Forests and Forestry

Forests and Forestry. In 1873, as the clearing of forests for agriculture, lumber, and fuelwood threatened the nation's future timber supply, the American Association for the Advancement of Science petitioned Congress and state legislatures to recognize the importance of timber cultivation and forest preservation. The resulting Report on Forestry, funded by Congress and compiled by Frederick B. Hough and Nathaniel Egleston, became the foundational document of American forestry. The establishment of the American Forestry Association in 1878 and a Forestry Division in the Department of Agriculture further signaled forestry's growing role. Bernard Fernow, a German forester, became the first chief of the division. He was succeeded in 1898 by Gifford Pinchot of Pennsylvania in a revamped Bureau of Forestry (renamed the U.S. Forest Service in 1905). Pinchot (1865–1946), a confidant of Theodore Roosevelt, transferred federal forests held by the Interior Department to his own bureau, established the system of National Forests, and promoted conservation measures. He also helped to form the American Society of Foresters and establish at Yale the first graduate forestry program in 1900.

The period 1900–1960 saw frequent clashes between the Forest Service and private lumbering interests over access to timber stands, and disputes with the National Park Service and the Fish and Wildlife Service, which sought to appropriate forest lands for their own purposes. After World War II, however, forestry's earlier exclusive emphasis on lumber production gradually expanded to incorporate recreation and environmental protection. The Multiple Use–Sustained Yield Act of 1960 decreed that timber, wildlife, range land, water, and recreation were all legitimate National Forest concerns. From 1970 on, environmentalists’ attention to clear‐cutting practices and endangered‐species protection steadily grew. As the century ended, the Forest Service and foresters, while still the guardians of the nation's arboreal heritage, increasingly shared that role with an informed and articulate public.
See also Ballinger‐Pinchot Controversy; Conservation Movement; Environmentalism; Leopold, Aldo; Muir, John; National Park System; Progressive Era.

Bibliography

Richard C. Davis, ed., Encyclopedia of American Forest and Conservation History, 2 vols., 1983.
Michael Williams , Americans and Their Forests, 1989.

Michael Williams