Rachel Klein, a former Forest Service historian, said the agency’s conservation mission has been carried for generations by rangers, their families and local communities and that preserving records and outreach histories is critical to understanding how the agency worked on the ground.

Klein spoke about women’s roles in conservation education, the day‑to‑day labor of ranger families at remote stations, and the value of oral histories and local artifacts. She described loss of some web content and archival materials at agency sites and encouraged donors to place physical collections with established repositories such as the Forest History Society or museum holdings rather than allowing materials to be discarded.

An audience member asked where mid‑century Forest Service records could be stored; Klein and other panelists said centralized archiving efforts were discussed before recent administrative changes and recommended immediate contact with recognized historical repositories. Klein said many local collections now sit in garages and private homes, and she urged donation and digitization to preserve institutional memory.

Klein also described how conservation education historically tied technical messages to everyday civic duties and urged renewed outreach to schools, women's clubs and youth programs to reconnect people to public‑land stewardship.