There has been a great deal of dust kicked up over the last couple of weeks about the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s decision to cease the use of the venerable and historic logo of the U.S. Forest Service and replace it with the rather drab and uninspiring USDA logo. The plan was to replace all of the logos throughout the USDA with the USDA logo, not just the Forest Service’s.
We heard from a reliable source today that the Secretary of Agriculture’s office is going to make an exception for the USFS, and allow them to continue using the familiar badge with the pine tree. This is more or less consistent with a Twitter message that the official USFS Twitter account sent out this morning:
There’s been alot of Twitter talk about our logo going away…stay tuned because it is not a done deal yet. We’ll keep you posted.
— USDA Forest Service (@forestservice) April 4, 2013
But, we’ll have to wait and see if the Secretary’s office follows through and actually gives the USFS logo a reprieve. Secretary Tom Vilsack probably had no idea trashing the USFS logo would create such a s**tstorm.
UPDATE at 4:55 p.m. MT, April 5, 2013:
In a comment, B.Morgan asked, “Does anyone have a picture to post of the Forest Service patch with the rounded top, pre-1970s?” Dick Mangan was kind enough to send along the photo below. Like Dick said in another comment, over those old patches, there was a narrow band of a patch that wrapped over the top of the larger patch. It had the name of the national forest where the wearer worked. Dick explained that the smaller patch in the photo was for the female uniform.
Any other important thngs in DC that could be identified than branding an Agency??
I bet I can name a few that are about as old as worrying about an USFS flash
Airplanes have changed and so has their branding in the last 110 years and alot of the aviation old timers have seen the changes and are amazed
DC and old time USFS types really have to see what their alma mater has done to itself…..rather than worrying about a shoulder flash….many of US Army and military types have seen many a change…and do not get this unglued over logos…but may be some have….
Really? Please find something constructive to do with our tax dollars. A logo won’t put out fires…
If the leaders knew what they were doing they would have plenty of problems to solve.
No kidding. With all of the sequestration issues at hand, why is this at the top of the “to-do” list?
Does anyone have a picture to post of the Forest Service patch with the rounded top, pre-1970s?
I’ve got the real thing, with the “rockers” from the Willamette, Wallowa-Whitman and Ochoco NFs from my times there. Also a few from summer fire jobs on the Mendocino and Sierra NFs. My child bride loved when we changed Forests and she had to re-sew new Rockers on. The new shield worked no matter where you were assigned – we lost something in the transition, but it’s still better than having a “USDA patch”.
Such a waste of time, effort, and money.
Its too late for us at APHIS, they took away our logo a few years ago. Now people want to know if we work the district attorney.
lame-ass ideas indeed, Bill. The rallying of the retirees and the rounding up of IMT personnel pretty much shot this stupidass draconian maneuver to the ground.
I’m sure the DOI agency kids are doing a big [LMAO] here. How completely embarrassing for the DC office of the USDA … “we have to back off and be embarrassed but we’re so embarrassed that it will take us another few days to tell you why we decided this (and Kelly bets) and we still won’t tell you why we changed our (feeble little) minds on this.
How freakin’ embarrassing for the USDA.
How wonderfully “rally up” for the USFS.