WASHINGTON, Dec. 6, 2012 – Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack today released a report calling for USDA and the U.S. Forest Service to work more closely with tribal governments in the protection, respectful interpretation and appropriate access to Indian sacred sites.

Related Links: Tribal Relations

Read Secretary Vilsack’s blog

During an unseasonably warm evening in Washington, D.C. Tuesday, House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) and Ryan Shuster, a 17-year-old Eagle Scout from Colorado Springs, Colo., flipped the switch on the 2012 U.S. Capitol Christmas Tree. The 73-foot, 74-year-old Englemann spruce made a cross-country trip on a flatbed truck – driven by former Colorado Sen. Ben Nighthorse Campbell – from the White River National Forest. The tree, decorated with thousands of handmade ornaments, is considered the “people’s tree” because it comes from public lands. The tree will stand on the west lawn of the U.S. Capitol through the New Year.

Learn more about the tree, watch videos and help organizers reforest parts of Colorado damaged by the Waldo Canyon and High Park fires.

Watch Rolling Stones keyboardist Chuck Leavell's video message

“Green Fire: Aldo Leopold and a Land Ethic for Our Time,” a feature-length documentary about Aldo Leopold, recently won an Emmy award for Best Historical Documentary at the 54th annual Chicago/Midwest Chapter of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences.

Faces of the Forest: Merv George

Merv George grew up next door to the Six Rivers National Forest on the Hoopa Valley Indian Reservation, where he lives today. At 90,000 acres, it is the largest land-based reservation in California. Yet he and his family and friends knew very little about the U.S. Forest Service, something he is determined to change.