This year is shaping up to be a banner year for environmental policy. The Obama administration is making decisions based on sound science and reason, peeling away actions and policies created in the past administration that significantly weakened environmental protections. The administration is establishing a new hope for our forests and wildlife.

Whether tucked away in his office in Denver or out exploring the forests, mountains, and canyons of Colorado, our Central Rockies Assistant Regional Director Steve Smith is immersed in the process of protecting the wilderness he loves. Now even the Forest Service has taken note, selecting him as this year’s recipient of one of their most prestigious honors: the Bob Marshall Award for Individual Champion of Wilderness Stewardship.

Restoration. That’s a very important word to those of us who work in  conservation. Following on decades of logging in our national forests — much of it unsustainable — considerable work is needed to restore the ecosystems our forests contain.

That’s why I was especially excited to hear that watershed restoration is at the heart of the Obama Administration’s vision for our national forests, as laid out by Agriculture Secretary Vilsack in August.

When Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack stepped to the podium at a park in Seattle last week, he didn’t just make a speech about the Obama administration’s vision for managing national forests in the 21st century: He ushered in a whole new era for the Forest Service – one that makes restoring the health of our forests the top priority for the agency.

A recent Senate hearing on the skyrocketing costs of wildfire suppression has underscored the importance of moving forward on the FLAME Act, a bill that would relieve budgetary pressure on federal land management agencies.