The Nature Conservancy. Protecting nature. Preserving life.™

Sometimes the wilderness comes to you.

As a freshwater scientist for The Nature Conservancy, Jeff Opperman travels the globe working with people to help restore rivers and floodplains. But this past year something magical happened.

In the woods behind his suburban house in Ohio, a quiet creek came alive with watery beasts from the past. For the first time in decades, huge steelhead trout were wriggling up this small stream to spawn, to the astonishment of Jeff and his children.

Check out Jeff’s amazing and heartwarming story as shared in the latest Outside Magazine: http://www.outsideonline.com/outdoor-adventure/nature/The-Great-Steelhead-Rescue.html

Go Deeper

Besides supplying half of our nation’s water, offering jobs to millions of wood products workers, and providing habitat to thousands of critters, America’s forests also generate $15 billion a year in recreation dollars.

In 2011, nearly 166 million people visited a National Forest, which supported more than 200,000 full-and part-time jobs in local communities.

So get out there and do your job—have fun in the forest this fall! And check out our fun forest stories from the summer.