GLENWOOD SPRINGS — Learn the Smokey the Bear song - and a thing or two about conservation - when the Fiddlin' Foresters perform this week in Glenwood Springs.

The afternoon concert takes place at 2:30 p.m. Thursday in the Glenwood Springs Community Center Rink as part of the U.S.D.A. Forest Services' all-employee day. The Fiddlin' Foresters show is open to the public.

"They play fiddle, guitar, banjo, the bass and mandolin," said Sally Spaulding, White River National Forest public affairs specialist. "Everyone is invited to hear their music."

The band — dubbed the "official old-time string band of the U.S. Forest Service" — focuses on themes of environmental conservation and stewardship in its music, according to its website at www.fiddlinforesters.gov.

The Fiddlin' Foresters have played at the 2002 Winter Olympics, on the Kennedy Center Millennium Stage in Washington, D.C., and at the National Wild Turkey Federation at Opryland in Nashville. Band members are Forest Service Rocky Mountain Region employees Lynn Young, Jane Leche, Jim Maxwell, Tom McFarland and Doug Wagner.

"Our music ranges from good old hoe-down fiddle music to sweet, and sometimes sad, ballads of the American West," Leche said. "We hope audiences enjoy our musical program as we communicate the role conservation has played on public lands throughout the last century and the challenges we are facing now and in the future through story and song."

The old-time band released its first CD after more than 10 years of performing together; "In the Long Run" is a presentation of the Rocky Mountain Nature Association. A 24-page educational booklet filled with conservation messages is included with the CD.

During the all-employee day, the Forest Service hosts presentations on various issues such as fire safety and beetle infestation. The all-ages afternoon concert aims to educate the public on the importance of supporting national forests and grasslands and natural-resource conservation.

"Come out and learn the Smokey the Bear song," Spaulding urged.