A Publication of the Forest History Society spring/Fall 2001 ForestForest HistoryHistory TodayToday Message From the President By understanding our past, we shape our future

Steven anderson

ne of the most poignant lessons “It’s interesting that before the United from history is that the prosperi- Nations and before the World Trade ty of civilizations is based both Center, Gifford Pinchot dreamed of a onO the availability and use of natural World Conservation Conference, which resources and on the social interactions finally resulted in the “Lake Success between people and nations. In many ways Conference.” His wife termed the confer- what man does to the land, man does to man. Gifford ence “tragic” (FHT Spring 1999, p. 41), and she describes Pinchot recognized this as he spent many of his last years for- men of little faith and many fears. Two world wars and mulating plans for an international conference on conserva- many revolutions marked the first half of the 20th century. tion that would set a foundation for permanent peace. Pinchot’s goal of a permanent peace and prudent utiliza- The world must and is responding to the attacks of tion of natural resources for the welfare of all nations has September 11, 2001, events that will be considered among the still not arrived. From images of Afghanistan seen on tele- worst atrocities in American history. It is understandable that vision lately it looks like a pretty desolate place. Pinchot’s the initial response was focused on ensuring immediate safety. vision of conservation and world policy were certainly rel- Yet, reflection to situate the crisis in a historical context also evant during his time. We need [visionaries] like him to be began within hours of the attacks. In the end, we must be with us today.” cognizant of the underlying factors and motivations that History shows us that good ideas will not be kept down, move some to violence.­ Environmental scarcity is only one of even if they survive only as a matter of necessity. The Forest many factors that can lead to violence, but Pinchot consid- History Society is determined to keep the lessons of history ered it “the most potent of them all.” in the public discourse and imagination—keeping them This issue of Forest History Today leads off with an accessible to those working to create and employ the most excerpt from our newly published book The Conservation rational public policy. Diaries of Gifford Pinchot by Harold K. Steen. Steen shares with We are proud of the work of the Forest History Society us entries in Pinchot’s diary from 1939 through his death in and we are reminded how much that work depends on the 1946 that illuminate Pinchot’s conviction that conservation support of the many members and donors who have helped and distribution of natural resources have important roles in to make the Forest History Society all that it is today. Little of nurturing world peace. We also include a reprint of Pinchot’s our success would have been possible without those friends 1940 article in Nature magazine, a paper he had given at the who believe in our work—who believe that by understanding Eighth American Scientific Congress that also provides histor- our past we can shape a brighter future. Thank you for your ical context. past support. We look forward to many years of moving A Forest History Society member recently wrote to us: ahead together. Contents Spring/fall 2001

feATURES

Forest 2 Conservation as the Foundation of Permanent Peace: “Fair Access to Natural Resources for History All Nations” Today By Gifford Pinchot and Harold K. Steen 8 Conservation as a Foundation of Permanent a publication of the Peace* forest history society by The Honorable Gifford Pinchot Durham, NC 11 Early Forestry in the South and in Mississippi Published December 2001 By James E. Fickle 19 The Canadian Forest Service: Catalyst for the Forest Sector By Ken Drushka and Bob Burt 29 James F. Dubuar: Lessons Learned from the Man By James E. Coufal EDITOR 36 Forest of Time: Research at the Wind River Steven Anderson Experimental Forest 1908–1919 CONTRIBUTING EDITORs By Margaret Herring and Sarah Greene Kathy Cox, Michele Justice, 44 Carving Out History: The Basque Aspens Cheryl Oakes, Carol Severance By Joxe Mallea-Olaetxe DESIGN STORIES IN HISTORY Zubigraphics 51 Robert (Bob) Selkirk Wood, RPF Forest History Today is published By Tina Oliver by the Forest History Society to keep 53 Millicoma: Biography of a Pacific readers apprised of the best forest Northwestern Forest history writing and FHS ­activities. Please send news items to Steven By Arthur V. Smith Anderson, 701 Vickers Avenue, 57 Marsh’s Man and Nature in the 21st Century Durham, NC 27701, 919/682-9319 or By David Lowenthal e-mail to: [email protected]. DEPARTMENTS

64 Biographical Portrait: Patrick Matthew By John E. Barker 66 History On The Road Marsh-billings-rockefeller national historical On the Cover: Austin Cary, shown here in a Florida park and the conservation study institute pine forest in 1932, had a great skill 67 Books of Interest in making technical forestry procedures understandable to land- 71 Awards and Fellowships owners. Beginning in 1917 73 Mark Your Calendar he tirelessly toured southern lumber operations and convinced them to ANNUAL REPORT experiment on small plots to prove for- est management was viable. He always carried an axe with him and 74 From the Chairman did not hesitate to cut down a 75 Treasurer’s Report: Statement of tree just to illustrate its growth rate by counting the annual rings. Financial Position U.S. Forest Service Photo #267657. 76 Contributions and Project Sponsors 78 Gifts to the Forest History Society Library The Forest History Society and Grey Towers Press recently published The Conservation Diaries of Gifford Pinchot, edited by Harold K. Steen. The following excerpt from the book brings forth Pinchot’s core diary entries concerning his vision of conservation as the foundation to permanent peace. As the entries illuminate, Gifford Pinchot networked with many individuals and organizations to organize an international conference on world peace. His wife, Cornelia Bryce Pinchot was equally involved, and carried on the work by staying in touch with atomic scientists, traveling to Greece to report on the refugee problems after World War II, organizing an exhibit called “Warsaw Lives Again” for the Library of Congress, and attending the United Nations Scientific Conference on the Conservation and Utilization of Resources.

Conservation as the Foundation of Permanent Peace

“Fair access to natural resources for all nations”

n his autobiography, Gifford Pinchot allocated twenty-two pages to the description of four conferences: the Conference of Governors (1908), the National Conser­ vation Commission (1909), the North American Conservation Conference (1909), Iand the World Conservation Conference (1909). The first three were convened By Gifford Pinchot and Harold K. Steen

2 Forest History Today | s p r i n g /f a l l 2001 and produced proceedings, but the fourth was “killed” by President Taft as part of his larger attempt to rein in his chief forester. Pinchot continued to press for a world conference and peti- tioned Presidents Wilson and Hoover, but to no avail. In late 1939, as World War II drew ever closer to American shores, he began again to push for a conference, this time with special emphasis on “permanent” peace. Even though direct American involvement in the war was still in the future, Pinchot wanted to get his plan to the president so that it could be worked “into the peace terms at the end of this war.” He accepted an invitation to speak at the Eighth American Scientific Congress in May 1940, and his paper was published that August in Nature. The paper would go through several subse- quent revisions, but the main points were firmly in place. He traced the history of his belief, beginning with the conservation philosophy of Theodore Roosevelt. With the war already upon Europe and Asia, Pinchot stated, “War is still an instrument of national policy for the safeguarding of natural resources or for securing them from other nations. Hence international co-oper- ation in conserving, utilizing, and distributing natural resources to the mutual advantage of all nations might well remove one of the most dangerous of all obstacles to a just and permanent world peace.” For another year, Pinchot continued to tinker with his pro- posal, then the diaries are fairly silent on the topic until 1945, U . S F orest ervice P hoto # 433352 Gifford Pinchot wrote the bulk of Breaking New Ground during the 1940s, when he was also occupied with estab- lishing an international conference­ to address conserva- tion as a means for achieving permanent peace.

when he worked through Franklin Roosevelt’s daughter, Anna Boettinger, and others to gain presidential attention. In August 1944 Pinchot wrote to the president, “I enclose for your consid- eration a suggested draft of a letter to Allied Governments pro- posing a Conference on the conservation of natural resources as a necessary requirement for permanent peace.” The State Department added its cautious support, concerned that it might conflict with the proposed creation of the Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations. On March 28, 1945, Pinchot again wrote to Roosevelt that he would continue to refine his proposal for the president to review, following his return from Yalta. FDR died on April 12, and during the funeral four days later, Pinchot discussed his peace plan with Henry Wallace, the former vice-president and former secretary of Agriculture. On May 8 President Harry Truman wrote to him, “My lamented predeces- sor placed great faith in your judgment and I shall like to think that I, too, can seek the counsel which you can give out of so rich and so long an experience.” On May 23 Pinchot noted in his diary, “Highly satisfactory talk with President Truman on World Conference at White House.”

P inchot C ollection, L ibrary of ongress When he met the president again during an FDR Memorial Although during the 1940s Gifford Pinchot used Anna Boettinger and Committee meeting in August, which Truman chaired, Pinchot others to gain access to President Franklin D. Roosevelt, there were asked for two minutes to explain his views on atomic energy; could earlier times when the Pinchots and F.D.R. were close, and counted on he write a proposal for the president’s consideration? Truman said one another to advance their platforms, as seen in this image with that he could, that “he was thinking about that subject all the Cornelia taken in 1934. time.” To Pinchot, atomic energy was another natural resource to

