Scientist
A scientist is someone who conducts scientific research to advance knowledge in an area of interest. In classical antiquity, there was no real ancient analog of a modern scientist. Instead, philosophers engaged in the philosophical study of nature called natural philosophy, a precursor of natural science, it was not until the 19th century that the term scientist came into regular use after it was coined by the theologian and historian of science William Whewell in 1833. The term'scientist' was first coined by him for Mary Somerville because the term "man of science", more custom at that time, was inappropriate here. In modern times, many scientists have advanced degrees in an area of science and pursue careers in various sectors of the economy such as academia, industry and nonprofit environments; the roles of "scientists", their predecessors before the emergence of modern scientific disciplines, have evolved over time. Scientists of different eras have had different places in society, the social norms, ethical values, epistemic virtues associated with scientists—and expected of them—have changed over time as well.
Accordingly, many different historical figures can be identified as early scientists, depending on which characteristics of modern science are taken to be essential. Some historians point to the Scientific Revolution that began in 16th century as the period when science in a recognizably modern form developed, it wasn't until the 19th century that sufficient socioeconomic changes occurred for scientists to emerge as a major profession. Knowledge about nature in classical antiquity was pursued by many kinds of scholars. Greek contributions to science—including works of geometry and mathematical astronomy, early accounts of biological processes and catalogs of plants and animals, theories of knowledge and learning—were produced by philosophers and physicians, as well as practitioners of various trades; these roles, their associations with scientific knowledge, spread with the Roman Empire and, with the spread of Christianity, became linked to religious institutions in most of European countries.
Astrology and astronomy became an important area of knowledge, the role of astronomer/astrologer developed with the support of political and religious patronage. By the time of the medieval university system, knowledge was divided into the trivium—philosophy, including natural philosophy—and the quadrivium—mathematics, including astronomy. Hence, the medieval analogs of scientists were either philosophers or mathematicians. Knowledge of plants and animals was broadly the province of physicians. Science in medieval Islam generated some new modes of developing natural knowledge, although still within the bounds of existing social roles such as philosopher and mathematician. Many proto-scientists from the Islamic Golden Age are considered polymaths, in part because of the lack of anything corresponding to modern scientific disciplines. Many of these early polymaths were religious priests and theologians: for example, Alhazen and al-Biruni were mutakallimiin. During the Italian Renaissance scientists like Leonardo Da Vinci, Galileo Galilei and Gerolamo Cardano have been considered as the most recognizable polymaths.
During the Renaissance, Italians made substantial contributions in science. Leonardo Da Vinci made significant discoveries in anatomy; the Father of modern Science,Galileo Galilei, made key improvements on the thermometer and telescope which allowed him to observe and describe the solar system. Descartes was not only a pioneer of analytic geometry but formulated a theory of mechanics and advanced ideas about the origins of animal movement and perception. Vision interested the physicists Young and Helmholtz, who studied optics and music. Newton extended Descartes' mathematics by inventing calculus, he investigated light and optics. Fourier founded a new branch of mathematics — infinite, periodic series — studied heat flow and infrared radiation, discovered the greenhouse effect. Girolamo Cardano, Blaise Pascal Pierre de Fermat, Von Neumann, Khinchin and Wiener, all mathematicians, made major contributions to science and probability theory, including the ideas behind computers, some of the foundations of statistical mechanics and quantum mechanics.
