WASHINGTON, D.C.—The Forest Service is making strides in upgrading its telecommunication infrastructure and bringing broadband internet to rural communities.

A creative solution born of devastation

Hurricane Maria struck Puerto Rico in September 2017 and caused significant damage to the entire island. Over 3 million people were without running water, power or reliable communication in the aftermath. El Yunque National Forest needed extensive work that required relocating several buildings to allow for repairs and, in some cases, completely needed to rebuild damaged facilities.

During an assessment after the storm, workers discovered damage to the copper lines needed to support safety features such as alarms. Buildings needed new lines, but the high price and unavailability of copper, as well as changes in the telecommunication industry, made replacing the copper unaffordable.

The Forest Service decided to use a plain old telephone service in a box type of solution, which provides a way to adapt old lines to updated technology, such as fiberoptic cable, and allows the use of digital services, which are cheaper to operate and easier to fix.

“Using a POTS in a box type solution at the Puerto Rico location allowed us to keep our existing telephone lines in place while removing the dependency on copper infrastructure,” said Deni Sullivan, Chief Information Office branch chief of Information Technology Service Integration. “This is a great example of the Forest Service investing in new technologies with a side benefit of improving cellular coverage in the area for the public.”

The success in Puerto Rico encouraged the Forest Service to look at other locations where similar solutions could be used.

“This was a first solution install,” said Lutia Barber, CIO telecommunications mission area control officer. “The lessons we learned from Hurricane Maria will now continue throughout the Forest Service into the future as we transform our infrastructure to better support our rural communities.”

A ranger district in need

The Ocoee Ranger District on Cherokee National Forest recently received an upgrade to fiberoptic cable and, as a result, has been operating since November with reliable broadband internet.

Philip Earhart, district ranger, immediately noticed the difference the new internet capability made for his staff. “For the first time, I saw my folks utilizing a virtual meeting from the office without technical issues such as screens repeatedly freezing or conversation lag times,” he said. “We were able to talk, display maps and share information to support our current fire incidents.”

Before the upgrade, people stationed at the district had to take turns holding virtual meetings or turn off their camera and screen-sharing functions because bandwidth could only support one person in a meeting at a time. When employees had virtual meetings or online training, they would often return home to use their personal internet.

The new upgrade has changed that. Employees can now access online regional- and national-level initiatives and quickly serve the public stopping in for a pass or a permit. Most importantly, when dealing with wildfires, teams now have critical updates at their fingertips and can communicate with one another with little to no delay.

“The upgrade has been a complete game-changer for us to be able to accomplish our mission,” said Earhart. “We recently had approximately 120 off-forest resources helping us with all the fires we’ve had, and we had no internet at the work center where we hold briefings every day. That site is now in the queue for broadband installation as well.”

As an added benefit, the town of Benton, Tennessee, where the district is located, is one step closer to having high-speed internet.

Making a move in the Ozarks

Patrick Fortune, technical project manager for the CIO Facility Move Support Team, has been involved in numerous facility moves and infrastructure upgrades. “We’ve done everything from small offices to fire dispatch centers to major network areas,” he said. “We help them move from one spot to another or upgrade their equipment.”

Fortune and his team helped move Ozark National Forest’s Jasper Ranger District last spring. It was being co-located with the Koen Experimental Forest to reduce the footprint of the Forest Service in Jasper, Arkansas. “The main goal was to provide the people working there with both voice and data connectivity.”

To provide the Forest Service with the voice and data service needed also meant an upgrade for the town of Jasper. Relocating the ranger district required a broadband circuit due to the distance between the building and local telephone lines. The town of Jasper was then able to use the new infrastructure to provide broadband internet to the town residents.

“It’s a win-win situation,” said Fortune. “We get to help people from Mississippi, West Virginia, Arkansas, all over. We get fiberoptic in there and lay down the infrastructure, and the rest of the community can use that same infrastructure. We’re bringing information to more people.”

CIO continues to upgrade the agency's internet infrastructure. Currently, 32 dedicated internet solutions are being installed with another 140 scheduled for fiscal year 2024. These upgrades and service extensions not only help the agency, they allow rural communities to further extend their own services.