Forest History Today | s p r i n g /f a l l 2001 3 be included in his broader plan for peace, and so the pertinent diary 1941 entries are included in this section. 2/25 Washington …at Department. Harry Graves came in & we Pinchot died October 4, 1946 without knowing whether his talked Pan American Conservation Committee. He advised con- long-held idea would ever bear fruit. The editor of Breaking New servation inventory of what each nation needs, not only of what Ground noted that Truman sent Pinchot’s plan to the UN Economic it has. Good sense. and Social Council, and it was accepted and placed on the 1948 2/26 Washington Saw Hull a.m. & outlined Inter-American agenda. M. Nelson McGeary, Pinchot’s chief biographer, states conservation plan. He approved vigorously. Left resolution & that the 1949 United Nations Scientific Conference on the description with him. He seemed old. Met Berle. He seemed to Conservation and Utilization of Resources was the official result. approve.6 It is fascinating to read Pinchot’s diaries and watch him as he writes Breaking New Ground at the same time he is developing 1945 support for the world conference. In the autobiography he goes so far as to speak directly to his readers and explain that for the 1/17 Washington …Memo from Franklin enclosing Stettinus conference he is suspending the book’s 1910 cutoff and will bring [sic] suggestion for area conferences instead of International the reader up-to-date, that is, to the 1940s, when he is writing. Conference on Conservation.7 He even quotes in full two letters by President Franklin Roosevelt. 1/19 Washington Buffet luncheon at the White House. This blatant present-mindedness may be a bit of a jolt to the Roosevelt to take up proposed International Conservation historical purist, but along the way Pinchot bent many conven- Conference with Churchill and Stalin.8 tions, some major and some minor, and the reasonable among 1/20 Washington To F.D.R.’s Inauguration with C.B.P. We us will agree that the world is better off for his pragmatism. stood in the snow on the South Lawn to hear him speak from South Porch of White House. Afterwards finished draft of letter for F.D.R. for 40th birthday of Forest Service. On C.B.P.’s sugges- 1939 tion, will enclose copy of letter to Franklin to Mrs. Boettinger.9 11/12 Washington …Dol, Earle Clapp, & Dick Basset, & their 1/21 Washington On C.B.P.’s suggestion, enclosed copy of wives to lunch. Told Clapp about plan for world agreement in letter to Franklin and draft for Forest Service to Mrs. Boettinger, natural resources as part of peace…Will take peace plan to and Mrs. Mather delivered letters to Franklin and Mrs. Boettinger F.D.R..1 at White House Sunday afternoon. About 6:30 Mrs. Boettinger 11/13 Washington I think this was the day I saw Henry Wallace, called up to say that she had read parts of my letter to the presi- told him in confidence about plan for conservation & peace. He dent and he suggested that I prepare an outline for the interna- said Franklin most anxious to be known as peace maker in this tional conference, to reach him not later than 4 o’clock Monday war. He thought well of my taking it to Franklin.2 afternoon.10 11/18 Washington …Talk with Graves about Conservation 1/22 Washington Worked on short statement for F.D.R. on & Peace plan. He is strong for it. Also with Dol in p.m.3 International Conservation Conference. Talks with Lorwin, 11/20 Washington Graves, Dol & I spent the morning work- Wetmore, Zon & C.B.P. Statement delivered to White House by ing over plan for F.D.R. to work conservation & fair access to Mrs. Mather at 10 minutes to 4. Immediately afterwards Miss natural resources for all nations into the peace terms at end of Tully telephoned to say that Franklin would send letter to Forest this war. Harry read us a superb memo that set the whole thing Service and authorized me to see government experts in prepar- in train. C.B.P. & Dol had urged us to get at it.4 ing longer statement during his absence. That was fine! Quite fine!11 1/24 Washington Henry Field came at 10:30 to talk plans for 1940 the conference. To Soil Conservation Service in afternoon—to 4/27 Washington …Invited to speak at Pan American Science see Bennett on getting data together for conference.12 Congress. 1/26 Washington To the office. Talk with Watts about 5/6 Washington …Finished speech on conservation as foun- International Conference. Saw Wheeler of R.E.A. who agreed dation for permanent peace for American Science Congress. to prepare material promptly.13 5/11 Washington Spoke before 8th American Science 2/5 Washington…Henry Field brought Oscar Cox in to talk Congress section of Agriculture & Conservation—about 140 about the conservation conference. He will prepare an outline present—on Conservation as the Foundation of Permanent for the meeting. Very satisfactory talk.14 Peace. Good talk, I think, but not especially well received. With 2/8 Washington Amos Taylor for lunch. Good talk about the Dr. Shantz will try for resolution. at Friday session of section.5 proposed conference. He will send some material.15 5/14 Washington Wrote resolution for Inter American 2/10 Washington To see Finch at the Carnegie Endowment for Congress on conservation to advance permanent peace. material for the conservation conference. Didn’t get much.16 5/15 Washington …p.m. called Holt. He said resolution 2/12 Washington Conference work in the morning. Book and approved by Resolution Committee & now before Section. conference in the afternoon. Talk with Zimmerman of the Soil Called Shantz [sic] & he went at once to meeting. Reported in a Conservation Service who brought material for conference pre- few minutes resolution. Passed with addition referring to Pan pared there. As I pointed out they had left all consideration of American Union. No opposition. Dinner at Henry Wallaces. permanent peace out of the picture. Showed him resolution. Also Grady, assistant secretary of state, 2/14 Washington Busy day. Work on conference. Nearly two- who seemed favorable. hour talk with O.C. Merrill in the morning about place of power

4 Forest History Today | s p r i n g /f a l l 2001 U . S F orest ervice P hoto #433351 Pinchot meets with Forest Service chief Lyle Watts, on the eve of the agency’s 40th anniversary to look over war products developed by the Forest Products Laboratory.

in the plan. Then with Mrs. Burns, formerly of the Natural 3/27 Washington Hassett phoned from White House that the Resources Planning Board. Good talk with Morris Cooke at 3. president wants to see a copy of the plan. Monroe Smith at 4, and I went to see Miss Janet Richards after- 3/28 Washington Completed the plan, with a few very small ward. Good & tired.17 changes and Leila & I, with little Jimmy took it down to the 2/17 Washington To the office…Dr. Gerayd Johinson, of White House.22 Columbia University, whose name was suggested by Bruce 4/10 Washington Henry Field came to talk about World Bliven, came in to talk about Conservation as a Basis of Conference. Sent letters to F.D.R. and Miss Tully to White Permanent Peace, and very kindly agreed to dig up some exam- House, about Conservation as a Basis of Permanent Peace. ples of war caused by the lack of natural resources.18 4/12 Washington …Late this afternoon, C.B. called me. At first 2/18 Washington C.B.P. and I to see Felix Frankfurter and tell I couldn’t understand what she said. Then came the dreadful news him about proposed international conference, over which he of the president’s death. At first I didn’t believe it. But it was true. showed great enthusiasm.19 4/14 Washington The president’s casket on a caisson drawn 2/22 Washington Work on the conference all day. In the morn- by 6 white horses was accompanied from the station at 10 a.m. ing talk with Amos E. Taylor, who submitted a statement, and in by battalions of blue jackets, field artillery, air forces, women’s the afternoon with Dr. Langer who agreed to supply historical auxiliary forces, and the streets lined with a saddened people. data on natural resources as causes of war. So far I have not struck The funeral service was at 4 in the East Room of the White anybody who was not enthusiastic over the conference plan.20 House. Talked with Henry Wallace about plan. 2/23 Washington Working on conference in the morning. 4/16 Washington Truman made admirable address to Lunch with Lorwin at the Cosmos Club and long talk about the Congress. Wrote to Mrs. Boettinger and saw Charlie Taft who conference. I left him a big envelope full of papers to go over. He disagreed about natural resources being the principal cause of sees clearly the very great danger of stepping on the toes of other war but he was strong for a World Conference just the existing organizations. same.23 3/16 Washington Met Wickard at 10 o’clock in his office, with 4/19 Washington …Stettinius called about 4:30 to talk about Watt[s], Tolley, and Wheeler. Wickard had understood from proposed World Conference. He is for it on basis of conserva- F.D.R. that the proposed World Conference would deal only with tion and said repeatedly he was heartily for it as a step toward forestry and was obviously afraid it would interfere with the permanent peace. That is a great surprise, and a great satisfac- plans of the Food and Agriculture Administration. After I tion. There is nothing to be done at San Francisco [formation explained the situation Wickard agreed and repeated several of United Nations], but whole question will come up when times that there was no conflict. After lunch, Hassett, secretary first meeting of new world organization takes place. He said to the president, called me up and said the president wanted to the American delegation would back it. Stettinius has whole see me and that he would arrange for a time early in the coming correspondence with F.D.R. and copy of my completed plan. week and let me know.21 5/23 Washington Highly satisfactory talk with President

Forest History Today | s p r i n g /f a l l 2001 5 Truman on World Conference at White House. 8/6 Milford …Atom bomb dropped on Hiroshima today. 8/20 Milford …Wrote scratch of possible newspaper release on atomic bomb, and its future control. 9/5 Washington Meeting F.D.R. Memorial Committee in White House, Truman presiding. I asked for 2 minutes talk after meeting. Truman said I could see him whenever I wanted to. Authorized me to see Wallace & Anderson at his request on international conservation conference. Said I could get help from apers, L ibrary of C ongress government officials as F.D. had authorized. I said I would give him outline of proposed conference by December 15. Truman said OK. He might want to mention it in his message to Congress. I said I would write him a letter about atomic power. Would he be sure to see it? Truman said he would. Truman said he was thinking about that subject all the time. Very satisfactory C ornelia B ryce P inchot talk.24 Cornelia Bryce Pinchot actively used her influence to bring together 9/12 Washington With C.B. saw Henry Wallace about World politicians, scientists, humanitarians and others. Conservation Conference. For it, of course, but at first didn’t see where Department of Commerce came in. I said atomic power Truman. He approved. Work on letters all day. Finished Truman must be considered. He agreed. Suggested I see Amos Taylor. letter & signed it.25 At 3 p.m. saw Secretary Anderson. Enthusiastic for conference. 9/17 Milford Material for letter to newspaper editors on atom- 9/15 Washington Good talk with Senator McMahon on atom. ic power taken to duplicating company today. Stationery will be Showed him draft letter to Truman & letter to newspapers. He printed this week, and letter gotten out next week. To be put in strongly approved. Suggested change in his bill as in letter to mail in four groups, October 2 for Rocky Mountain states, October 4 for southern and prairie states west of Mississippi, October 5, states west of Alleghenies, October 6, New England states. To be printed [by newspapers] not before morning of October 8. 9/20 Milford Received letter from Truman that there will be no monopoly control of atomic energy, and that when his pro- gram is finally outlined, I will be “entirely satisfied with it,” and that he is “more than happy” to have my views on it. 10/12 Milford Talk with C.B. about atomic bomb. She wants to do more about it. We heard Gram Swing on radio on that ­subject.26 10/20 Washington C.B.P. suddenly invited to New York to meet with atomic scientists—afternoon, dinner, and evening. To return by plane tonight—but to meet again every other Saturday. An interesting opportunity. 10/23 Washington Several atomic scientists here for lunch— Dr. Farmer of Tennessee and others. 10/31 Washington… Evening with C.B. to Cooperative Forum. Heard Dr. Urey on the atomic bomb. Most interesting.27 11/3 Washington …a dinner to atomic scientists with Drs. Present, Bruce, English, Szilard, Coudan, Kaplan, et al., at which were present Senators Hill & Morse, Will Clayton, and a number of ladies. Most interesting talks by the scientists. I urged Coudan & Kaplan to send a telegram to the president telling who they are and why they want to see him. And do it before Attlee lands in America. Got to bed at 1 a.m.28 11/11 Washington Took things easy while C.B.P. telephoned all day invitations to various people for the atomic dinner tonight. About 30 people came, including Senators Downey and McMahon with Congressman Kefauver, Patterson, and Clare Booth Luce. 8 or 10 atomists came: Borst, Coudan, Present, Szilard, Rush and a number of others.29

F orest H istory S ociety P hoto C ollection 11/26 Washington Mail and work on World Conference. Saw Pinchot was at his home in Milford, Pennsylvania when he received Henry Wallace in the morning, who thought there was no hurry news that the United States dropped the atom bomb on Hiroshima. in turning material in to Truman on account of Ickes…Talked