Many mathematically inclined scientists, including Galileo, were musicians. There are many compelling stories in medicine and biology, such as the development of ideas about the circulation of blood from Galen to Harvey. During the age of Enlightenment, Luigi Galvani, the pioneer of the bioelectromagnetics, discovered the animal electricity, he discovered that a charge applied to the spinal cord of a frog could generate muscular spasms throughout its body. Charges could make frog legs jump if the legs were no longer attached to a frog. While cutting a frog leg, Galvani's steel scalpel touched a brass hook, holding the leg in place; the leg twitched. Further experiments confirmed this effect, Galvani was convinced that he was seeing the effects of what he called animal electricity, the life force within the muscles of the frog. At the University of Pavia, Galvani's colleague Alessandro Volta was able to reproduce the results, but was sceptical o
Letters patent
Letters patent are a type of legal instrument in the form of a published written order issued by a monarch, president, or other head of state granting an office, monopoly, title, or status to a person or corporation. Letters patent can be used for the creation of corporations or government offices, or for the granting of city status or a coat of arms. Letters patent are issued for the appointment of representatives of the Crown, such as governors and governors-general of Commonwealth realms, as well as appointing a Royal Commission. In the United Kingdom they are issued for the creation of peers of the realm. A particular form of letters patent has evolved into the modern patent granting exclusive rights in an invention. In this case it is essential that the written grant should be in the form of a public document so other inventors can consult it to avoid infringement and to understand how to "practice" the invention, i.e. put it into practical use. In the Holy Roman Empire, Austrian Empire and Austria-Hungary, imperial patent was the highest form of binding legal regulations, e. g.
Patent of Toleration, Serfdom Patent etc. The opposite of letters patent are letters close, which are personal in nature and sealed so that only the recipient can read their contents. Letters patent are thus comparable to other kinds of open letter, it is not clear how the contents of letters patent became published before collection by the addressee, for example whether they were left after sealing by the king for inspection during a certain period by courtiers in a royal palace, who would disseminate the contents back to the gentry in the shires through normal conversation and social intercourse. Today, for example, it is a convention for the British prime minister to announce that they have left a document they wish to enter the public domain "in the library of the House of Commons", where it may be perused by all members of parliament. Letters patent are so named from the Latin verb pateo, to lie open, accessible; the originator's seal was attached pendent from the document, so that it did not have to be broken in order for the document to be read.
Litterae in Latin meant "that, written" or "writing", in the sense of letters of the alphabet placed together in meaningful sequence on a writing surface, not a specific format of composition as the modern word "letter" suggests. Thus letters patent do not equate to an open letter but rather to any form of document, contract, despatch, decree, epistle etc. made public. They are called "letters" from their Latin name litterae patentes, used by medieval and scribes when the documents were written in Latin; this loanword preserves the collective plural "letters" Latin language uses to denote a message as opposed to a single alphabet letter. Letters patent are a form of open or public proclamation and a vestigial exercise of extra-parliamentary power by a monarch or president. Prior to the establishment of Parliament, the monarch ruled by the issuing of his personal written orders, open or closed, they can thus be contrasted with the Act of Parliament, in effect a written order by Parliament, approved by the monarch whose signature gives it force.
No explicit government approval is contained within letters patent, only the seal or signature of the monarch. Parliament today tolerates only a narrow exercise of the royal prerogative by issuance of letters patent, such documents are issued with prior informal government approval, or indeed are now generated by government itself with the monarch's seal affixed as a mere formality. In their original form they were written instructions or orders from the sovereign, whose order was law, which were made public to reinforce their effect. For the sake of good governance, it is of little use if the sovereign appoints a person to a position of authority but does not at the same time inform those over whom such authority is to be exercised of the validity of the appointment. According to the United Kingdom Ministry of Justice, there are 92 different types of letters patent; the Patent Rolls are made up of office copies of English royal letters patent, which run in an unbroken series from 1201 to the present day, with most of those to 1625 having been published.
The form of letters patent for creating peerages has been fixed by the Crown Office Order 1992. Part III of the schedule lays down nine pro forma texts for creating various ranks of the peerage, lords of appeal in ordinary, baronets; the following table organises the text from the letters patent by columns for each rank, with common text spanning multiple columns, depicting some of the similarities and differences among the proclamations. Gender-specific differences are highlighted in italics; the words "may have hold and possess" to "his heirs male aforesaid successively" and "have heretofore used and enjoyed or as they" were deleted for Dukes and Duchesses and Marchionesses, Earls and Countesses and hereditary Barons by the Crown Office Order 2000. In Commonwealth realms, letters patent are issued under the prerogative powers of the head of state, as an executive or royal prerogative, they are a rare, though significant, form of legislation which does not require the consent of parliament.
