In recognition of their nearly 70 years of combined service to the Pacific Northwest Ski Areas Association, Garth Ferber, Kenny Kramer, and Mark Moore are sharing the group’s 2012 Partner of the Year awards.

The three are meteorologists employed by the Northwest Weather and Avalanche Center– a unit of the U.S. Forest Service located in National Weather Service Forecast Office in Seattle, Wash.

The Partner honor is reserved for a Forest Service employee who significantly and decisively helps to improve the quality and safety of Pacific Northwest winter sports facilities. This year the Association broke with tradition and presented three awards. Read more »

Pacific Northwest Rappel Academy students practice their trade. US Forest Service photo.

Rappellers are firefighters who are delivered to remote and inaccessible wildfires by means of dropping down a rope from helicopters hovering 250 feet high.

Earlier this month over 50 veteran Forest Service rappellers throughout the West prepared for a new fire season with training and recertification classes in Oregon and Idaho. Read more »

Welcome to the Volcanic Legacy Scenic Byway All American Road.

This 500-mile byway celebrates the spectacular scenery of the volcanic landscapes between Lake Almanor in California and Crater Lake, Oregon.

Along this journey from volcano to volcano you’ll find opportunities for adventure, exploration, communion with nature and an appreciation for the culture and history of the region. You’ll also find residents eager to share the beauty and mystery of this land that is dotted with evidence of an eruptive past. Read more »

Where no clean soil was encountered under the waste pile, removal crew cleaned the site down to within 1/2" of bedrock. USFS photo.

For over a century, toxic runoff from the Blue Ledge Mine destroyed  aquatic life and fisheries in Joe Creek, a tributary to the world-famous Rogue River in Oregon. Read more »

A yellow pipe transports the methane from the digester to the 1MW generator in the mechanical building.

Tillamook County, located on Oregon’s northern coast, is home to a concentration of dairy operations and with them, plenty of cow manure. Advances in the renewable energy industry have proven that an abundance of livestock waste is opportunity for sustainable economic development through domestic energy production. Read more »

L-R: Orlando Housing Authority President Vivian Bryant; Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack; Rural Development Florida State Director Richard Machek and Rural Development Florida Single Family Housing Program Director Daryl Cooper participated in a business roundtable in Orlando, Fla., last Friday. They discussed the USDA Rural Development Home Refinancing Pilot Program which is available to USDA borrowers in 19 states.

When most people think of Orlando, Florida, they envision exciting theme parks, Cinderella’s castle and a mouse with big ears.  But when USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack visited Orlando on February 24^th, it was with a different vision in mind. Read more »