6 Forest History Today | s p r i n g /f a l l 2001 with atomists. They will take up letter for C.B. from Urey and the “M” project. Hugh Bennett, chief, Soil Conservation Service. statement of what they want her to do in Paris.30 13. Lyle F. Watts served as chief, U.S. Forest Service (1943–1952). Joseph C. 11/27 Washington Harry Slattery to lunch. He made some Wheeler worked for the Rural Electrification Administration. good suggestions about the world conference.31 14. Oscar Cox served as the assistant solicitor general in Roosevelt’s cabi- 12/13 Washington …Saw Truman at 10:45 and submitted net. 15. Amos E. Taylor, economist, Economic Foreign Policy Bureau, plan for World Conference on Conservation. He spoke highly Department of Commerce. of the plan but made no final decision saying he would submit 16. George A. Finch, head of the Carnegie Endowment for International my papers to “some of my intimates.” I am very hopeful. Peace. 17. Oscar C. Merrill, an engineer and power specialist. Eveline Burns, past 1946 chairman of the Natural Resources Planning Board. Morris L. Cooke, an electric power engineer. 2/10 Washington …Afternoon: tea party for atomic scientists, 18. Bruce Bliven, a liberal progressive, served as editor of the New and others. The atomists came about 5 and stayed believe it or Republic from 1930–1955. not until 9:30 talking to C.B.P. I went in only for half an hour. 19. Felix Frankfurter, justice of the U.S. Supreme Court (1939–1962). 2/25 Washington Oscar Chapman and Beany [sic] Baldwin 20. Dr. William L. Langer, scholar-historian who taught at Harvard, and to lunch. Long talk with Oscar about the World Conservation served as deputy chief and chief of the Research and Analysis Division, Conference in which he is deeply interested and which is now in Office of Strategic Services (OSS). Truman awarded him a Medal of his hands. I do hope he gets promoted to full secretary.32 ■ Merit in 1945. 21. Claude R. Wickard, secretary of Agriculture (1940–1945). Howard R. Tolley, United Nations Interim Commission on Food and Agriculture. 22. Little Jimmy is Gifford Pinchot’s nephew, James Pinchot Gaston. Harold K. Steen retired as President of the 23. Charles Phelps Taft II, attorney; son of president William Howard Taft. Forest History Society in 1997 and is now a 24. Clinton P. Anderson, U. S. Congressman representing New Mexico senior fellow for the Pinchot Institute of (1941–1945); secretary of Agriculture (1945–1948). Conservation. 25. Senator Brien McMahon, from Connecticut served on the Joint Committee on Atomic Energy. The Conservation Diaries of Gifford Pinchot, 26. Raymond Gram Swing, news reporter and influential radio commenta- Edited by Harold K. Steen is available from tor. the Forest History Society, $29.95 cloth, 230 27. Harold Clayton Urey, a geochemist, received the Nobel prize for chem- pages, ISBN 0-89030-059-3; or $19.95 paper, ISBN 0-89030-060-7, istry in 1934, and served as director of War Research, Atomic Bomb plus $4 shipping and handling, 701 Vickers Ave., Durham, NC Project, Columbia University (1940–1945). 27701 or call with credit card orders at (919) 682-9319. Orders can 28. Leo Szilard, a physicist and molecular biologist worked in the also be made through Island Press at www.islandpress.org. Manhattan Project’s Metallurgical Laboratory in Chicago. He also worked diligently to persuade President Truman that dropping an atomic bomb on Japan would lead to an arms race with Russia, and in Index of Names (adapted by Carol Severance) July, 1945 penned a petition, signed by fellow scientists, asking the presi- 1. Dol is Herbert A. Smith, a Yale classmate and best friend of Pinchot; dent “to rule that the United States shall not, in the present phase of head of editorial and publication programs for the U.S. Forest Service. war resort to the use of atomic bombs.” Irving Kaplan worked as a Earl H. Clapp served as associate chief, and then acting chief U.S. Forest physicist on the Manhattan Project, in the Division of War Research at Service (1939–1943). F.D.R. is Franklin Delano Roosevelt, U.S. presi- Columbia. William L. Clayton, assistant secretary of State, served on dent. (Pinchot also refers to him as Franklin in the diaries.) the interim committee to study post-war control and development of 2. Henry A. Wallace was the secretary of Agriculture (1933–1940); U.S. atomic energy. Clement Attlee, Prime Minister of Great Britain. vice-president (1941–1945); secretary of Commerce (1945–1948). 29. Sheridan Downey, U.S. Senator from California; Estes C. Kefauver, U.S. 3. Henry S. Graves, a Yale classmate and friend who served as dean of the Representative from Tennessee; Ellis E. Patterson, U.S. Representative Yale Forest School and chief of the U.S. Forest Service (1910–1920). from California; Clare Booth Luce, U.S. Representative from 4. C.B.P. also called “C.B.” and “Leila” is Cornelia Bryce Pinchot, Gifford’s Connecticut. wife. 30. Harold L. Ickes, Secretary of the Interior. 5. H. L. Schantz, Division of Wildlife Management, U.S. Forest Service. 31. Harry A. Slattery, a longtime acquaintance of Pinchot’s served as spe- 6. Cordell Hull, secretary of State (1933–1944); winner of the Nobel Peace cial assistant to Harold Ickes, undersecretary for the Department of the Prize, 1945. Adolf A. Berle, Jr., assistant secretary of State for Latin Interior, and administrator, Rural Electrification Administration (1939– American Affairs (1938–1944); ambassador to brazil (1945–1946). 1944). 7. Edward R. Stettinius, Jr., secretary of State (1944–1945); U.S. 32. Oscar L. Chapman served as assistant secretary (1933–1946), under sec- Representative to the United Nations (1945–1946). retary (1946–1949), and secretary of the Interior (1949–1953). Calvin 8. The three leaders met at the Yalta Conference, February 4–11, 1945. Benham “Beanie” Baldwin served as the assistant to Secretary of 9. Anna Boettinger, Franklin D. Roosevelt’s daughter. Agriculture Henry A. Wallace, and as the head of the Farm Security 10.Elizabeth Mather, Pinchot’s secretary and aide. Administration (1940–1943). When Pinchot penned this entry, Baldwin 11. Lewis L. Lorwin, Foreign Economic Administration. Alexander was the executive vice-chairman for the National Citizens Political Wetmore, assistant secretary of the U.S. National Museum (1925–1945); Action Committee. promoted to secretary of the Smithsonian Institution (1945–1952). Raphael Zon, scientist, U.S. Forest Service. Grace Tully, President Roosevelt’s secretary. 12. Henry Field, anthropologist and personal advisor to F.D.R.; director of

Forest History Today | s p r i n g /f a l l 2001 7 The following article By Gifford Pinchot is a reprint of his August 10, 1940 paper in Nature. Reprinted by permission from Nature Volume 146, No. 3693, pp.183–185, copyright 1940 Macmillan Magazines Ltd.

CONSERVATION AS A FOUNDATION OF PERMANENT PEACE*

HIRTY-TWO years ago there was held in Washington a Conference which was the first of its kind. It was the first not only in America, but also in the world. It was also the first conference in the history of this country of the TGovernors of all the States and territories with the President of the United States. Since it included also the Congress, the Cabinet, the Supreme vital influence on the United States, on the other nations of the Court, scientific experts, representatives of national associations, Americas, and on the nations of the whole world, is this: it was and outstanding citizens, it was one of the most distinguished gath- called to introduce, and it did introduce, to mankind the newly erings ever brought together in the United States. formulated policy of the conservation of natural resources. But no one of these was the essential reason for its epoch-mak- Even at that time the profound significance of conservation ing importance. The reason why the meeting of the governors with was beginning to make itself felt. In announcing his intention President Theodore Roosevelt in the White House in May, 1908, of calling the Conference, the President said: “The conserva- may well be regarded by future historians as a turning point in tion of natural resources is the fundamental problem. Unless human history, the reason why it exerted and continues to exert a we solve that problem it will avail us little to solve all others…. BY The HON. GIFFORD PINCHOT, FORMER GOVERNOR OF THE STATE OF PENNSYLVANIA

8 Forest History Today | s p r i n g /f a l l 2001 It [the Conference] ought to be among the most important the invitation of President Theodore Roosevelt. gatherings in our history, for none has had a more vital ques- In his address at the opening of the Conference in the White tion to ­consider.” House the President made this highly significant statement: This Conference set forth in impressive fashion, and it was the “…In international relations the great feature of the growth first national meeting in any country to set forth, the idea that the of the last century has been the gradual recognition of the fact protection, preservation, and wise use of the natural resources of that instead of its being normally to the interest of each nation the earth is not a series of separate and independent tasks but one to see another depressed, it is normally to the interest of each single problem. As the President said: “The various uses of our nation to see the others elevated…I believe that the movement natural resources are so closely connected that they should be that you this day initiate is one of the utmost importance to this coordinated and should be treated as parts of a coherent plan.” hemisphere and may become of the utmost importance to the The Conference asserted that the conservation of natural world at large.” resources is the one most fundamentally important problem of The North American Conservation Conference declared all. It drove home the basic truth that the planned and orderly that the movement for the conservation of natural resources development of the earth and all it contains is absolutely indis- on the continent of North America “is of such a nature and pensable to the permanent prosperity of the human race. It spread of such general importance that it should become world-wide far and wide the new proposition that the purpose of conserva- in its scope.” Therefore it suggested to the President “that all tion of natural resources is the greatest good of the greatest num- nations should be invited to join together in conference on the ber for the longest time. It taught the people of the United States, subject of world resources and their inventory, conservation, and other peoples, the new meaning of the word conservation, and wise utilization.” which in its present application to natural resources was then What the Conference thus recommended was, however, generally unknown. already under way. The President had foreseen the North By defining, describing, and making known the new word and American Conference would be a precursor of a world confer- the new policy, by endowing it with the approval and support of the leaders of all the States, of the great industries, and of the nation itself, the Governor’s Conference put conservation in a Natural life everywhere is built firm place in the knowledge and thoughts of the people. From that moment conservation became an inseparable part of the on the foundation of natural national policy of the United States. It is worth mention that this brilliant example of national fore- resources. Throughout human sight occurred not in a time of scarcity, not in a depression, but in a time of general abundance and well-being. The unanimous dec- history the exhaustion of laration of the Governors ended with this discerning admonition: those resources and the need “Let us conserve the foundations of our prosperity.” It may be difficult to-day, when conservation is accepted almost for new supplies have been among as widely as the Ten Commandments, to realize that only a gen- eration ago there was no such thing as a conservation policy. The the greatest causes of war. very word conservation, as we use it to-day, had no existence. The conception which we know as conservation originated and was formulated in the Untied States Forest Service in the early ence. Accordingly, to quote Elihu Root, then Secretary of State: winter of 1907. Conservation grew out of forestry. Thus, conser- “By an aide-memoire in January last [1909], the principal govern- vation was born without a name. But it had to be given a name ments were informally sounded to ascertain whether they before it could be introduced to the people. would look with favour upon an invitation to send delegates to After discussion among perhaps half a dozen men, the name such a conference. The responses so far have been uniformly conservation was tentatively decided on. Thereupon it was sub- favourable, and the conference of Washington has suggested to mitted to and approved by Theodore Roosevelt, and the infant the President that a similar general conference be called by him. was christened accordingly. We know the growing youngster, The President feels, therefore, that it is timely to initiate the thirty-three years old but growing still, by that same name today. suggested world conference for the conservation of natural The hold conservation has gained in these thirty-three years upon resources, by a formal invitation.” the civilized peoples of the world is little less than amazing. To-day With the concurrence of the Netherlands, invitations were the soundness of the conservation policy is everywhere accepted sent to fifty-eight nations to meet at the Peace Palace in The as a matter of course. Hague in September, 1909. Thirty of the nations, including Great The Conference of Governors recommended and was fol- Britain, France, Germany, Canada, and Mexico had already lowed by the appointment of conservation commissions by a accepted when President Taft, who succeeded Theodore majority of the States, and of the National Conservation Roosevelt on March 4, 1909, killed the plan. Commission, which later in January of 1909 submitted to the Two attempts have been made to revive it. At the end of the President the first national inventory of natural resources ever War of 1914–1918, President Wilson, at the suggestion of made. In February of that same year the North American Colonel House, took steps toward securing world-wide co-oper- Conservation Conference, the first international conference ation in the conservation and distribution of natural resources. to consider the policy of conservation, met in Washington at Unfortunately nothing came of it.