Letters patent may be used to grant royal assent to legislation. The primary source of letters patent in the United States are intelle
Brazil
Brazil the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At 8.5 million square kilometers and with over 208 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area and the fifth most populous. Its capital is Brasília, its most populated city is São Paulo; the federation is composed of the union of the 26 states, the Federal District, the 5,570 municipalities. It is the largest country to have Portuguese as an official language and the only one in the Americas. Bounded by the Atlantic Ocean on the east, Brazil has a coastline of 7,491 kilometers, it borders all other South American countries except Ecuador and Chile and covers 47.3% of the continent's land area. Its Amazon River basin includes a vast tropical forest, home to diverse wildlife, a variety of ecological systems, extensive natural resources spanning numerous protected habitats; this unique environmental heritage makes Brazil one of 17 megadiverse countries, is the subject of significant global interest and debate regarding deforestation and environmental protection.
Brazil was inhabited by numerous tribal nations prior to the landing in 1500 of explorer Pedro Álvares Cabral, who claimed the area for the Portuguese Empire. Brazil remained a Portuguese colony until 1808, when the capital of the empire was transferred from Lisbon to Rio de Janeiro. In 1815, the colony was elevated to the rank of kingdom upon the formation of the United Kingdom of Portugal and the Algarves. Independence was achieved in 1822 with the creation of the Empire of Brazil, a unitary state governed under a constitutional monarchy and a parliamentary system; the ratification of the first constitution in 1824 led to the formation of a bicameral legislature, now called the National Congress. The country became a presidential republic in 1889 following a military coup d'état. An authoritarian military junta came to power in 1964 and ruled until 1985, after which civilian governance resumed. Brazil's current constitution, formulated in 1988, defines it as a democratic federal republic. Due to its rich culture and history, the country ranks thirteenth in the world by number of UNESCO World Heritage Sites.
Brazil is considered an advanced emerging economy. It has the ninth largest GDP in the world by nominal, eight and PPP measures, it is one of the world's major breadbaskets, being the largest producer of coffee for the last 150 years. It is classified as an upper-middle income economy by the World Bank and a newly industrialized country, with the largest share of global wealth in Latin America. Brazil is a regional power and sometimes considered a great or a middle power in international affairs. On account of its international recognition and influence, the country is subsequently classified as an emerging power and a potential superpower by several analysts. Brazil is a founding member of the United Nations, the G20, BRICS, Union of South American Nations, Organization of American States, Organization of Ibero-American States and the Community of Portuguese Language Countries, it is that the word "Brazil" comes from the Portuguese word for brazilwood, a tree that once grew plentifully along the Brazilian coast.
In Portuguese, brazilwood is called pau-brasil, with the word brasil given the etymology "red like an ember", formed from brasa and the suffix -il. As brazilwood produces a deep red dye, it was valued by the European textile industry and was the earliest commercially exploited product from Brazil. Throughout the 16th century, massive amounts of brazilwood were harvested by indigenous peoples along the Brazilian coast, who sold the timber to European traders in return for assorted European consumer goods; the official Portuguese name of the land, in original Portuguese records, was the "Land of the Holy Cross", but European sailors and merchants called it the "Land of Brazil" because of the brazilwood trade. The popular appellation eclipsed and supplanted the official Portuguese name; some early sailors called it the "Land of Parrots". In the Guarani language, an official language of Paraguay, Brazil is called "Pindorama"; this was the name the indigenous population gave to the region, meaning "land of the palm trees".
