December, 2018
Next month I will be retiring from the USDA Forest Service after 35 years of service. With 16 of those years being stationed here on the Salem Ranger District.
So here are some of my parting thoughts.
One, we are truly blessed to live in this part of our nation where we have ready access to the forest and riverways. Not everyone has the ability to be within minutes of enjoying our nation’s public lands. In other parts of the world, the majority of land is in private ownership and its citizens are limited to where they can hike, camp, hunt and fish. Not so for us.
To the young people, as I have written in many articles over the years STAY IN SCHOOL! I have had many young people ask me about careers with the Forest Service and I remind them that their competition for jobs with the Forest Service, at a minimum, all have a High School Diploma, and the vast majority have a Bachelor Degree if not a Master’s Degree. Also remember, the USDA Forest Service is a national agency, not a state agency. So a career with Forest Service could take them all over the nation.
With the Mark Twain National Forest having 1.5 million acres in the state of Missouri we cannot be everywhere. So we depend on you, the public, to let us know when they see someone abusing or misusing the forest. When people dump their trash on the forest, it is our tax dollars that are used to clean up their trash instead of being used to maintain the forest roads and campgrounds. When people steal timber from the forest they are taking monies away from the county, because 25% of all the monies made on the National Forest come back to the county for roads and schools. And for people who are arsonists and start fires on the forest…you are putting people’s lives and livelihood on the line. So I am asking you, the owners of National Forest, to please report these activities when you see them taking place.
And lastly, as I have closed out each of these articles “Get out and enjoy your National Forest!”. Take your kids, grandkids, parents and grandparents out and enjoy the forest as a family. Take a short or long hike, go fishing or mushroom hunting, ride your bike or ATV/UTV through the forest or better yet go hunting or camping and sit around a camp fire roasting s’mores and telling stories.
For more information about the Mark Twain National Forest, or the Salem Ranger District in particular, you can contact us at 573-729-6656 or look us up on the internet at https://www.fs.usda.gov/mtnf
Get out and enjoy your National Forest!