Forest History Today | s p r i n g /f a l l 2001 9 During President Hoover’s administration a group of nearly War is still an instrument of national policy for the safeguard- two hundred citizens from all parts of the United States urged ing of natural resources or for securing them from other nations. him in a public petition to take action along the same general Hence international co-operation in conserving, utilizing, and line. Again nothing came of it. distributing natural resources to the mutual advantage of all But these checks notwithstanding, the conservation problem nations might well remove one of the most dangerous of all remains the fundamental human problem. Without natural obstacles to a just and permanent world peace. resources, no human life is possible. Without abundant natural The conservation of natural resources and fair access to needed resources civilized life can neither be developed nor maintained. raw materials are steps toward the common good to which all To the human race, land is the basic natural resource. The nations must in principle agree. Since the American nations are less demand for new territory made by one nation against another, dependent on imported natural resources than European nations, is a demand for additional natural resources; and it is not neces- and since they are already engaged in broadening international sary to point out how many times this demand has plunged trade through negotiated agreements, their initiative to such ends nations into war. would be natural and appropriate. In view of the foregoing, I have a definite plan to suggest—a The problem of permanent peace includes, of course, great plan for permanent peace through international co-operation in factors which the foregoing proposal does not cover. But it does the conservation and distribution of natural resources. cover that factor which is certainly, in the long run, the most Natural life everywhere is built on the foundation of natural potent of them all. resources. Throughout human history the exhaustion of these If the foregoing proposal is adopted, facts in support of it will resources and the need for new supplies have been among the be needed, and a plan for assembling them. The formulation of a greatest causes of war. general policy and a specific programme of action would follow. Facts for each nation separately, for groups of nations, and for the whole world might well be assembled under the general classes of forests, waters, lands, minerals, and wild-life. In very brief out- The conservation of natural line, they should include: resources in existence; consumption; resources and fair access to need- probable duration; waste; conservation, if any; necessary reserves; available surplus; present interdependence of nations in natural ed raw materials are steps toward resources (raw materials), with the origin, destination, and quanti- ties of imports and exports; present barriers to “fair access”; and the common good to which all sources of pressure upon nations to acquire natural resources. The information just outlined undoubtedly exists in sufficient nations must in principle agree. detail for the present purpose, and can be put together without original investigation. It could well be done through a Commission appointed for that purpose representing all the A just and permanent world peace is vital to the best interests American nations. of all nations. When the terms which will end the present war The gathering of information through the creation of such a are considered, the neutral nations should be in a position to Commission might, I believe, properly be recommended by the assist in finding the way to such a peace. That being so, it would Eighth American Scientific Congress to the governments of the be wise to prepare in time. American nations. The proposal is that the nations of the Americas prepare now Formulation by the Commission of a plan and of recommenda- for an endeavor to bring all nations together, at the right moment, tions to the American Governments for a general policy and a spe- in a common effort for conserving the natural resources of the cific programme of action, including the presentation of the plan earth, and for assuring to each nation access to the raw materials when prepared to neutral and belligerent nations, would follow. it needs, without recourse to war. Such a Commission would be of immense and lasting value In all countries some natural resources are being depleted or to the American nations. It could not but advance their interests, destroyed. Needless waste or destruction of necessary resources both individual and mutual, in addition to opening a road toward anywhere threatens or will threaten, sooner, or later, the welfare a workable basis for permanent peace. and security of peoples everywhere. Conservation is clearly a Finally, the situation in Europe and in Asia suggests that action world necessity not only for enduring prosperity but also for per- for the purpose outlined above was never more necessary than manent peace. at present. ■ No nation is self-sufficient in essential raw materials. The wel- fare of every nation depends on access to natural resources from NOTE other nations which it lacks. Fair access to natural resources from other nations is therefore an indispensable condition of perma- * Substance of a paper read on May 11 [1940] before the Eighth American nent peace. Scientific Congress at Washington

10 Forest History Today | s p r i n g /f a l l 2001 The following passage was adapted from a chapter in Dr. James Fickle’s book entitled Mississippi Forests and Forestry available from the University Press of Mississippi. Fickle was commended by the Mississippi Historical Society for significant contributions that increase the knowledge and awareness of our past through publications related to Mississippi history.

Early Forestry in the South and in Mississippi

n the early-twentieth-century southern lumber industry, timberland was acquired at relatively low prices, large mills were constructed, and the operations were based on getting a rapid cut to pay interest, dividends, and taxes and to depreciate the plant on the theory that everything—plant, railroad rolling stock, equipment, I town, and so on—would be liquidated when the last tree was cut. The prevailing attitude was summed up in 1919 by the general sales agent of the powerful Kirby Lumber Company, which operated in Texas and Louisiana. “As a lumberman,” said he, “my inter- est in forestry is nil. . . . When the lumberman of today saws the trees he owns and scraps his plant, his capital will enable him to become the banker, the ranchman, or the manufacturer of some other commodity.”1

Most lumbermen were not convinced that forest management then there is no inducement to save and develop, for the effort made sense economically. J. B. White, one of the most influential would result in loss.” The lumberman’s standard cry was that leaders of the southern pine industry, delivered an address to the forestry was not practical, while, as an editorialist in American American Forestry Association in 1912 at Biltmore, the cradle of Forestry magazine pointed out, “the claim is continually made by American forestry. But after paying homage to Vanderbilt, individual lumbermen and lumber journals that their business is Pinchot, Schenck, and others associated with the Biltmore efforts, conducted at a loss, that the only money made in it is by specula- White concluded, “Conservation of natural resources comes only tion in timberlands. If that is true lumbermen as a whole are a when it is discovered where and how it will pay to conserve. Until most unpractical class.” The editorial pointed out that the days of

By James E. Fickle

Forest History Today | s p r i n g /f a l l 2001 11 logging and lumbering the virgin forests were nearing their end. “The lumbermen of the future will be foresters,” it said, “The difficulty now is that lumbering is still in the hands of men of the old idea . . . seeking large and quick returns. . . . But the great and quick profits of the old days of lumbering accessible virgin forests are gone. . . . It is necessary for [lumbermen] to readjust their view and to recognize forests as a resource in the perpetuation and permanent productiveness of which the whole people have an interest that must dominate any private interest.”2 People hired in the 1930s and 1940s were among the pioneers in the development of southern forestry. As late as the 1930s the number of people trained and employed as professional foresters by private industry in the South was minuscule. [Inman F. “Cap”] Eldredge remembers that on graduation from the Biltmore Forest School in 1905, “there were very few openings in forestry. If you couldn’t get into the Forest Service, you were stymied. The chances in industry were very few at that time.” Richard Allen, a native Mississippian trained in forestry at the University of Georgia, said that when he went to work for the DeWeese Lumber Company of Philadelphia, Mississippi, “I was probably the first forester that they ever had in that part of Mississippi, and there just wasn’t any forestry going on. Just about that period of time is when forestry got born.”3 Allen also recalled that when Art Nelson went to work for Flintkote in Meridian, “I was still the only [forester] that was operatin’ in that part of the world. . . . And I thought it was great that this land was sold to a company that had a forester. Nelson went to work for Flintkote in 1940, handling the forestry and timber procurement for a new wood fiber insulation board mill.

Nelson later recalled that he was immediately impressed by the P hoto courtesy of the A merican F orest I nstitute “incredibly fast timber growth” and the fact that “if nature was Richard C. Allen, forester for DeWeese Lumber Company, shown by the given just half a chance—a little fire protection—saving some company’s 40,000-acre Tree Farm. Allen was one of the early foresters seed trees—the forest would start on its way back.” International hired by industry in the southern U.S. Paper Company forester Buff Reaves was the first professional forester in Leake County, Mississippi. “I think Mr. Buff was Mr. ee of the L. N. Dantzler Lumber Company. By the early 1930s Forester of Leake County, really,” said Allen, “because there Howell had been employed by the Dantzlers for more than forty weren’t any technical foresters there until IP moved in.”4 years and was serving as their land manager. Using wild stock, Another early professional forester—and a native Howell planted one of the earliest pine plantations in Mississippi, Mississippian—was J. R. Weston, who earned a forestry degree and he was also famous for convincing company officials to leave from the University of Washington in 1921 and became “as far seed trees. He called these trees “Mother Trees” and marked them as I know, the first native Mississippian to acquire a Forestry with two-by-three-inch tags that read “This is a Mother Tree. DO degree.” Said Weston, “When I first graduated from forestry NOT CUT” or a similar message. Ray Conarro of the Forest there was only one other Forestry graduate in Mississippi.” Service later remembered, “Usually these trees were spike top or Weston returned to Mississippi to work for the family-owned H. so crooked that very little lumber could be cut from them.”6 Weston Lumber Company. Also among the pioneering The stories about Howell are the stuff of legend. In the early Mississippi foresters was James W. Craig, a native of Panola years he traveled five counties on horseback selling the gospel of County, who earned a bachelor’s of science degree in forestry forestry and fire prevention. He followed a razorback hog for from Purdue University in 1936 and a master’s degree from the eight hours to learn that it uprooted more than five hundred New York State College of Forestry at Syracuse in 1938. Craig longleaf saplings and prepared a placard showing that the hog served as chief of fire control for the Mississippi Forestry destroyed more seedlings in a day than a man could plant in a Commission after World War II, became a consulting forester, week. J. E. Bryan, who began working for Dantzler in 1945, was and established a major forestry supply house in 1948. He also assigned to work with Howell because “he had all this informa- claimed to be, along with two other men, one of the first con- tion in his head. And he was one of the worst drivers in south sulting foresters in the state. In 1952 Craig became the Mississippi Mississippi. He drove on the wrong side of the road and every- state forester, serving until 1955, when he returned to his consult- thing else, and Mr. Dantzler was convinced that Mr. Howell was ing business and forestry supply operation.5 going to run into a tree or somebody one of these days and all One of the legendary early Mississippi foresters was not for- this knowledge would be gone. So he wanted me to devise some mally trained. P. N. “Posey” Howell was a native of Alabama and method of getting this information from Mr. Howell and putting lived in Howison, Mississippi. For many years he was an employ- it down on paper.” Howell also toured the South with a U.S.