Some of the earliest human remains found in the Americas, Luzia Woman, were found in the area of Pedro Leopoldo, Minas Gerais and provide evidence of human habitation going back at least 11,000 years. The earliest pottery found in the Western Hemisphere was excavated in the Amazon basin of Brazil and radiocarbon dated to 8,000 years ago; the pottery was found near Santarém and provides evidence that the tropical forest region supported a complex prehistoric culture. The Marajoara culture flourished on Marajó in the Amazon delta from 800 CE to 1400 CE, developing sophisticated pottery, social stratification, large populations, mound building, complex social formations such as chiefdoms. Around the time of the Portuguese arrival, the territory of current day Brazil had an estimated indigenous population of 7 million people semi-nomadic who subsisted on hunting, fishing and migrant agriculture; the indigenous population of Brazil comprised several large indigenous ethnic groups. The Tupí people were subdivided into the Tupiniquins and Tupinambás, there were many subdivisions of the other gro
Yosemite National Park
Yosemite National Park is an American national park located in the western Sierra Nevada of Central California, bounded on the southeast by Sierra National Forest and on the northwest by Stanislaus National Forest. The park is managed by the National Park Service and covers an area of 747,956 acres and sits in four counties: centered in Tuolumne and Mariposa, extending north and east to Mono and south to Madera County. Designated a World Heritage site in 1984, Yosemite is internationally recognized for its granite cliffs, clear streams, giant sequoia groves, mountains, meadows and biological diversity. 95% of the park is designated wilderness. On average, about 4 million people visit Yosemite each year, most spend the majority of their time in the 7 square miles of Yosemite Valley; the park set a visitation record in 2016, surpassing 5 million visitors for the first time in its history. Yosemite was central to the development of the national park idea. Galen Clark and others lobbied to protect Yosemite Valley from development leading to President Abraham Lincoln's signing the Yosemite Grant in 1864.
John Muir led a successful movement to have Congress establish a larger national park by 1890, one which encompassed the valley and its surrounding mountains and forests, paving the way for the National Park System. Yosemite is one of the largest and least fragmented habitat blocks in the Sierra Nevada, the park supports a diversity of plants and animals; the park has an elevation range from 2,127 to 13,114 feet and contains five major vegetation zones: chaparral and oak woodland, lower montane forest, upper montane forest, subalpine zone, alpine. Of California's 7,000 plant species, about 50% occur in the Sierra Nevada and more than 20% are within Yosemite; the park contains suitable habitat for more than 160 rare plants, with rare local geologic formations and unique soils characterizing the restricted ranges many of these plants occupy. The geology of the Yosemite area is characterized by granitic remnants of older rock. About 10 million years ago, the Sierra Nevada was uplifted and tilted to form its gentle western slopes and the more dramatic eastern slopes.
The uplift increased the steepness of stream and river beds, resulting in the formation of deep, narrow canyons. About one million years ago and ice accumulated, forming glaciers at the higher alpine meadows that moved down the river valleys. Ice thickness in Yosemite Valley may have reached 4,000 feet during the early glacial episode; the downslope movement of the ice masses cut and sculpted the U-shaped valley that attracts so many visitors to its scenic vistas today. The name "Yosemite" referred to the name of a renegade tribe, driven out of the area by the Mariposa Battalion; the area had been called "Ahwahnee" by indigenous people. Yosemite Valley has been inhabited for nearly 3,000 years, although humans may have first visited the area as long as 8,000 to 10,000 years ago; the indigenous natives called themselves the Ahwahnechee, meaning "dwellers in Ahwahnee." They are related to the Northern Mono tribes. Many tribes visited the area to trade, including nearby Central Sierra Miwoks, who lived along the drainage area of the Tuolumne and Stanislaus Rivers.
A major trading route went over Mono Pass and through Bloody Canyon to Mono Lake, just to the east of the Yosemite area. Vegetation and game in the region were similar to that present today; the California Gold Rush in the mid-19th century increased travel by European-Americans in the area, causing competition for resources between the regional Paiute and Miwok and the miners and hangers on. In 1851 as part of the Mariposa Wars intended to suppress Native American resistance, United States Army Major Jim Savage led the Mariposa Battalion into the west end of Yosemite Valley, he was pursuing forces of around 200 Ahwahneechee led by Chief Tenaya. Accounts from this battalion were the first well-documented reports of ethnic Europeans entering Yosemite Valley. Attached to Savage's unit was Dr. Lafayette Bunnell, the company physician, who wrote about his awestruck impressions of the valley in The Discovery of the Yosemite. Bunnell is credited with naming Yosemite Valley, based on his interviews with Chief Tenaya.
