USDA Forest Service, Eastern Region

Points of Pride

AMERICA'S OUTDOORS

America’s Outdoors (AO) is an interagency visitor information center located on the ground floor of the Eastern Regional Office in downtown Milwaukee. It was established in March 1995 under a Memorandum of Understanding between the USDA Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management, and National Park Service. The USDA’s Natural Resource Conservation Service and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service were added as partners in March 2001. AO offers customers a “one-stop convenience shop” for recreation information on federal lands, as well as, programs and resources on conservation assistance and environmental education. The center participates in the Wisconsin Sport show and, in conjunction with partners, puts on events such as National Public Lands Day and Earth Day at the Urban Treehouse site. The AO partnership allows for coordination of funds, grants, and partners that benefit the five federal agencies involved, as well as, state and local partners. The center is also an Eastern National Forests Interpretive Association outlet that sells nature books and Smokey Bear items.

Each summer since 1996, AO has hosted a team of four Conservation Education interns who teach diverse audiences of urban children in the Milwaukee area about the natural world. The goal of the Conservation Education Intern program is to interact with urban youth from diverse backgrounds providing insight about natural resources, environmental processes and issues, and stewardship. The interns make three-four visits to each site, and typically reach 1,500 – 2000 children each summer.

EASTERN REGION HONOR AWARDS

For the past twenty years, the Eastern Region’s annual Honor Awards ceremony has showcased the outstanding accomplishments of the Eastern Region’s dedicated employees, retirees, and private citizens. The ceremony is held in late November or early December to coincide with a Regional Leadership Team meeting. Awards are presented by the Regional Foresters in ten categories identified by the Chief’s and Secretary of Agriculture’s Office, as well as, the Eastern Region. These categories include: Natural Resources Leadership and Stewardship, Multicultural Organization, Volunteers National Program, Outstanding Customer Service, and Safety and Occupational Health.

2004 was a record year for Honor Awards: 45 employees and private citizens were nominated for individual awards, and 52 groups representing 459 individuals received nominations as well. Nominations are solicited from all Regional employees and the Regional Leadership Team. A selection committee reviews the nominations and makes recommendations to the Regional Foresters for approval.

The Eastern Region leads the way in nominations for the prestigious Chief’s and Secretary of Agriculture’s Honor Awards. Each year, more than 50% of the Regional Forester’s Honor Award selections are forwarded to the Chief’s Office for consideration.

EASTERN AND SOUTHERN REGION'S UNIVERSITY

For the past 14 years, the Eastern and Southern Regions University (ESRU) has committed itself to the professional, technical, and personal development of employees. ESRU originated in 1992 by the Eastern Region, and was joined in 1997 by the Southern Region. The university revolutionized employee training by providing an integrated approach to curriculum development and delivery, and incorporated an Incident Command Team structure to manage it. As a result, ESRU has been able to provide more creative opportunities to share knowledge, network, improve the overall process of personal development, and provide a more effective and efficient delivery of training.

ESRU offers courses related to the Forest Service mission and goals, competencies, skills, and identified training needs under the umbrella of three “colleges” patterned after the Corporate Training Branch in the Washington Office (WO). The three colleges are: Foundation: courses that develop general competencies needed by all employees, regardless of position or grade level; Leadership: courses that develop leadership competencies for potential leaders, new to seasoned supervisors/managers and line management; and Technical: courses that develop technical subject matter competencies specific to an occupational series. Subject areas include: Natural Resources, Capital Resources, Human Resources, Public and Cooperative Relations, and Information Resources. Training is centralized Region-wide at a cost-effective location. Students choose courses from a menu of concurrent offerings. Instructors are recognized experts in their fields, and include in-house specialists, external consultants, and academia. Students are primarily from the Eastern and Southern Regions; however, about 15% come from other Forest Service regions, State and Private Forestry, Forest Service Research, the WO, and cooperating agencies or organizations.