12 Forest History Today | s p r i n g /f a l l 2001 Senate reforestation committee and argued that the best solution to the cutover land problem was reforestation, not conversion to Part of Forbes’s prescription had long been accepted. As early as agricultural use. He served on the first Mississippi Forestry 1880 in his “Report on the Forests of North America” for the Commission.7 tenth census, Professor Charles S. Sargent of Harvard College These men and others like them shared a sense of mission had noted that “fire and browsing animals inflict greater perma- about their work. They believed deeply in the need to manage the nent injury upon the forests of the country than the ax, reck- nation’s forests, public and private, responsibly to perpetuate the lessly and wastefully as it is generally used against them.”9 country’s timber supply. Arthur W. Nelson Jr. remembered that The activities of the Yale Forestry School and of a few pio- as he was finishing forestry school at the University of Idaho in neering lumber companies inspired foresters and other lumber- the 1930s, “I was . . . told by a number of people that if you really men across the South to believe that there might be a profitable wanted to accomplish something in your lifetime in forestry, the future in regeneration and selective cutting of their timberlands. place to head for was the South. At that time Yale Forestry School The later arrival of pulp and paper companies on the scene made had an outstanding southern program in which they operated on the potential even more attractive. These people were conserva- the lands of the Crossett Lumber Company . . . and the Urania tionists by some definitions, but they were definitely not preser- Lumber Company. . . . My interest in coming South prompted vationists or environmentalists in the modern sense. They sought me then to apply to Yale.” As [Elwood L.] Demmon put it, “Most simply to work toward a continuing supply of timber as an eco- of us went into forestry because we liked the work and we liked nomic resource, not for recreational use or for scenic or biologi- to be doing something that would benefit the country.”8 cal preservation. Their efforts eventually contributed to All of these professionals did not share a single approach to acceptance of the multiple-use concept, but other uses were implementing responsible policies on the timberlands they always subordinate to sustaining the forests as suppliers of tim- managed. In fact, R. D. Forbes, director of the U.S. Forest ber. Companies that practiced conservation did so because they Service Experiment Station at New Orleans, emphasized this believed it would pay.10 fact in a speech before the Southern Pine Association annual Several southern lumbermen and firms stand out as pio- meeting in 1921: “One point cannot be overemphasized at the neers in the realization that their timberlands might be held and outset. If you insist that we put down in black and white regenerated profitably. First was Henry Hardtner of the Urania requirements which will apply to all operations of the Southern Pine belt . . . you must expect that the best land for timber growing will be penalized on account of the poorest land. Forestry is not, and never will be, something which can be intelligently applied from a swivel chair in an office. The only place to practice forestry is in the woods. Conditions on one type of soil may be most unfavorable to reforestation, while conditions on another soil may be extremely favorable. If you ask us to name measures which will secure the natural reforestation of the entire pine region, which includes bad conditions as well as good, you must not complain if those measures are more than is really necessary to secure natural reforestation under the best conditions.” Forbes went on to summarize the requirements for keeping southern pinelands “reasonably productive” as follows:

1. That four seed trees of longleaf pine, or two seed trees of any other kind of pine, be left standing and uninjured on each acre of land cut over. 2. That all tops and slash left in logging be removed to a dis- tance of 20 feet from the seed trees, unless twice the pre- scribed number of seed trees is left per acre, in which case the slash may be left untouched; the slash to be burned the first winter, or carefully protected by patrol and fire lines for five years. 3. That the cutover lands, when once reseeded, be rigidly protected from fires at all seasons of the year for 3 years in the case of longleaf pine, and for 10 years in the case of other pines, after which less careful protection will be suf- ficient.

4. That wherever razor back hogs are sufficiently numerous F orest H istory S ociety P hoto C ollection to keep longleaf pine seedlings from reforesting the land The Yale Forestry School conducted field programs in the south. the hogs be excluded, unless the land will reforest to other Here a student performs surveying exercises on Urania Lumber kinds of pine. Company lands.

Forest History Today | s p r i n g /f a l l 2001 13 gin” forest that had been harvested by the lumbermen of the “cut out and get out” era was not a typical forest. Thomas C. Clark observed, “The fact that ring counts made on stumps in this area revealed excessively long life spans did not necessarily indicate that it took so much time to produce a marketable tree.” Or, as Nelson later noted, the trees harvested by the cut-out-and-get-out lum- bermen “consisted of 200-300 hundred-year-old survivors in a wild and uncared-for forest. This gave rise to the idea that no one could wait that long for another crop of trees to mature.”12 Hardtner implemented three policies to restore his lands. First, he tried to control fires and hogs; second, he enforced a diameter limit on the trees to be harvested; and third, he insisted that seed trees be left on each acre logged. Hardtner was regard- ed as a foolish visionary by many of his more practical contem- poraries. He later recalled ironically that “you didn’t hear any of them talking about putting timber back on the land did you?” Nonetheless Hardtner had faith in what he was doing, with the best evidence provided by the fact that he was purchasing addi- tional cutover lands as early as 1904 and 1905. Hardtner’s pro- gram was not based on romanticism; he believed that there was a sound economic basis for his reforestation efforts. He also was instrumental in the establishment of the Louisiana Forestry Commission, and his timberlands became the sites for annual summer camps and experimentation by the Yale University School of Forestry. Hardtner did a great deal to provide the infor- F orest H istory S ociety P hoto C ollection Regarded as a foolish visionary, Henry E. Hardtner of Urania Lumber Company purchased cutover lands in the south as early as 1904–1905.

Lumber Company in north-central Louisiana. Hardtner’s was not a big operation by the standards of the industry giants, but his hands-on approach, close to the lands and the mill, pro- duced significant long-term dividends for the South. Hardtner reacted strongly against the efforts of many lumber companies to unload their land for agricultural usage once it had been cut over. Hardtner derided the Southern Pine Association’s 1917 cutover land conference as “a big scheme to try to sell land that was not worth while for agriculture at all,” and he later charged that the entire plan was “just a skin game to fool people in the north and west, to think that they could make a whole lot of money out of poor lands.” Hardtner was absolutely correct in his negative assessment of the suitability of cutover lands for agricultural use. A 1920 description of farming on cutover lands is typical: “Anyone who has ever seen the cut over pine land, where the people are trying to farm ought to realize the sad- ness of this situation. I don’t know which is the sadder, the devastation of pine lands, or the people who are trying to live on them. Year after year these people go on . . . and try to farm on this land. It is so poor that it will scarcely grow peanuts, but still they go on there.”11 At the time Hardtner first became interested in the regenera- tion of his lands, virtually no scientific information was available regarding the reproductive abilities of southern pine, so as he later recalled, “At first I had to pioneer every step in my investigation

of the reproduction of longleaf pine. I thought it would take 60 U . S F orest ervice P hoto #267657 to 100 years to grow a merchantable crop. No one could tell me Austin Cary, shown here in a Florida pine forest in 1932, what was possible, no yield tables . . . were then available. I had had a great skill in making technical forestry procedures to work out the problem for myself.” The fact was that the “vir- understandable to landowners.

14 Forest History Today | s p r i n g /f a l l 2001 F orest H istory S ociety P hoto C ollection By implementing hog and fire protection, the Great Southern Lumber Company was able to encourage young natural regeneration (in this case Slash pine) in cutover areas (1925).

mational foundations on which others would later build.13 ber went up under the impact of the pulp development. Then it One of the first products of Hardtner’s influence occurred in became economically possible and profitable to hold land for suc- May 1920. He invited officials of the Great Southern Lumber cessive crops of timber.”15 Company of Bogalusa, Louisiana, to visit Urania to get a firsthand Elwood L. Demmon recalled that Cary “could do better than look at what he was doing. Colonel W. L. Sullivan, general man- almost anybody in interesting lumbermen in forestry. He really ager of the Great Southern, had already traveled to Norway and had a knack for taking businessmen out into the woods and been influenced by the forest management he saw there. He was showing them how trees grew and instilling in them the funda- obviously impressed by what he observed in Urania as well, for mentals of forestry. He always carried an axe with him and did on the trip back to Bogalusa he announced to members of the not hesitate to cut down a tree just to illustrate its growth rate New Orleans press that his company was planning to implement by counting the annual rings. Observations such as this made a a comprehensive reforestation and conservation program. deep impression on many of these old-time lumbermen, and Whether it was the Norwegian experience or the trip to Urania they had great respect for old Dr. Cary.” Demmon concluded, or both that made the difference is a matter for speculation. In any case, [Austin] Cary was brought in for consultation.14 “I would say that of all the foresters who have worked in the South, Cary was a forester, and he came South in 1917 as a logging he probably had more influence with the lumbermen, selling them engineer for the U.S. Forest Service. Cary was struck by the back- forestry, than any other technical forester. Dr. Cary was a technical wardness of southern forest practices, and he hoped to promote forester, and he was also a very practical man and knew how to sound forestry among the South’s large and small landowners. He speak the language of the lumberman. . . . Dr. Cary did a lot of good tirelessly toured southern lumber operations and convinced the in getting forestry started in the South. . . . He would barge right in lumbermen to experiment on small plots to prove the efficacy to a lumberman’s office. He wouldn’t spend time with any of the of improved forest practices. Cap Eldredge remembered that Cary underlings; he’d just go to the general manager or company president “did a tremendously fine job in getting interest started. He didn’t and tell him that he ought to be interested in the future of his tim- convince anybody to the extent that the day after he left they went berlands. He would take these men right out into the woods and cut out and did something, but he was a persistent old New England down a tree or two and show them how rapidly these trees were Yankee and he’d come back talking all the time. They liked him growing and that forestry was not such a long-time proposition as and enjoyed him. . . . He generated a lot of interest that grew they might have thought. Many a hard-headed lumberman became little by little and men commenced to do something . . . but the interested in forestry by just such tactics. . . . Dr. Cary would get thing that made it all blossom was that the price of land and tim- them right out in the woods and show them on the ground. He spoke

Forest History Today | s p r i n g /f a l l 2001 15 their language.”16 were fixin’ to shut that big plant down.A nd so the board mem- bers came down to Crossett, Arkansas, to see the last logs bein’ Frank Heyward, former general manager of the Southern sawed and to decide what to do. . . . [T]his director they said, Pulpwood Conservation Association, summed up Cary’s contri- walked up on the green chain where the logs were bein’ pulled bution: “Austin Cary dedicated the last 19 years of his life to up to the saws, and he saw a log comin’ up there about 14 awakening southern wood-using industries to the possibilities of inches in diameter. The rings were pretty far apart. And right timber growing. He was successful to a remarkable degree, and ahead of it had been a log that was just real dense. . . . And he his accomplishments in the fields of fire protection and forest stopped it, and he said, “I wanta’ know where this log came management comprise the greatest contribution by any single from and where this came from.” And he counted the rings and person to southern forestry.”17 this one here was 28 years old . . . this one over here was 60 Meanwhile in Bogalusa, Red Bateman, chief ranger for sumpin years old. And he said, “What’s goin on here?” . . . Great Southern, designed a dibble and planted some twenty They . . . found some more logs like that on the yard and they thousand acres of longleaf seedlings. Working with primitive said that logger that’s bringin’ these in, came from, and they tools and both planting and direct seeding, Great Southern gave the location. . . . [T]hey went out there and they had had also began implementing hog and fire protection. Great a cyclone through that site some 25 years before then. And Southern produced what may have been the first commercial there was plenty of seed sources, it had blown these trees down hand-planted forest in the South. At first the company went and opened up the forest and it reseeded into this young out and dug up wild plants for its plantations, but it then estab- growth, and so this 25 year old cruiser said, “All we’ve gotta lished a nursery to provide seedlings. The company’s seedlings do is reseed it. You don’t just go in and cut it, and burn it, and suffered from fires, and many of the planted trees died, but the get out and let it go back for taxes.” And that’s when Crossett effort continued, and as Cary remarked, if the Great Southern became what it is today.19 ■ plantations survived, “forestry was fool proof in the South.” Great Southern also owned several hundred thousand acres of timberland in Mississippi.18 James E. Fickle is a professor of history at the University of Memphis. Another pioneering firm in the implementation of a sus- Mississippi Forests and Forestry tained-yield program was the Crossett Lumber Company in is available from the Arkansas. The Crossett story is legendary within the southern University Press of Mississippi forest-products industry. As former Mississippi state forester $35 cloth, 384 pages Richard Allen remembered, ISBN 1-57806-308-6 http://www.upress.state.ms.us/ Crossett was one of the largest mills in the country. And they catalog/fall2000.html ssociation R ecor d s S outhern P ine A ssociation Great Southern also produced what may have been the first commercial hand-planted forest in the South. Here, a Great Southern Lumber Company crew is planting one-year old Slash pine seedlings on cutover land in 1925. The seedlings are being planted in plowed furrows near Bogalusa, Louisiana with a planting bar designed by Red Bateman.

