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This is the fourth installment of a miniseries about amphibian conservation and determination called For the Frogs. In each episode, we will meet to one native amphibian that can be found in California's national forests. These creatures are important to ecological health and can deepen our connections with public lands, but they are also in a state of decline. Fortunately, a village of specialists are devoted to conserving these species. The stories of their resolute conservation efforts, pursued through obstacles and setbacks, provides portraits of determination that we can pocket and apply to our own personal experiences with adversity. This time, we meet the Yosemite toad and leap into long-term monitoring, a process of investigation that tracks changes in frog populations.
This is the fifth and final installment of a miniseries about amphibian conservation and determination called For the Frogs. This time, we meet the mountain yellow-legged frog and tag along during a reintroduction of this endangered species to the Angeles National Forest.
This is the first installment of a miniseries about amphibian conservation and determination. We're calling the miniseries For the Frogs. In each episode, we will meet to one native amphibian that can be found in California's national forests. These creatures are important to ecological health, and once we get to know them, they can deepen our connections with public lands. But each of these species is in a state of decline due to overlapping threats, including pathogens, introduced predators, habitat loss, drought and wildfire. Fortunately, there is a village of specialists devoted to conserving these species despite the colossal challenge of the threat supergroup. The stories of their resolute conservation efforts, pursued through obstacles and setbacks, provides portraits of determination that we can pocket and apply to our own personal experiences with adversity.
This is the second installment of a miniseries about amphibian conservation and determination called For the Frogs. In each episode, we will meet to one native amphibian that can be found in California's national forests. These creatures are important to ecological health and can deepen our connections with public lands, but they are also in a state of decline. Fortunately, a village of specialists are devoted to conserving these species. The stories of their resolute conservation efforts, pursued through obstacles and setbacks, provides portraits of determination that we can pocket and apply to our own personal experiences with adversity. This time, we meet the Cascades frog and learn about a collaborative effort that led to the restoration of an important meadow.
This is the third installment of a miniseries about amphibian conservation and determination called For the Frogs. In each episode, we will meet to one native amphibian that can be found in California's national forests. These creatures are important to ecological health and can deepen our connections with public lands, but they are also in a state of decline. Fortunately, a village of specialists are devoted to conserving these species. The stories of their resolute conservation efforts, pursued through obstacles and setbacks, provides portraits of determination that we can pocket and apply to our own personal experiences with adversity. This time, we meet the California red-legged frog and hop into wetland construction.
We’re taking a wilderness walk in recognition of this anniversary year of the 1964 Wilderness Act, which created the National Wilderness Preservation System. But long before the Wilderness Act, and long before we were even using the word “wilderness”, these lands were used and stewarded by Indigenous communities. So designated wilderness areas are both Tribal homelands and places for recreation. Taking a walk in these lands is an opportunity to think about what wilderness means to us, which can help us connect to nature and each other.
In this episode we turn back towards Nature's Benefits and cut further into Timber and Wood Products by discussing Wood Innovations and Biomass Utilization with a program specialist from the Pacific Southwest Regional Office. We talk grants, mass timber, forward-thinking projects, tribal initiatives, urban forestry and more with guests from Angeles National Forest and a sawmill owner in Los Angeles.
There are portals within many national forests that offer entry into realms of the most curious forms of biodiversity. These underground chambers and hallways are called lava tubes or caves. In these landscapes below the ground, tiny creatures creep in the shadows in costumes of faded hues. Their pallor is paired with neighboring life forms that sparkle when hit by a flashlight, as if dusted with glitter. And these subterranean spaces are also archives that contain records of our Paleolithic and climatic past. To explore within, a readiness for crawling will be required. Fortunately, we have an experienced caver to show us the way.
In this episode, we ride along with a Recreation Technician from the Shasta-Trinity National Forest while he grooms 55 miles of trails for snowmobilers and ask him more about his work throughout the year, how does he make that corduroy pattern, what is that big red button for, and other hard snowball hitting questions. Then, we get behind the wheel. How hard can it be?
In 2024, the Pacific Southwest Research Station was part of the Forest Service's research and development organization. R&D employed more than 500 scientists, as well as several hundred technical and support personnel, located at 67 sites throughout the U.S. In this episode, we focus on three employees to share who they are and how they have contributed at the station.
The gray wolf (Canis lupus) became extirpated, or locally extinct, in California in the 1920s. But this large member of the dog family was once a native species in California that ranged widely here and throughout much of the United States. In recent years, gray wolves have been returning to California. Their slow comeback is a natural progression of population growth happening in others western states. Wildlife specialists with the USDA Forest Service and the California Department of Fish and Wildlife are working together to monitor and conserve this recovering species by looking for signs of their whereabouts with boots on the ground, satellite collars, and DNA analysis.
When it comes to getting perspective on forest health, sky-high observations are a big help in California. With over 30 million acres of forested land throughout the state, there is a lot of ground to cover. So, each summer, Forest Service aerial tree survey specialists spend several weeks in the aircraft gathering observations on tree mortality in lands of all ownerships.
National Forests are locations where we can listen to a concert of wildlife sounds. The caws, croaks, howls, growls and squeaks we might hear are gems of information about wildlife and their habitat. The USDA Forest Service and partners work together to conserve and restore land that wildlife species need to survive but to avoid unintended negative impacts on wildlife, it is essential to know what species are in a forest and where they are located.
Species are designated as endangered when their population is in significant decline, which often means documentation of these species in their natural habitat is increasingly challenging. Perhaps as difficult as landing on a conclusive verbal description of how they look. But knowing where endangered species like the fisher are in the landscape and how many of them are there, is essential for their conservation and recovery.
[Croak. Ribbit. Croak. Ribbit.] This is the anthem of Frog Fridays. This May-time wildlife survey is held within a stream on the Tahoe National Forest, where foothill yellow-legged frogs lay their eggs. Each outing is part training exercise, part data collection for future habitat restoration and part protection mission. And it is where we will literally get our feet wet in wildlife conservation.
In this episode we learn the valuable connection between beavers and meadows. In a meadow, the squish of mud and splash of a slightly flooded landscape are signs of health. It can be easy to overlook meadows within national forests, perhaps simply because our attention is more often drawn to things that fill a space - a lake, a mountain, a grove of trees - rather than what appears to be merely open space.
This is the audio version of our first Videocast (Search Cone Camp: I Feel the Need, the Need for Seed on YouTube) from one of the four Cone Camps held in 2023. The camps are built around a day in the classroom and a day in the field. Participants network and learn from industry experts from American Forests, USDA Forest Service, CAL FIRE, and the California Cone Corps. On the agenda: cone phenology, monitoring and collection techniques, seed needs, cone collection planning, contracting and coordinating with agencies, reporting crop sightings, field logistics, safety and more.
In this episode, we return once again to our series on Nature's Benefits. Today, we will focus on a benefit you can't see. Well, you can see the effects of it... it's a bit hard to explain. Luckily, we have Lara Buluc back to handle the reins, along with experts to talk about...Carbon.
Springtime is defined as an early or flourishing stage of development, and after a wildfire damages the landscape, we sometimes see teams of people replanting trees within the burn scar during the early part of the year. Jamie Hinrichs helps explain reforestation efforts in a very special place in the forest.
Have you ever wondered why some trees -- in certain locations, a lot of trees -- are brown and dying? The connection between bark beetles, drought and tree mortality is a topic of this episode and how researchers are looking into making trees less attractive...to bark beetles, not tree huggers.



