Dr. Richard E. Mcardle

Dr. Richard E. McArdle: An Interview with the Former Chief, U.S. Forest Service, 1952 – 1962 Conducted by Elwood R. Maunder Forest History Society Santa Cruz, California 1975 Forest History Society, Inc. P.O. Box 1581 Santa Cruz, California 95061 Copyrighted (c) 1975 by Forest History Society, Inc. All rights reserved. TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION.............................................................................................. vi BIOGRAPHIES OF THE CO-AUTHORS........................................................... ix I. EDUCATION AND EARLY CAREER IN FORESTRY, 1923 TO 1935........... 1 EDUCATION.......................................................................................... 2 University of Michigan.................................................................. 2 Filibert Roth.................................................................................. 4 Graduate School............................................................................ 5 PACIFIC NORTHWEST FOREST AND RANGE EXPERIMENT STATION, 1924 TO 1934.................................................................... 10 Thornton T. Munger, June Wertz, and others.................................. 10 Educational opportunities in the Forest Service.............................. 12 Research appropriations and Earle H. Clapp................................... 13 William B. Greeley........................................................................ 14 Marriage and career....................................................................... 15 Staff development in the Forest Service......................................... 17 DEAN, SCHOOL OF FORESTRY, UNIVERSITY OF IDAHO, 1934 TO 1935..................................................................................... 19 II. U.S. FOREST SERVICE CAREER, 1935 TO 1962........................................ 22 EMPLOYER-EMPLOYEE RELATIONS................................................. 23 LEGISLATION AFFECTING THE NATIONAL FORESTS..................... 28 PUBLIC INTEREST IN CONSERVATION OF NATURAL RESOURCES.................................................................... 33 REGULATION OF TIMBER CUTTING ON PRIVATELY OWNED FOREST LAND.................................................................................. 37 Introductory statements................................................................. 37 Summary, 1877 to 1952................................................................. 39 The Clapp years, 1939 to 1943....................................................... 44 iii The Watts years, 1943 to 1952....................................................... 55 The McArdle years, 1952 to 1962.................................................. 58 The present and the future............................................................. 61 And the small landowner............................................................... 62 SMALL FOREST LANDOWNERS..........................................................65 FOREST SERVICE APPROPRIATIONS FOR TREE REGENERATION AND TIMBER SALES........................................... 67 FRED A. SEATON AND THE OUTDOOR RECREATION RESOURCES REVIEW COMMISSION, 1958..................................... 72 NATIONAL FOREST DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM, 1959..................... 75 An effort at balanced use............................................................... 75 Comparing the 1959 program with previous projects...................... 75 Long-range and short-range goals.................................................. 76 Balanced use objective and a budget.............................................. 81 THE STEARNS LUMBER AND COAL COMPANY STRIP MINING ISSUE, 1955..............................................................84 SAMUEL TRASK DANA........................................................................89 FOREST SERVICE APPROPRIATIONS MOVED FROM AGRICULTURE TO INTERIOR APPROPRIATIONS SUBCOMMITTEES, 1956................................................................... 93 PRESERVATION OF DOCUMENTS...................................................... 97 The chief’s papers......................................................................... 97 Importance of preservation............................................................ 98 Louis Brownlow on Harold Ickes................................................... 100 ERVIN L. PETERSON, ASSISTANT SECRETARY OF AGRICULTURE, 1954 TO 1960..........................................................103 OREGON AND CALIFORNIA RAILROAD LANDS............................... 105 THE DECISION-MAKING PROCESS IN THE FOREST SERVICE......... 111 MULTIPLE USE MINING ACT, 1955.....................................................115 The mining claim problem............................................................. 115 Attempt at a solution..................................................................... 118 Aroused public opinion..................................................................119 Congressional activity during the McArdle years........................... 121 The Al Sarena case........................................................................ 124 AFA calls a meeting of government and industry........................... 129 Passage and implementation of the mining bill............................... 133 Summary.......................................................................................135 iv CARL ALWIN SCHENCK...................................................................... 137 THE WILDERNESS STORY................................................................... 144 Wilderness defined........................................................................ 144 Designation of wilderness areas..................................................... 146 Legislative history.........................................................................149 Wilderness: A resource or a use?................................................... 160 Robert Marshall and the establishment of wilderness areas............. 162 Conclusion.................................................................................... 164 EDWARD C. CRAFTS, LEGISLATIVE ADVOCATE............................. 166 CENTRALIZATION AND DECENTRALIZATION IN GOVERNMENT..168 Too much or too little?.................................................................. 168 And the U.S. Forest Service...........................................................169 PERSONNEL MANAGEMENT IN THE FOREST SERVICE................... 180 McARDLE RECOUNTS HIS FOREST SERVICE CAREER.....................187 Research, state and private cooperation, administration.................. 187 Employer expectations...................................................................192 Employee expectations.................................................................. 212 Concluding remarks.......................................................................215 APPENDICES................................................................................................... 219 INDEX..............................................................................................................238 v INTRODUCTION Richard E. McArdle served as Chief of the United States Forest Service, Department of Agriculture, from 1952 to 1962. He was appointed under President Harry S. Truman, succeeding Lyle F. Watts, and continued to serve in the post under Presidents Dwight D. Eisenhower and John F. Kennedy. The Forest Service marked important physical achievements in that ten-year span: Timber sales on national forests more than doubled and the wealth of timber which the Forest Service had conserved for more than half a century began to meet national needs when mature stumpage on private lands ran low. During the same years, grazing in national forests was sharply reduced when the number of livestock on the range was cut by approximately one-quarter. Recreational use leaped threefold; tree planting increased fivefold; and a vast new network of roads, fifty- six thousand miles of them, were added to the national forests. But the McArdle years are not to be judged alone by physical standards. There were important achievements in national forest policy, organizational composition, Service morale, and research which expanded into a broad range of problem areas. McArdle patiently and diplomatically built detente between the public and private sectors of forestry and persuaded Congress to provide legislative recognition of multiple-use principles that had been defined but not always practiced. He worked successfully with the Civil Service Commission to raise the grades of those who worked under him and brought American forestry to a pinnacle of international prestige through forceful leadership at the Fifth World Forestry Congress at Seattle, Washington in 1960. No former Chief of the Forest Service, with the possible exception of Gifford Pinchot, enjoyed a more devoted following of men and women in the ranks of the Service. McArdle had the common touch, a capacity to remember names of his employees, and the great energy to constantly move among them. For those who worked under him, McArdle was a man bigger than life. As one young forester who began his career at the ranger district level under McArdle told me, “McArdle was more like a God figure than anyone I have ever worked under. He could be counted on to hear your need and usually could do something about meeting it.” Those who have known McArdle most intimately speak of his finely honed administrative skills.

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