Today is the centennial anniversary of the Forest Service - founded July 1st, 1905 during the days of Theodore Roosevelt.
You can celebrate by coming down to the Folklife Festival on the Mall this weekend to visit the Forest Service pavilions. Sing along with the Fiddlin' Foresters (who are usually playing in Bozeman or Durango), discuss your bee problems with entomologists and tree rings with plant pathologists, watch wood carvers and smoke jumpers, eat fry bread and smoked fish, listen to logger poetry. Schedule.
G. W. Chapman is there and you can pick up an autographed fan. He is the man who climbed a tree to rescue a subsequently famous bear cub, Smokey.
Or you could go visit a forest. In Western Maryland they now have bear crossing signs along I-68.
Can't do without air conditioning? The library has a subscription to American Forests, which has lovely pictures and short articles. You could check out a batch and thumb through them at home while you pretend you are at the folk festival by listening to good music you downloaded from Smithsonian Global Sound. A few free downloads are available through July 31st.
Posted by library at July 1, 2005 06:45 PM