16 Forest History Today | s p r i n g /f a l l 2001 3825 Ridgewood Road large portion of it. They’ve got climate, rainfall and soil. If I were Jackson, MS 39211-6492 you, I’d go South” (Maunder, “Go South, Young Man,” 3). Call 1-800-737-7788 toll free, 9. R. D. Forbes, “Essential Requirements for the Practice of Forestry,” 601-432-6246, or 601-432-6205 in Protection for Buyers of Pine: Annual Meeting Report of the Southern Pine Association, 1921 (New Orleans: Southern Pine Association, 1921), 155–56, copy in SPA Records, box 85B; Sargent, Report, 490. Notes [some notes cited here are incom- 10. William B. Greeley, “The Business of Growing Trees,” in A Decade of plete as they occurred in chapter Service: OfficialR eport of the Tenth Annual Meeting of . . . the Southern Pine 6 of the book; full citations are Association . . . March 24 and 25, 1925, 69, SPA Records; Thomas R. Cox, available in the book] “Stewardship,” 192; William G. Robbins, Lumberjacks and Legislators: Political Economy of the U.S. Lumber Industry, 1890–1941 (College Station: 1. “The Lumber Industry Speaks,” Texas A&M University Press, 1982), 10–12, 17. In 1910 R. S. Kellogg of the Journal of Forestry 37 (November 1929): U.S. Forest Service said, “The conservationist is no idle theorist. He 759. believes in use, but not in abuse. Granted that the forest must be made of 2. J. B. White, “Lumbermen and Conservation,” American Forestry 19 (April the greatest possible use, but that this use must not be destructive, that we 1913): 259; “Is Forestry Practical?” American Forestry 17 (July 1911): 425–26. may cut the trees from year to year, but that the forest must exist forever” 3. Voices from the South: Recollections of Four Foresters (Santa Cruz, Calif.: (“Perpetuating the Timber Resources of the South,” American Forestry 16 Forest History Society, 3; Richard Allen, interview by author, August [January 1910]: 6). For a brief overview of the background and develop- 31, September 2, 1989. ment of these pioneering efforts, see Clepper, “Industrial Forestry,” 12–14; 4. Richard Allen, interview; Art Nelson, “Art, How’d You Get in This and Barber, “Forestry,” 505–11. For an overview of the management of Business Anyway?” Tree Talk 19 (fall 1997): 50; A. W. Nelson Jr., “A Story U.S. industrial forests during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centu- Is to Be Told,” The Unit 100 (March 1964): 5; Jean Firestone, “Art Nelson: ries, see Michael Williams, “Industrial Impacts,” 108–21. A Shining Light for Forestry,” Forestry Forum 6 (summer 1992): 22. 11. Fickle, New South, 242–43; Proceedings of the Second Southern Forestry 5. Weston, “History of Forestry,” 3, 9; James W. Craig to Jason N. Kutack, Congress (Durham, N.C.: Seeman Printery, 1920), 70. For a brief July 5, 1988, MFA Records, box 50; Art Nelson, “Focus on Pioneer description of the development of industrial forestry in the South, Forestry Consultants,” Tree Talk 15 (summer 1993): 14; “The History of see Southern Forestry, 55–61. The forestry activities of Hardtner at Forestry in Mississippi,” unpublished manuscript in MFC Files, 24, 29. Urania, the Great Southern in Louisiana, and Crossett in Arkansas The authorship of this manuscript is cloudy. Some Forestry Commission are treated concisely in Robert S. Maxwell, “The Impact of Forestry employees say it was begun in the 1960s by MFC information specialist on the Gulf South,” Forest History 17 (April 1973): 31–35. and pilot Bob Church and was continued for the next few years by sever- 12. Clark, Greening, 55; Clark, “Impact of the Timber Industry,” 161; Art al staff members. From 1975 until 1984 it was written by William Nelson, “Sustainable Forestry,” Tree Talk 18 (spring 1996): 30. Colvin, the MFC’s information and education director. All copy was 13. Fickle, New South, 243, 246–47; Stanley Todd Lowry, “Henry approved by the state foresters who served during the period covered by Hardtner, Pioneer in Southern Forestry: An Analysis of the the document. However, materials in the Dick Allen File of the MFA Economic Bases of His Reforestation Program” (master’s thesis, Records indicate that the portion covering the years from 1926 through Louisiana State University, 1956), 57–72. See also E. L. Demmon, 1971 was done by Church and the period from 1972 through 1982 by “Henry Hardtner,” Journal of Forestry (December 1955): 885–86. longtime MFC secretary Bobbie Jean Dickinson. Most of the H. Weston 14. Fickle, New South, 253; Clepper, Professional Forestry, 238; Clark, Lumber Company records, including company materials and family Greening, 57; Philip C. Wakeley, “The Adolescence of Forestry Research papers, are in the Special Collections, J. D. Williams Library, University in the South,” Journal of Forest History 22 (July 1978): 141–42. Charles of Mississippi, Oxford. Most of the early materials were destroyed in a Goodyear’s book on Bogalusa mentions Hardtner’s work at Urania but fire at the north mill, company offices, and store at Logtown on October does not discuss Sullivan’s trip to inspect Hardtner’s operations 26, 1900. From 1912 on the records are fairly complete. By the late 1940s (Bogalusa Story [Buffalo, N.Y.: privately printed, 1950]). For another the company’s operations had virtually ceased, and in the early 1950s the account of the activities of Hardtner, Great Southern, and other pio- holdings were sold to IP (Joseph S. Weston to Steve Corbitt, July 10, neering Louisiana forestry leaders, see Edward F. Kerr, “Louisiana’s 1997, copy in possession of author; “H. Weston Lumber Company,” State Story, Part 1,” American Forests (April 1953): 24–26, 55; and Edward description of the Weston Lumber Company Records). F. Kerr, “Louisiana’s State Story, Part 2,” American Forests (May 1953): 6. Weston, “History of Forestry,” 8–9; Ray M. Conarro, The Beginning: 22–24, 47. For a popular account of Great Southern, see Jerry L. Recollections and Comments (n.p.: U.S. Forest Service, Southern Myrick, “History of the Great Southern Lumber Company,” Bogalusa Region, 1989), 8; “History of Forestry in Mississippi,” 2–3. (Louisiana) Daily News, January 24–February 12, 1991. An illustrated 7. Pittman, “Mississippi’s Forests of Yesteryear,” 25; Arthur W. Nelson contemporary description of the company and its Bogalusa facilities Jr., “Posey Howell: Mississippi’s First Forester,” Tree Talk 9 (fall 1987): appears in “The Largest Lumber Manufacturing Proposition in the 9; J. E. Bryan Jr., “Forest History,” 11, MFA Records. For an excellent World,” American Lumberman (July 4, 1908): 53–68. A good account of photograph of Posey Howell and a slightly different version of the Great Southern’s early years, including its reforestation efforts, appears wild hog story, see “The Father of Mississippi Forestry,” in The Great in Curtis, “Early Development,” 347–68. Curtis says that the Goodyears Southern Tree Crop: A Report to the People of the South for the Year 1947— originally planned to build their mill on Ten Mile Creek near Columbia, by Southern Kraft Division of International Paper Company (n.p.: IP, n.d., Mississippi, but were deterred by difficulty in purchasing land and by copy in MFA Records), 7. the “more important” fact that “Mississippi laws prohibited the estab- 8. Arthur W. Nelson Jr., interview by Wayne Flynt and Warren Flick, lishment of a corporation with real property value of more than one November 8, 1978, copy in possession of author; Voices, 128. Joseph million dollars” (351–52). E. McCaffrey, who was in charge of woodlands for the Southern 15. Roy R. White, “Austin Cary, the Father of Southern Forestry,” Forest Kraft Division of IP and who was a company vice president, tells a History 5 (spring 1961): 3–4; Voices, 41. See also Roy Ring White, similar story. McCaffrey attended the New York Ranger School in “Austin Cary and Forestry in the South” (Ph.D. diss., University of 1915 and 1916 said that one of his professors told him, “The Florida, 1960). Southern pine region one day will have all the paper industry or a

Forest History Today | s p r i n g /f a l l 2001 17 16. Voices from the South: Recollections of Four Foresters (Santa Cruz, Calif.: Forest History Society, 123–24. Other materials dealing with Crossett include R. R. Reynolds, The Crossett 17. Frank Heyward, History of Industrial Forestry in the South: William B. Story: The Beginning of Forestry in Southern Arkansas and Northern Louisiana, Greeley Lectures in Industrial Forestry (Seattle: University of General Technical Report SO-32 (New Orleans: U.S. Department of Washington College of Forestry, 1958), 28. Agriculture, Forest Service, Southern Forest Experiment Station, 1980); S. 18. P. M. Garrison, “Building an Industry on Cut-Over Land,” Journal of Forestry V. Sihvonen, “Utilization—The Key to Better Forestry at Crossett,” 50 (March 1952): 185–87; Croker, Longleaf Pine, 12; Zebulon White, inter- Proceedings of the Society of American Foresters Meeting, “Forestry Faces view. A dibble is a spadelike tool used to prepare planting holes for seedlings. Forward,” Memphis, Tenn., 1956 (Washington, D.C.: Society of American The blade is of heavy, sharp steel, about three or four inches wide, and about Foresters, 1956), 138–41; James B. Baker, “The Crossett Farm Forestry six inches long. The dibble is stuck in the ground, and when it is removed, Forties after Forty-One Years of Selection Management,” Southern Journal the seedling is placed in the opening. Another dibble insertion presses the of Applied Forestry 10 (November 1986): 233–37; R. R. Reynolds, “Twenty- soil against the root. Hand planting was often done by crews, with a man Nine Years of Selection: Timber Management on the Crossett operating the dibble and a boy placing the seedlings in the ground. Great Experimental Forest,” Research Paper SO-40 (New Orleans: U.S. Southern used crews of twenty with a foreman for each crew. The company Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Southern Forest Experiment would assign as many as fifteen to twenty crews to a job, and each crew Station, 1969); R. R. Reynolds, “Eighteen Years of Selection: Timber could plant about forty acres a day, with roughly one thousand seedlings to Management on the Crossett Experimental Forest,” Technical Bulletin each acre (Curtis, “Early Development,” 365). 1206 (New Orleans: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, 1959); 19. Richard Allen, interview. For a brief description of the development and R. R. Reynolds, “Fifteen Years of Management on the Crossett Farm of industrial forest management in the South and particularly the work of Forestry Forties,” Occasional Paper 130 (New Orleans: U.S. Department the early lumber companies and pulp and paper operations that pioneered of Agriculture, Forest Service, Southern Forest Experiment Station, 1953). in the adoption of enlightened practices, see William M. Bailey, “Industry’s Effect on Forest Management,” in Proceedings, Society of American Foresters Meeting, Washington, D.C., 1960 (Washington, D.C.: Society of American Foresters, 1960). Bailey was an IP employee.

