known as inventoried roadless areas. The most significant effort to support the conservation of these efforts was the Forest Service 2001 Roadless Area Conservation Rule.
Mark Rey is an American former timber industry lobbyist and administrator, who served as Undersecretary for natural resources and agriculture in the federal government of the United States in the Bush administration. He was sworn in as the undersecretary for natural resources and environment by the Agriculture Secretary, Ann M. Veneman on 2 October 2001. His responsibility was to monitor the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Forest Service and Natural Resource Conservation Service.
Jack Ward Thomas was the thirteenth chief of the U.S. Forest Service, serving during the Clinton administration years of 1993–1996.
The Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services (VDACS) is an agency of the Commonwealth of Virginia that is responsible for promoting the economic growth and development of Virginia's agricultural sector. It also provides environmental protection services and consumer protection programs.
Tony Tooke was the Chief of the United States Forest Service for a little over six months, from September 1, 2017, until he announced his retirement on March 7, 2018 due to numerous sexual misconduct allegations over his four decades of employment in numerous positions for the Forest Service.
Vicki Christiansen is an American government official who served as the 19th chief of the United States Forest Service from October 2018 to July 2021. Prior to assuming the role, Christiansen had spent seven years with the Forest Service and 30 years with the Washington State Department of Natural Resources and Arizona Department of Forestry and Fire Management.
Ferdinand Augustus Silcox was the fifth Chief of the United States Forest Service (USFS) of the Department of Agriculture, and was appointed on November 15, 1933, succeeding Robert Y. Stuart. He served as Chief until his death on December 20, 1939.
Lyle F. Watts served as the seventh Chief of the United States Forest Service (USFS) of the Department of Agriculture, from January 1943 to June 1952.
Richard E. McArdle served as the eighth Chief of the United States Forest Service (USFS) of the Department of Agriculture, from July 1, 1952 to March 17, 1962.
Edward P. Cliff served as the ninth Chief of the United States Forest Service (USFS) of the Department of Agriculture, from March 17, 1962 to April 29, 1972.
John R. McGuire served as the tenth Chief of the United States Forest Service (USFS) of the Department of Agriculture, from April 30, 1972, to June 30, 1979.
Homer Lee Wilkes is an American conservationist and government official from Mississippi. In 2021, Wilkes was nominated by President Joe Biden to serve as under secretary of agriculture for natural resources and environment.
Frederick Erskine Olmsted, also known as Fritz Olmsted, was an American forester and one of the founders of American forestry. Through his work with the United States Forest Service, Olmsted helped establish the national forest system in the United States and helped train the next generation of Forest Service agents and college professors. He was instrumental in the creation of at least twenty national forests in California and Alaska including the Muir Woods National Monument and Tongass National Forest. He also wrote the Use of National Forest Resources, a foundational Forest Service manual that laid the groundwork for the nation's enduring forest management system, elements of which remain in use today.
Randy Moore is an American soil scientist and forester serving as the 20th chief of the United States Forest Service, a position he has held since July 2021. He was appointed by Secretary Tom Vilsack.
Rexford F. Daubenmire was an American botanist and plant ecologist. He made significant contributions to the study of plant ecology throughout the twentieth century, including introducing a vegetation classification scheme, helping define the modern study of ecological succession, and writing the standard reference textbooks for ecologists of the time period. He helped pioneer the sampling techniques still used in vegetation measurement. He served as president of the Ecological Society of America for 1967 and was the 1979 recipient of the Eminent Ecologist Award.
