Forest Service and Utah State Celebrate Collaboration

Twenty-five years ago the first spam message was sent out via the "Arpanet," Corvettes were the hottest thing on wheels, Frank Zappa toured the country, Christopher Reeves flew in a Superman getup, women wore red, knee-high boots and albums went from seven inches to 12 inches.


And some people actually got something done.

It was twenty-five years ago, in 1979, that Utah State University's College of Natural Resources partnered with the U.S. Forest Service, offering training courses for Forest Service managers and decision makers. Forest Service officials were in town March 3 to celebrate the quarter-century partnership with natural resources faculty.

Almost 700 recreation managers from the Forest Service and other federal land management agencies have been trained in managing the wildland/urban interface; managing wilderness areas, cultural resources and archeology sites; aligning recreation programs with public demand; recreation conflict and management; rural tourism development; ecosystem approaches to visitor management; and other topics.

Michael Butkus, program director for 15 years, brings in expertise from around the country to conduct the training seminars and workshops, which range in length from one week to three weeks.

"Given the popularity of outdoor recreation as a use of our public lands, training and educating federal recreation managers in order to help them do their jobs better is a very important outreach function for our College of Natural Resources," Butkus said.