New Titles in Forest History

Forest History: International Studies on Socio-Economic Methods and Approaches in Forest History. IUFRO and Forest Ecosystem Change IUFRO Research Series Research Series No. 3. No. 2. edited by M. Agnoletti, University of Florence, Italy and S. edited by M. Agnoletti, University of Florence, Italy and S. Anderson, Forest History Society, Durham, North Carolina, USA Anderson, Forest History Society, Durham, North Carolina, USA July 2000, 304 pages, £49.95 (US $90.00) June 2000, 423 pages, £55.00 (US $100.00) A companion to Forestry History: This book presents edited and revised International Studies on Socio- versions of more than 30 papers Economic and Forest selected from those presented at a Ecosystem Change, which includes major conference on History and over 20 papers from the same con- Forest Resources, held in Florence in ference held in Florence in 1998. 1998. The conference was organized This volume focuses on the differ- by the Italian Academy of Forestry ent methods and approaches Science and working group on Forest adopted in the study of forest his- History of the International Union of tory. The interdisciplinary nature Forestry Research Organisations of these studies is emphasized, (IUFRO). As a whole the papers pres- bringing in the different perspec- ent detailed analyses of the interrela- tives of anthropologists, botanists, tionships between forest ecosystems ecologists, foresters, historians, geneticists, and and the socio-economic development from thirteen different ­geographers. This volume demonstrates the rich diversity countries around the world. Main economic and social factors, of approaches and methods to forest history. techniques and local practices, as well as legal and political aspects related to forest changes are discussed, according to the latest achievements in forest history research.

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18 Forest History Today | s p r i n g /f a l l 2001 In 1999, the Canadian Forest Service celebrated its centennial. The organization’s durability through a roller coaster of organizational focus and financial support is its legacy. For more than 100 years, its forward-looking solutions to forest management challenges have left a lasting imprint on the Canadian forest. Canada’s forests represent about 10 percent of the forests worldwide and with that responsi- bility the CFS is taking a leadership role on the international stage.

The Canadian Forest Service:

Catalyst for the Forest Sector

anada is defined by its forests. They are the country’s dominant geograph- ical feature. They are also of central importance in the lives of Canadians, whose attitudes toward their forests have changed over time. A little more than a century ago, an entirely new way of thinking about forests and the C uses to which they could be put, evolved. The idea of the per- CFS’s expertise at providing a sound, scientific foundation for the petual forest emerged, a forest maintained forever by human evolving economic and social policies that determine the fate of effort, employing scientific management practices. Canada’s forests. Since then, there has been a steady evolution of that concept. Today, as we enter a new phase of the human relationship with The Canadian Forest: Liquidation to Conservation forests, the scientific foundations of forest management, in com- bination with new social objectives, are more important than The mythical Canadian forest—an eternal pristine wilderness ever. Throughout this period, a single, small agency, now known unaltered by human intervention—has never existed. Until about as the Canadian Forest Service, led development of scientific 10,000 years ago, for several hundred centuries, virtually all of forest management in Canada. In doing so, it set a global stan- Canada was covered with glaciers. As the world warmed and the dard for forestry. ice receded, human beings moved in, likely in advance of the The CFS was established in 1899, with one staff member and forests that slowly reclaimed the lifeless landscape. a budget of $1,000. Its size and fortunes have waxed and waned These early aboriginal inhabitants of Canada used, and in through a century of often-turbulent economic and political some cases extensively modified, these new forests to meet their change. On several occasions, it almost disappeared. Its success needs. They used trees for fuel and shelter, and harvested wildlife is demonstrated by its continued existence and the enormous for food and clothing. They learned to burn large areas of forest influence it has had, and still has, on the evolution of forestry in to increase grazing lands for buffalo, deer and elk. In some areas, Canada and around the world. That success is based upon the they cleared the forest and planted crops.

By Ken Drushka and Bob Burt

Forest History Today | s p r i n g /f a l l 2001 19 Department of the Interior was established to be responsible for aboriginal affairs and federally owned lands. It included a Timber, Mineral and Grazing Lands Office, which issued licenses to har- vest timber on federal lands. By this time, a realization was dawning that future develop- ment of Canadian civilization was not possible without the con- tinued existence of forests. They provided essential fuel and building materials, as well as employment and the generation of wealth from the export of forest products, and were an impor- tant source of public revenues. From his parliamentary office overlooking the Ottawa River, Prime Minister John A. Macdonald, in an 1871 letter to John Sandfield MacDonald, observed:

The sight of immense masses of timber passing my windows every morning constantly suggests to my mind the absolute neces- sity there is for looking into the future of this great trade. We are recklessly destroying the timber of Canada, and there is scarcely a possibility of replacing it.

His sentiments were widely shared, and coalesced to create a pow- erful North American conservation movement that was based upon a belief in scientific management, especially forest manage- ment. It included the concept of a perpetually renewed forest through the application of scientifically derived methods, applied by trained professionals. Under the government of Prime Minister Wilfrid Laurier, elected in 1896, conservationist ideas dominated Canadian pub- lic administration, including forestry. A scandal involving corrup-

ational A rchives of C ana d a 91095, N ational T opley photo, PA W.J. tion in the issuance of federal timber berths, then administered Elihu Stewart, Canada’s first superintendent of forestry, from by politically-appointed staff in the Timber Branch, led to the 1899–1907. creation of a new position within the Department of the Interior—Chief Inspector of Timber and Forestry—responsible The first economic use of these forests by Europeans, in col- for the protection and management of federal forests by scien- laboration with aboriginal residents, was to harvest fur. For sev- tifically-trained professionals. This, in 1899, was the beginning of eral centuries, this was a sustainable use that maintained forest the Canadian Forest Service. habitat and wildlife populations. As settlement began, the forests, which covered most of the land, were seen as obstacles to the The Birth of Canadian Forestry primary goal of the colonial era, the building of an agricultural economy. The forests, at best, were looked upon as a non-renew- Elihu Stewart was the first superintendent of forestry appointed. able resource, like a mineral deposit. They could be harvested He immediately began organizing a forestry service, with a pri- once for whatever value they might bring in the timber trade, mary focus on conservation and forest propagation. Stewart after which the land would be settled and farmed, as had been noted in his first report to the Department, that conservation the experience in the homelands of the settlers. consisted of protecting forests, primarily from fire, and utilization By the mid-19th century, the timber industries established to through harvest these forests were the largest creators of wealth in the colonies. They employed by far the largest number of workers, …a judicious system of cutting the timber required for use so as including many settlers who worked in the Canadian woods dur- to retain for all time a continuous supply from those districts that ing winter months to earn the cash required to develop their are better adapted for the growth of timber than for agricultural farms. The forests provided colonial and—after Confederation— purposes. provincial administrators with a rich source of revenues to pay for the infrastructure needed for national development. Stewart’s first propagation programs were concerned with tree When the new nation of Canada acquired the prairie and planting on the prairies to provide settlers with windbreaks, and northern territories of Rupert’s Land from the Hudson’s Bay timber for fuel and building materials. To launch this program, the Company in 1870, it assumed jurisdiction over the forests in this first forest nursery was opened at Indian Head in 1902, and within area. In exchange for building a railway to the Pacific, Canada three years was supplying two million seedlings a year. Apart from acquired two large blocks of forest land in British Columbia. this program, practically all of the branch’s work was conducted Legislative authority to administer this land was included in the on federal forest lands. The programs he instituted marked the 1872 Dominion Lands Act, and a year later the federal first—but certainly not the only—time the CFS anticipated future

20 Forest History Today | s p r i n g /f a l l 2001 With responsibility for timber still assigned to the Timber Branch, the scientific emphasis of the forestry branch was clear from the outset, and continued with increased vigour under its second director, R.H. Campbell. In 1908, an economics division was set up to gather statistical data on forests and forest products. A research function was introduced in 1913 with the opening of a forest products laboratory at McGill University, including a pulp and paper division added the following year. During the war, a second lab was built in Vancouver to test west coast species for use in aircraft construction. Research on tree diseases, initially white pine blister rust in Quebec and Ontario, began in the early years of the war in cooperation with the Department of Agriculture. The two federal agencies col- laborated again with the establishment of a forest insect labora- tory at Vernon in 1917, the beginning of 50 years of joint ventures. In collaboration with the defense department, an experimental research station opened at the Petawawa military reserve in 1917 that would eventually become the country’s leading forest research centre. Following a particularly bad fire season in 1919, the branch stepped up its work on protection. Aerial fire patrols were initi- ated in Alberta and BC. In addition to spotting and reporting fires, the air patrols dropped leaflets over campsites and small towns to educate the public about forest protection, the beginning of what

atural R esources C ana d a/ ian F orest S ervice N atural eventually became a large public information program. A fire Dr. Clara Fritz, seen here at her microscope, was Canada’s first research program was established at Petawawa and within a few female timber pathologist. She joined what was then the Dominion years produced a unique method of forecasting fire hazards. Forest Service to work at the Montreal forest products laboratories in 1925 and retired as chief of timber pathology at the Ottawa for- est products laboratories in 1954.

needs and future philosophies of those we now term forest stake- holders. Stewart’s term in office, which lasted to 1907, coincided with an intense period of conservationist activity in Canada. The fed- eral government hosted the country’s first forest congress in 1906, convened by Prime Minister Laurier. The same year, the Dominion Forest Reserves Act was passed, placing 14,000 square kilometres of prairie forests under management by scientifically trained foresters. A year later, the country’s first forestry school opened at the University of Toronto, with a second established at the University of New Brunswick the following year, and a third at Laval University in 1910. Their task was to develop a cadre of professional foresters in Canada. It was not completely coincidental that those schools opened shortly after Stewart had returned from visiting the forests of Europe. Upon his return, he proposed training foresters in this country where, as they learned, they could gain practical experi- ence working in the forests they would manage. He recognized that conditions were so vastly different in Europe from those in Canada, that it would be unwise to adopt their management methods in Canadian forests. Stewart was also a key figure in the creation of the Canadian Forestry Association in 1900. It organized prominent politicians, lumbermen and Canadian public figures in support of conserva- tion measures, and, in turn, provided public support for the new

forestry branch. His successors were equally active in helping R esources C ana d a/ ian F orest S ervice N atural establish the Canadian Society of Forest Engineers, a profes- Researchers number a tree on a permanent sample plot in the sional organization of foresters, in 1908. Petawawa Research Forest in 1919.

Forest History Today | s p r i n g /f a l l 2001 21 In 1924, Ernest Finlayson succeeded Campbell as director of forestry. Like Campbell, Finlayson was a proponent of a major role for the federal government in forestry. This was a sensitive political issue, as some provincial governments were opposed to any federal involvement in forestry, which, constitutionally, was a provincial jurisdiction. That same year, federal and provincial forest ministers met for the first time to discuss fire protection policies, although their talks ranged beyond this subject. The federal minister proposed federal contributions, financial and otherwise, to the provinces to fund forestry activities. Although there was no immediate implementation of this proposal, it was accepted in principle and marked the beginning of a national forestry program. For its part, the federal government committed itself to a more intense forest conservation program, and instructed its Forestry Service to apply sustained yield policies on the 9.2 million acres of forest reserves now under its jurisdiction. At this point, national political issues intervened and, as part of their resolution, in 1930 control of the huge western national forest reserves was turned over to the western provinces. It was a devastating blow to Finlayson and others who supported a strong federal role in forestry and had linked the fortunes of the federal Forestry Service to jurisdiction over a substantial forest land base.