Bunnell wrote. The Miwok, a neighboring tribe, most white settlers considered the Ahwahneechee to be violent because of their frequent territorial disputes; the Miwok term for the Pai-Ute band was yohhe'meti, meaning "they are killers". Correspondence and articles written by members of the battalion helped to popularize the natural wonders of the Yosemite Valley and the surrounding area. Chief Tenaya and his Ahwahneechee were captured and their village burned; the chief and some others were allowed to return to Yosemite Valley. In the spring of 1852 they attacked a group of eight gold miners, moved east to flee law enforcement. Near Mono Lake, they took refuge with the nearby Mono tribe of Paiute, they stole horses from their hosts and moved away, but the Mono Paiutes tracked down and killed many of the Ahwahneechee, including Chief Tenaya. The Mono Paiute took the survivors as captives back to Mono Lake and absorbed them into the Mono Lake Paiute tribe. After these wars, a number of Native Americans continued to live within the boundaries of Yosemite.
A number of Indians supported the growing tourism industry by worki
Harry Yount
Henry S. Yount was an American Civil War soldier, mountain man, professional hunter and trapper, wilderness guide and packer, seasonal employee of the United States Department of the Interior, the first gamekeeper in Yellowstone National Park, he was nicknamed "Rocky Mountain Harry Yount". Yount served two terms in the Union Army during the American Civil War, he first enlisted for a six-month term in November 1861. He was wounded and taken prisoner by the Confederate States Army in an opening skirmish of the Battle of Pea Ridge in Arkansas in March 1862, held as a prisoner of war for nearly a month until released in a prisoner exchange, he served until the end of the war. He was promoted three times and was a company quartermaster sergeant when he was discharged in July 1865, he worked as a hunter and a prospector, as a bullwhacker for the U. S. Army, in the years following the Civil War. For seven years in the 1870s he worked as a guide and wrangler for the expeditions of the Hayden Geological Surveys, which mapped vast areas of the Rocky Mountains.
In 1880, Yount was hired by the United States Secretary of the Interior, Carl Schurz, to be the first gamekeeper in Yellowstone National Park, during his 14 months in that job wrote two annual reports for Schurz, which were submitted to Congress. His reports described the challenges of protecting the wildlife in the first U. S. national park and influenced the culture of the National Park Service, founded 35 years in 1916. Horace Albright, the second director of the National Park Service, called Yount the "father of the ranger service, as well as the first national park ranger". Yount was a prospector during much of the last four decades of his life. Harry Yount's paternal ancestors, Hans George Jundt and Anna Marie Jundt, arrived in Philadelphia in 1731, immigrants from Alsace-Lorraine. One of their sons, Andrew Yount, followed in 1751, moved to Randolph County, North Carolina. Andrew was a Quaker, as were his children, including Harry's paternal grandfather. Harry's parents were Catherine Shell Yount.
With a number of other Quaker family members, they emigrated from North Carolina to Missouri in the 1830s. Harry Yount's father, David Yount, was about 44 years old at the time of Harry's birth, Harry was the couple's tenth child. Harry Yount's uncle, George C. Yount, was a trapper and explorer who moved on from Missouri to Santa Fe and to California before Harry's birth. In the 1830s, George C. Yount became the first citizen of the United States to settle in Napa Valley in California, Mexican territory; the town of Yountville, California, is named after him. Two of Harry's older brothers and John Yount moved to the Napa Valley years later. There are conflicting accounts of Harry Yount's date of birth. Ernest Ingersoll wrote that he was born in Susquehanna County and different birth years have been mentioned by various writers, such as the anonymous author of a published biographical sketch who wrote that Yount was born in 1847, Thomas J. Bryant, who interviewed Yount in the latter years of his life and who speculated that 1837 was his birth date in an article published in the Annals of Wyoming, journal of the Wyoming State Historical Society.
