Across Boundaries

Last week, Secretary of Agriculture, Tom Vilsack, announced a "new way" of managing our nation's forests. Rather than viewing lands by ownership patterns: private, state, federal, the United States Forest Service will be charged with managing all our forests. In other words, viewing lands as a landscape.

While this has been a much advocated position through academia, it's a welcome relief to see the federal government recognize that one of this nation's most valuable natural resources, our forest ecosystems, must transcend boundaries. The wealth of knowledge, research dollars, and plain common sense that the federal government has and can share with private land owners and state natural resource departments, much less the common boundaries between each of these stakeholders, mandates this type of management scheme.

From protecting water supplies to addressing pests, boundaries are false barriers to good management.

I have been, frankly, a little worried about the Obama Administration's goals for rural areas. This announcement, at least, mitigates some concern.