The country that raised us
After nearly a century, the Willadsens remain rooted on Wyoming’s Pole Mountain
Jim and Iris Willadsen, 91 and 90, spent their lives watching the landscape around Pole Mountain change. They remember when the road across the mountain was gravel. When cowboys slept at a nearby camp and poker games could be heard until daylight. They remember when the mountain belonged largely to the military, not the public, and recreation was limited. Through all those changes, one thing remained the same: they continued stewarding and working the land. The Willadsen family was among the...-
Volunteering for National Public Lands Day
September 25,2026
As summer comes to a close and we start the transition into the next season of school, football, and a long-awaited break from the heat—it can help to mark that rejuvenation through a change of -
Guardians of the confluence: Recreation and conservation protect Alaska’s Russian River
September 23,2026
Although the Russian River hosts tens of thousands of anglers within every year, the health of the river and its shoreline is the best it's been in 50 years—thanks to the work of volunteers and -
Water, woodchips and wildlife
September 18,2026
Rolling down the hills of northern Arizona, a sea of juniper trees steadily encroaches into the grasslands area. Nestled among them, a massive woodchipper kicks up dust into the dry air as a crew -
Wildfire and shared stewardship: Before and after
September 15,2026
Editor’s note: Formal agreements between states and the Forest Service are essential for landscape scale work, and even more so in times of crisis. In Utah two wildfires and a commitment to work -
Where emergency response runs deep
September 10,2026
For most of the year, Lynne Chastain-Carpenter, MaryGrace Bedwell and Tray Hall work in different parts of the Forest Service with responsibilities that typically have little connection to fire -
High Glade Lookout rebuilt and ready for fire duty
August 28,2026
“Temperature is 69 degrees. Relative humidity is 48%. Winds from the south, 2-3 miles per hour. High Glade,” said Annelle Durham as she lowered the radio, a callout eight years in the making. In 2018 -
Training before the fire: Where preparation meets the line
August 26,2026
The orange cones are set, and the clock starts running. Inside the cab of a Forest Service fire engine, a firefighter from Wyoming grips the wheel and begins running the truck backward through a -
The country that raised us
September 29,2026
Jim and Iris Willadsen, 91 and 90, spent their lives watching the landscape around Pole Mountain change. They remember when the road across the mountain was gravel. When cowboys slept at a nearby camp -
Restoring Hanging Lake
July 28,2026
In the spring of 2023, Emily Kasyon hiked the Hanging Lake Trail in the White River National Forest for the first time. The water was so high she waded through it the entire way up. “My very first