However, research undertaken by William R. Supernaugh, an employee of the National Park Service, found military enlistment papers, Yount's Army pension file, the 1840 United States Census records, all of which indicate that Yount was born on March 18, 1839; these records show that his legal name was Henry S. Yount, his lifelong nickname was "Harry", his middle name is unknown. Although Yount's place of birth is uncertain, Supernaugh concludes it is unlikely he was born in Pennsylvania, but rather in Harmony Township, Washington County, because the 1840 census shows his father living there with a baby son. Henry was listed as 11 years old in the 1850 census. Harmony Township is a rural area about 75 miles southwest of St. Louis. Yount enlisted in the Union Army for a six-month term on November 9, 1861, served in Company F of Phelps' Regiment of the Missouri Infantry. John W. Phelps, his commanding general, was an ardent abolitionist. Yount was wounded in the leg in a skirmish just before the Battle of Pea Ridge began on March 6, 1862, taken prisoner by the Confederates.
As a captive, he was marched more than 90 miles to Fort Smith in his bare feet on cold, wet roads, was held there as a POW for 28 days before his release in a prisoner exchange. He was discharged from the Union Army in May 1862. Yount re-enlisted in Lebanon, Missouri, on August 9, 1862, served as a private in Company H of the 8th Regiment Missouri Volunteer Cavalry, a unit involved in 11 combat engagements during his service. On April 14, 1863, he was promoted to corporal, he was promoted to sergeant on December 9, 1863, to company quartermaster sergeant on June 13, 1864. He was discharged in Arkansas, on July 20, 1865, after the war had ended; as a result of his barefoot march to captivity, Yount developed rheumatism in both feet. When the Dependent and Disability Pension Act passed in 1890, he became eligible for a monthly partial disability pension of $6 in 1892, raised to $12 a month in 1900 and $25 in 1912. Yount was an active member of the Grand Army of the Republic, the post-war organization of veterans of the Union Army.
After the Civil War ended, Yount became engaged to Estella Braun, a Western Union employee in Detroit, Michigan. She was killed in a train wreck before their wedding could take place, he never married. Yount traveled to Fort Kearny, along the Oregon Trail in Ne
Iguazú National Park
The Iguazú National Park is a national park of Argentina, located in the Iguazú Department, in the north of the province of Misiones, Argentine Mesopotamia. It has an area of 677 km2; the area of the park was inhabited 10,000 years ago by the hunter-gatherers of the Eldoradense culture. They were displaced around 1,000 CE by the Guaraní, who brought new agricultural technologies, were displaced in turn by the Spanish and Portuguese conquistadores in the 16th century, though their legacy is still alive in this area; the first European to visit the zone was Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca, in 1542. The park was created in 1934 to protect one of the greatest natural beauties of Argentina, the Iguazu Falls, surrounded by the subtropical jungle; the Iguazú National Reserve was defined by law 18.801 of 7 October 1970 as constituting the western part of the Iguazú National Park. While the national park preserves nature with the least possible alteration, the reserve admits human activities and infrastructure.
Creation of the reserve allowed construction of an international airport and alienation of land for three tourist hotels. Across the Iguazu River lies its Brazilian counterpart. Both sites were declared World Heritage Sites by UNESCO, in 1984; the park would be part of the proposed Trinational Biodiversity Corridor, which aims to provide forest connections between conservation units in Brazil and Argentina in the Upper Paraná ecoregion. The southeast of the park adjoins the 84,000 hectares Urugua-í Provincial Park, created in 1990; the park lies within the Alto Paraná Atlantic forests ecoregion. The fauna of the park includes several rare and threatened species: jaguar, South American tapir, tirica, the black-fronted piping guan, the harpy eagle, the yacare caiman. One can find birds like the great dusky swift and large toucans, mammals like the coatí, a diversity of butterflies; the vinaceous amazon, named for its wine-colored plumage, is found in this park. The Iguazú River ends after a 1320 km course.