Today ESRU continues to provide a quality learning experience for each student. The university received a U.S. Department of Agriculture Honor Award for Customer Service in June 2000. In 2005 we conducted the largest, single training event in Forest Service history; and this trend is expected to continue. The session was held in Jacksonville, Florida and over 1400 students were in attendance. As the Business Process Re-engineering for Human Resources is implemented, Employee Development will become a Center of Excellence. We are honored that Corporate Training had chosen to model a National University for delivery patterned after ESRU! It is recognized as an extremely effective delivery system.

FOREST PLAN REVISIONS

Forest plan revision has been a top priority for the Eastern Region since FY 2003 when Forest Supervisors were challenged to complete revisions in two to three years. Revisions for all units will be completed by the end of FY 2006. Our Region’s success in managing the plan revision process and our website of regional guidance are both used as examples throughout the country. The Midewin National Tallgrass Prairie and the Chequamegon-Nicolet National Forest are national pilots for establishing environmental management systems, and will be some of the first units in the system to initiate plan amendments under the 2005 planning rule.

Current Status: All plans are being completed under 1982 planning rule procedures. All but one forest scheduled for FY 2006 completion will have released Draft Environmental Impact Statements and Proposed Revised Plans by the end of FY 2005. Plan revision work in FY 2006 will focus on addressing comments received, publishing the final documents, and responding to administrative appeals.

Challenges: PN funding for the Region is expected to be significantly reduced in FY 2006 (down from $9.396 million in FY 2005 to about $5.634 million in FY 2006 based on the President’s budget request). The Regional Office planning team (a 9-member interdisciplinary team funded 50-100% in forest planning) is scheduled to disband at the end of FY 2005. Providing adequate funding and Regional technical support to complete revisions in FY 2006 will be a challenge.

Contact: Jo Reyer, Acting Director, Planning and Resource Information Management at (414) 297-1905.

STUDENT CAREER EXPERIENCE PROGRAM (SCEP)

In Fiscal Year 2000, the need to aggressively address changing occupational needs, workforce diversification, and skills development was recognized by the Regional Leadership Team (RLT). There was a strong need to focus on the long term needs of the Eastern Region. Therefore, the RLT committed to a plan of filling positions through the Student Career Experience Program (SCEP).

The original Regional commitment began with the selection of students to fill 17 positions. This commitment has grown to a total of 51 Regionally funded SCEP positions. The program is managed by Civil Rights Director Terry J. West, Sr.

The SCEP has proven to be one of the most successful tools available to accomplish Regional objectives. The challenges for conservation leadership require us to develop a diversified workforce to supply some of our future leaders. We must continue to reach out to those schools which have high diversity enrollment to include students with disabilities.

The Eastern Region has made a long-term commitment to the students and to the development and diversification of our future workforce. It is the policy of the Eastern Region to convert all of the SCEP students who graduate and have maintained satisfactory performance to permanent employees within the Region.

The Region is very fortunate to have 31 students currently in the Regionally funded program. These students have been recruited to fill many positions including: Wildlife Biologist, Public Affairs Specialist, Forester, Outdoor Recreation Planner, Lands Cadastral Surveyor, Soil Scientist, Civil Engineer, Geologist, Fisheries Biologist, Outdoor Recreation Planner, Archaeologist, Human Resource Specialist, Landscape Architect, and Forest Ecology—Botany. In FY 2005, we will convert our first PhD candidate to a career appointment.

We work with a variety of schools nationwide to attract and recruit the best candidates available. We actively support and participate in the Multicultural Workforce Strategic Initiative (MWSI), recruiting and placing recommended students. We also host an annual formal SCEP Orientation to provide our students with training in Safety and Health, Employee Benefits, Fiscal Responsibility, Ethics and Conduct, and Training and Career Development.

Our students are involved in many projects which have Regional impacts. Florence Pridgen, Equal Employment Opportunity Specialist, is the SCEP Program Coordinator.

URBAN CONNECTIONS

In late 2000, the National Forest System (NFS), State and Private Forestry, and Forest Service Research in the East committed to jointly reach out to urban audiences. The result has been a unique and newly formed “urban arm” of the Eastern Region, the Urban Connections (UC) program, which addresses the information needs and values of urban citizens. UC aims to increase the involvement of underrepresented urban groups in Forest Service activities, and bridge gaps between rural communities and city dwellers through partnerships with national forests, other federal agencies, and state and local organizations.

