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USDA Forest Service Assists Afghan Relief
Operation
In Central Asia, millions of Afghan refugees and displaced
persons faced the harsh winter season in near famine
conditions. The USDA
Forest Service helped other government and non-governmental
organizations in the region with humanitarian relief
efforts by coordinating logistics both in Central Asia
and Washington, DC. Specifically, USDA Forest Service
officers ensured the safe and efficient delivery of
supplies, including food, shelter material, blankets,
and other relief commodities. With funding from the
U.S.
Agency for International Development's Office of Foreign
Disaster Assistance, the USDA Forest Service deployed
5 logistics and field officers to Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan,
and Pakistan for a total of 41 person-weeks in 2001.
This work was accomplished through the USDA Forest Service's
International Programs' Disaster
Assistance Support Program.
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Madagascar:
Moving Forestry Forward
In early April 2001, the USDA
Forest Service conducted an exploratory mission
to the biodiversity-rich nation of Madagascar. During
their visit, representatives from the U.S.
Agency for International Development/Madagascar
and its partners outlined priorities to help Madagascar
move forward with its conservation, community, and economic
development initiatives. One of the priorities was to
assess the means to better manage the nation's forest
areas-taking into account agricultural, population,
and industrial pressures. Such an approach would not
only consider forest corridors important for biodiversity
conservation, but also concentrate on pine and eucalyptus
plantations and natural forest stands surrounding some
of these corridors.
Three months later, the USDA Forest Service sent a follow-up
interdisciplinary team, including John Townsley and
Peter Gaulke, to Madagascar to address whether management
of these plantations and natural forest stands can help
alleviate pressure on protected forest areas while maintaining
watershed health. The team's work will provide forest,
plantation, and watershed management strategies for
the region, helping in-country partners assess what
is happening in the forests and surrounding areas. Working
directly with the Agency for International Development's
partners, the USDA Forest Service team aims to develop
forest management plans as well as action plans to help
Madagascar better manage its forests and conserve some
of the world's unique and valuable wildlife and natural
resources.
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International
Bicknell's Thrush Partnership
Bicknell's
thrush is one of the least-known breeding birds in North
America. In the summer, it occupies a very restricted
and highly fragmented breeding range in areas of Quebec,
Canada, New York State's Catskill Mountains; Vermont's
Green Mountain National Forest; New Hampshire's White
Mountains; and two small sections of Maine. During the
winter months, it inhabits an even more limited range
in eastern Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Haiti, and
Jamaica.
Bicknell's
thrush only number around 50,000 worldwide and are considered
by the Partners-In-Flight Conservation Plan Management
to be of extremely high priority for conservation action.
Yet, thrush homes are becoming increasingly threatened
due to poor forestry practices and human expansion.
In
July 2001, International Programs
sponsored an exchange between Bicknell's thrush experts
from the Green Mountain National Forest, the Dominican
Republic, and the Vermont
Institute of Natural Science. At the meeting, stakeholders
formed a new partnership dedicated to conducting fieldwork
to study and conserve thrush habitats emphasizing protected
area management, forest management practices, and bird
population monitoring.
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USDA
Forest Service Attends Seventh World Wilderness Congress
Wilderness
experts and other members of a USDA
Forest Service delegation headed up by Elizabeth
Estill, Deputy Chief, Programs and Legislation, attended
the 7th World Wilderness Congress in Port Elizabeth,
South Africa, in November 2001. The congress focused
on wildlands and the dependent human and wildlife communities.
The congress pursued several related topics, including
private and public sector wilderness, sustainable tourism,
and science and management in wildlands conservation.
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