Inside the park it becomes up to 1,500 m wide and turns first south north, forming a large U-shape. Its banks are densely populated by trees, including the ceibo, whose flower is Argentina's national flower; the flora of the park features lapacho negro and lapacho amarillo, as well as palmito trees and the 40-metre-high palo rosa. Rainforest Ecological Train Iguaçu National Park Iguazu Falls Official web site Administración de Parques Nacionales - National Parks Administration of Argentina World Heritage Site
United States Forest Service
The United States Forest Service is an agency of the U. S. Department of Agriculture that administers the nation's 154 national forests and 20 national grasslands, which encompass 193 million acres. Major divisions of the agency include the National Forest System and Private Forestry, Business Operations, the Research and Development branch. Managing 25% of federal lands, it is the only major national land agency, outside the U. S. Department of the Interior; the concept of the National Forests was born from Theodore Roosevelt’s conservation group and Crockett Club, due to concerns regarding Yellowstone National Park beginning as early as 1875. In 1876, Congress formed the office of Special Agent in the Department of Agriculture to assess the quality and conditions of forests in the United States. Franklin B. Hough was appointed the head of the office. In 1881, the office was expanded into the newly formed Division of Forestry; the Forest Reserve Act of 1891 authorized withdrawing land from the public domain as "forest reserves," managed by the Department of the Interior.
In 1901, the Division of Forestry was renamed the Bureau of Forestry. The Transfer Act of 1905 transferred the management of forest reserves from the General Land Office of the Interior Department to the Bureau of Forestry, henceforth known as the United States Forest Service. Gifford Pinchot was the first United States Chief Forester in the Presidency of Theodore Roosevelt. Significant federal legislation affecting the Forest Service includes the Weeks Act of 1911, the Multiple Use – Sustained Yield Act of 1960, P. L. 86-517. L. 88-577. L. 94-588. L. 91-190. L. 95-313. L. 95-307. In February 2009, the Government Accountability Office evaluated whether the Forest Service should be moved from the Department of Agriculture to the Department of the Interior, which includes the National Park Service, the Fish and Wildlife Service, the Bureau of Land Management, managing some 438,000,000 acres of public land; as of 2009, the Forest Service has a total budget authority of $5.5 billion, of which 42% is spent fighting fires.
The Forest Service employs 34,250 employees in 750 locations, including 10,050 firefighters, 737 law enforcement personnel, 500 scientists. The mission of the Forest Service is "To sustain the health and productivity of the Nation's forests and grasslands to meet the needs of present and future generations." Its motto is "Caring for the land and serving people." As the lead federal agency in natural resource conservation, the US Forest Service provides leadership in the protection and use of the nation's forest and aquatic ecosystems. The agency's ecosystem approach to management integrates ecological and social factors to maintain and enhance the quality of the environment to meet current and future needs. Through implementation of land and resource management plans, the agency ensures sustainable ecosystems by restoring and maintaining species diversity and ecological productivity that helps provide recreation, timber, fish, wildlife and aesthetic values for current and future generations of people.
The everyday work of the Forest Service balances resource extraction, resource protection, providing recreation. The work includes managing 193,000,000 acres of national forest and grasslands, including 59,000,000 acres of roadless areas. Further, the Forest Service fought fires on 2,996,000 acres of land in 2007; the Forest Service organization includes ranger districts, national forests, research stations and research work units and the Northeastern Area Office for State and Private Forestry. Each level has responsibility for a variety of functions; the Chief of the Forest Service is a career federal employee. The Chief reports to the Under Secretary for Natural Resources and Environment in the U. S. Department of Agriculture, an appointee of the President confirmed by the Senate; the Chief's staff provides broad policy and direction for the agency, works with the Administration to develop a budget to submit to Congress, provides information to Congress on accomplishments, monitors activities of the agency.
There are five deputy chiefs for the following areas: National Forest System and Private Forestry and Development, Business Operations, Finance. The Forest Service Research and Development deputy area includes five research stations, the Forest Products Laboratory, the International Institute of Tropical Forestry, in Puerto Rico. Station directors, like regional foresters, report to the Chief. Research stations include Northern, Pacific Northwest, Pacific Southwest, Rocky Mountain, Southern. There are 92 research work units located at 67 sites throughout the United States. There are 80 Experimental Forests and Ranges that have been established progressively since 1908; the system provides places for long-term science and management studies in major vegetation types of the 195 million acres of public land administered by the Forest Service. Individual sites range from 47 to 22,500 ha in size. Operations of Experimental Forests and Ranges are directed by local research teams for the individual sites, by Research Stations for the regions in which they are located, at the level of the Forest Service.
Major themes in