Examples of on-going or planned UC activities include:

• Outreach areas are currently Detroit, Boston, Milwaukee, Minneapolis, Bronx New York (Chiefs request), Chicago, and Ohio (preliminary conversation);
• Establishment of remote site offices and employees in Boston and Detroit without direct cost to the Agency. One Boston employee is a SCEP conversion, and Detroit has a shared cost employee from the Huron-Manistee National Forest;
• The Chief and Regional Forester Randy Moore have planned visits to UC events in Detroit with Greenfield Village (The Henry Ford) and in Boston with a community dialogue group at the Boston Aquarium;
• Participated in Centennial events in Chicago, Washington, DC, and Detroit. Greenfield Village event in Detroit featured Char Miller and Regional Forester Randy Moore. Helped to publicize the Centennial celebration through Milwaukee Gumbo magazine, and by recognizing partners at events with Centennial items. Coordinators in Boston and Detroit have banners and posters for display and sharing with stakeholders;
• Program highlights have included: community dialogue sessions in all the cities noted above addressing an assortment of topics and emerging issues; extensions of NFS messages through networking; providing technical assistance; forest exploration and community outreach;. establishment of a website; hiring authority executed for temporary hires in three cities; program partners have received Region 9 Honor Awards; presentations at various Forest service gatherings (both nationally and regionally); working with the Region’s Conservation Education Director and America’s Outdoors in Milwaukee. Additionally, partners include federal, state, city, non profit, volunteers, institutions, universities, and political audiences. Our stakeholders have increased by two/thirds in two years;
• Partnerships and /or agreements with over 11 entities, including: Greenfield Village with over 1.9 million visitors to explore the message of the Forest Service, and Boston Parks and Recreation Department. More will join in a Conservation Education event in Boston for High School students, as well as, in the coordination of over $240,000 of surplus computer equipment going to the Milwaukee Public School system; and
• Pre – work with Minnesota partners including the Minnesota Forest Research Council, Minnesota National Forests, University of Minnesota, and State and Private Forestry is underway.

URBAN TREE HOUSE

The Urban Tree House (UTH) Program is a Forest Service sponsored national program designed to help urban youth connect with local green spaces in order to learn more about the value of natural resources and the connection of local greenspaces to federal lands.

In 1999, Milwaukee’s Lynden Hill was dedicated as the fifth national urban tree house site. The partnership includes: Midtown Neighborhood Association, Milwaukee High School of the Arts, Neighborhood House (NH), Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, the Friends of Lynden Hill, and America’s Outdoors (AO).

Conservation education programming began at the site in the summer of 2000 and has continued with the addition of school year programming to this day. Each year, partnership funds have paid for a summer coordinator who works with a group of Forest Service conservation education interns to bring conservation programs and activities to the youth of the neighborhood and surrounding schools. Over the past two years, AO has developed a strong partnership with NH, and has coordinated with them to create a conservation education curriculum for interested Milwaukee Public Schools. Schools that sign up for this program and use of this curriculum receive three outdoor site visits with NH staff. One of these sites is the UTH.

In the past five years, the partnership has worked to: secure a 20-year lease from the city; facilitate informational and design meetings with interested parties; work with landscape architects and engineering students on draft designs; develop an interpretive plan; fundraise the estimated construction amount; and hire a construction and Landscape Design firm. Final design consists of an entryway, amphitheater, and several thematic settings where environmental education can take place. Construction is expected to begin in fall of 2005.

Last summer AO, in partnership with Horicon National Wildlife Refuge, several Milwaukee Public School classes, and NH, worked to take children through the graduated experience of learning in a local green space (UTH site), then a nature center, and finally to a federal land unit. We are hoping to expand this program summer 2005 to an Eastern Region national forest.

USDA Forest Service - Eastern Region
Last modified: Tuesday, 26 December 2006 http://www.fs.fed.us/r9