Natureserve To Assist Forest Service Work To Protect National Forests
The U.S. Department of Agriculture Forest Service and NatureServe, a non-profit conservation group, have signed an agreement to work together to conserve national forests and grasslands.
A Memorandum of Understanding, signed today at the Forest Service’s headquarters in Washington, D.C., furthers an ongoing partnership between the two organizations. The Forest Service and NatureServe have a successful 25-year history of working on a broad range of cooperative projects in areas such as species viability assessments, inventory for rare and endangered species, ecosystem classification and mapping, and forest planning.
“The Forest Service relies daily on the scientific data, information management tools, and conservation services provided by NatureServe and its affiliated state natural heritage programs,” said Dale Bosworth, chief of the Forest Service. “Partnerships with organizations such as NatureServe allow the Forest Service to do more of the important conservation work that benefits the public.”
“The Forest Service is responsible for practicing stewardship on some of the most ecologically significant public lands and waters in America,” said Mark Schaefer, NatureServe’s president and CEO. “We are proud to support the Forest Service’s work to better understand and manage these special places and the species that depend on them.”
NatureServe has developed a nationally consistent vegetation classification that is used by the Forest Service to assist resource management at a number of national forests.
The two organizations are currently working to link this classification with the Forest Service’s forest inventory and analysis program, which will help to provide better understanding of the changing nature of the nation’s forest ecosystems.