For some TIME correspondents it was a pleasant July assignment: round up the full perspective of the U.S.'s 181 million-acre National Forests for this week's color story in National Affairs. Through the green trees of East, Midsouth, Midwest and West they went to talk to some of the nation's outstanding forest rangers.
Atlanta Correspondent Spencer L. Davidson drove into the Pisgah National Forest at the southern end of the Appalachians; Detroit Correspondent Nick Thimmesch made the rounds in Upper Michigan's Hiawatha National Forest; Denver Bureau Chief Barren Beshoar headed into the San Juan Mountains for three days; Albuquerque Correspondent Arch Napier...