A New Age:
The beginning of the 20th Century gave rise to a new awareness. Before 1900, wildfire consumed 20 million acres annually, the volume of timber cut vastly exceeded that of forest growth, there were no reforestation programs, only the best part of the tree was used and large volumes of wood were left in the woods and massive clearing of timberland continued to gain land for agriculture.
German born teacher and forester, Carl Alwen Schenck, brought his thorough training in scientific silviculture to the United States. American forester and political figure Gifford Pinchot along with world renowned European forester Sir Dietrich Brandis selected Schenck to fill the role of chief forester for George Vanderbilt and to work on his Biltmore Estate property near Asheville, North Carolina. This appointment led to the founding of the first American school of forestry. It later moved to Yale University.
Enter Gifford Pinchot! Gifford Pinchot was appointed chief of the Division of Forestry in the Department of Agriculture and in 1898 begins a crusade to convert the public and forest industry to support scientific forest management. Pinchot goes on to establish the leading national forestry agency later known as the U.S. Forest Service.
Theodore Roosevelt becomes President of the United States upon the death of President McKinley on September 14, 1901 and conservation becomes a cornerstone of his domestic policy. President Theodore "Teddy" Roosevelt's First Annual Message outlines his goals of forest conservation and preservation (including the use of forest reserves as wildlife preserves) and the need for government-sponsored irrigation projects in the arid West. That same year John Muir publishes Our National Parks , a beautifully-written portrait of some of the nation's great scenic wildernesses by their greatest defender; the book goes through a dozen printings and establishes Muir's reputation in the public mind. Read more about this era in American forestry at these links: 1901-1907 | 1908-1911 | 1912-1920
Possibly no other forester influenced the 20th century conservationist more than Aldo Leopold. Leopold was educated at the new Yale School of Forestry, went on to work as a U.S. Forest Service forest ranger and forester, a naturalist and wildlife biology professor. He continued to influence resource professionals until the time of his tragic death in 1948. Aldo Leopold spent his entire career on the cutting edge of conservation and environmental thought and wrote one of the most respected books on environmental ethics called A Sand County Almanac.
This report only presents a brief and very limited picture of North American forestry through the mid-20th century. However, I give you links that will help you further explore the rich history of American forestry. For a complete set of links to forest history sites, see: http://forestry.about.com/cs/foresthistory1/index.htm