In Search of a New Role Under Finlayson, the service had developed a strong administra- tive role primarily concerned with management of federal forest lands. Because of its conservationist roots and its professional

staff, however, it had incorporated a level of scientific expertise R esources C ana d a/ ian F orest S ervice N atural into its operations that was missing in most provincial forest ser- E.H. Finlayson, director of Dominion Forest Service 1924–1936. vices. What saved the agency was its scientific capability. Soon after the transfer, senior staff within the service defined a research Perhaps the most dramatic accomplishment was the develop- role, focused on seven broad areas: silvicultural research, the ment of a method to conduct forest surveys from aerial photo- operation of experimental stations, forest products research, for- graphs. This system was pioneered by H.E. (Si) Seely, a forester est inventories, protection, mensuration, and forest policy devel- employed in the Economics Division, who discovered how to opment for the federal government. identify tree species and calculate timber volumes from aerial Adoption of this role dragged on through the 1930s, during photos. His method provided inventory data that was more accu- which time the very existence of the service was in question. Its rate than results provided by previous methods. These techniques budget was slashed and its staff reduced by 70 percent. These were also of immense value to the allied war effort in World War measures were intensified by the onset of the Great Depression. II, reinforcing arguments for the service’s continued existence. In 1936, tired of the struggle to maintain a strong central role for The war years were a period of reduced activity for the service. his agency in the forest sector, Finlayson disappeared and was The forest product laboratories shifted their emphasis to wartime never seen again. He was replaced by D. Roy Cameron, a profes- needs. The silvicultural research staff ran an alternative service sional forester with a strong commitment to research and the program for conscientious objectors. By one means or another, diplomatic skills needed to steer the forestry service through the the scientific research capabilities of the service remained intact. turbulent political waters of the pre-war period. Even before the end of the war, a new concept of governmen- In spite of its reduced circumstances during this difficult time tal relations had evolved, permitting participation of the federal the service laid the foundations of a new role. Silvicultural government in areas of provincial jurisdiction. This cooperative research forests were established in New Brunswick, Quebec and concept, combined with an awakened public awareness of the Manitoba. A major report on the national forest economy was strategic importance of Canada’s forests, and growing pressure produced by the Economics Division. Numerous fire protection from the forest industries for increased management of the coun- techniques were developed, and, in spite of many operational try’s state-owned forests, gained momentum. upheavals, the forest product laboratories continued to produce In 1946, the service received substantially increased alloca- results with the strong support of industry. The National Forestry tions for its research programs, and the following year was Program to employ young men in forest work was organized. A assigned responsibility for taking inventories and developing forest insect survey was launched and a national forest classifica- management plans for forests on Indian reserves. At the same tion system devised. time the country was developing a new awareness of its forests,

22 Forest History Today | s p r i n g /f a l l 2001 atural R esources C ana d a/ ian F orest S ervice N atural Forester Harry Holman rests amid a huge log boom in this photo from 1920.

a growing international forestry presence emerged. Canada, and its national forest service, became key participants in this process in 1947 when Cameron was appointed chief of the European forestry office of the newly formed United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization. The directorship passed to D.A. Macdonald, a University of New Brunswick-educated forester who had joined the federal service in 1914. By 1948, national forestry awareness was evident. There was a growing belief that federal income and corporate tax revenues from forests justified increased federal expenditures on forestry, and an admission by government of the need for increased man- agement to sustain forest yields. Several provincial governments initiated Royal Commissions on forestry, all of which called for the adoption of sustained yield policies. In 1949, the government responded to these pressures and passed the Canada Forestry Act which launched the federal forestry service on a new path.

Sustaining the Yield The legislation provided the federal forestry agency, then in its 50th year, with the statutory authority it had lacked since 1930, a new mandate, and a new name within a new department–the Forestry Branch of the Department of Resources and Development. The branch was empowered to enter into agreements with provinces for the protection, development and utilization of forest resources, to enter into arrangements with other federal depart- ments, to undertake economic studies, research and demonstration projects, and to operate laboratories. It was reorganized into three divisions: research, operations, and forest product laboratories.

Initially, agreements were concluded with provincial govern- R esources C ana d a/ ian F orest S ervice N atural ments for federal funds to finance inventory and reforestation H.E. (Si) Seely pioneered ways to use aerial photography to identify programs, to purchase fire-fighting equipment and to build access tree species and calculate timber volume. The techniques were later put roads. In 1953, joint agreements were entered into with the fed- to good use by the Allied forces in World War II.

Forest History Today | s p r i n g /f a l l 2001 23 atural R esources C ana d a/ ian F orest S ervice N atural Hugh McPhee, a field ranger with the Forest Insect and Disease Survey, Forest Biology Division, Department of Agriculture, in an army surplus Heavy Utility Personnel (HUP) vehicle in 1948.

eral Department of Agriculture’s Forest Biology Division, forest land base, but with a strong science and research focus. companies, and the provincial forest services of Quebec and New This was reflected in Harrison’s first report where, in addition Brunswick to combat major spruce budworm infestations with to reiterating its traditional science and research functions, he a program of aerial insecticide spraying. described an expanded research role in improving management In 1954, an agreement was concluded with the Department practices and the protection of forest resources, increasing timber of National Defense to manage the forests on its newly acquired utilization, and bolstering the competitive position of the forest base at Gagetown, New Brunswick. The branch continued its industries. cooperative management program on Indian reserves. From the outset the new department faced turmoil. In 1962, Throughout the 1950s, the post-war economic boom gained the government changed again, Harrison retired and was momentum with Canada’s forest industries playing a central role. replaced by L.Z. Rousseau, who was immediately confronted Noting that federal forest revenues had increased to several hun- with a government austerity program that hindered develop- dred millions of dollars a year, and that expenditures were less ment of new programs. Several changes of ministers occurred than $10 million, the industries lobbied hard for an increased and various unrelated administrative responsibilities—ranging federal forestry role, particularly in research. from the Agricultural and Rural Development Act to the The government referred the matter to a House of Commons Western Feed Grains Freight and Storage Assistance Program— Standing Committee and, following its recommendations, in 1960 were unloaded onto the department. passed the Department of Forestry Act, granting the branch full In spite of these setbacks, some progress was made. A new departmental status. J.D.B. Harrison, who had become director Pacific Forest Research Centre was opened in Victoria in 1965. in 1956, was elevated to deputy minister. Perhaps the high point in the department’s brief existence was At this stage, the new department had a staff of fewer than 500 its organization of the first federal-provincial forest ministers and a budget of only $6 million, making it one of the smallest conference in Ottawa in 1963. A reorganization plan was finally federal departments. The Act did not give it much scope for approved in 1965, less than a year before the department was growth. The one significant exception was to relocate the vener- downgraded to a branch in a new Department of Forestry and able Forest Biology Division from Agriculture into the new for- Rural Development. A year later the federal-provincial funding estry department. Other federal agencies with substantial agreements expired and were not renewed, weakening the connections to forests—parks, wildlife, northern affairs—retained department’s provincial support. their jurisdictions, leaving the Department of Forestry without a Part of the department’s difficulties could be traced to a lack

24 Forest History Today | s p r i n g /f a l l 2001 of the right kind of leadership through this politically turbulent During this phase, the forest-sector research community was period. Its strength lay, as always, in its scientific capabilities, and reorganized. Pulp and paper research had much earlier become its leaders had been drawn from its scientific ranks. They were a cooperative program of government, industry and universities not always the type of astute political operators often required within the Pulp and Paper Research Institute of Canada for survival in the federal political arena. M.L. Prebble, who (PAPRICAN). In 1975, PAPRICAN’s woodlands research group headed the forestry agency from 1965 to 1971, fit this descrip- was disbanded and reborn as the Forest Engineering Research tion fully. He was a renowned entomologist, who had an self- Institute of Canada (FERIC), funded by industry and the fed- admitted distaste for administration. eral government. In 1979, the western and eastern forest-prod- Beginning in 1968, another string of mishaps occurred. ucts laboratories were privatized under the name Forintek Election of a new government signalled a major shift in public Canada. This marked the end of the federal government’s direct concern. The branch was downsized and became a service in the participation in industrial forest research, and its replacement new Department of Fisheries and Forestry, under a minister with by arms-length funding arrangements. little or no interest in his forestry portfolio. Budget reductions and New forces were at work, however. After almost three decades a name change to Canadian Forestry Service followed. of industrial expansion, alarm over the timber supply on provin- The CFS’s lowest ebb began in 1971 when it found itself as one cial lands was mounting . A 1978 report by a Vancouver eco- of five divisions in the newly-minted Environment Canada, a nomic consultant, F.L.C. Reed, concluded the country’s current lumping together of several resource departments and agencies. industrial capacity could not be maintained without more inten- An attempt to reorganize these agencies, including the CFS, into sive management of second-growth forests. The report precipi- regional centres undermined the capabilities of most of them. tated a renewal of federal-provincial discussions leading to The department’s primary duty was to protect air, water and land federal funding of forest-management programs. resources, a mandate not always seen as compatible with the Following a change of government, Reed was appointed industrial component of the traditional CFS role. By 1974, the top CFS assistant deputy minister in 1980, a clear break with a long position in the CFS was reduced to that of a director general, tradition of scientific leadership. The emphasis shifted from budget cuts continued, and an attempt to close the Petawawa science and research to a heavily-funded stress on industrial research centre was barely averted. forest management. In 1982, the first of two five-year Forest atural R esources C ana d a/ ian F orest S ervice N atural Budworm City was the name given to the camp that sprang up alongside one of the first airstrips built in the bush in 1952 for budworm spray- ing. It was in the upper Upsalquich River country, 50 or 60 miles south of Dalhousie, New Brunswick. By the early 1960s, it had evolved into a camp for pulpwood cutters. The CFS had a small field station nearby and field researchers would sometimes get their meals there.

Forest History Today | s p r i n g /f a l l 2001 25 The Shift to Sustainable Forest Management

The concept of sustainable development posed an immense chal- lenge to the prevalent Canadian idea of sustained yield forest policy—as well as to the vast array of social, industrial, econom- ic and political forest-sector institutions which had evolved over the previous century, including the CFS. The 1987 National Forest Sector Strategy, although a notable achievement in its comprehensive articulation of a national outlook, still reflected a primary concern with sustaining industrial timber yields. Public expectations, however, had changed dramatically, as reflected in the growing opposition to industrial forest activity in some parts of the country. A change of government led to restoration of departmental status for the CFS in the 1989 Department of Forestry Act. It instructed the new Department of Forestry to “have regard to the integrated management and sustainable development of Canada’s forest resources.” This new way of thinking about Canada’s forests was reflect- ed in the Canada Forest Accord, endorsed by government, indus- try, and environmental organizations:

Our goal is to maintain and enhance the long-term health of our forest ecosystems, for the benefit of all living things both nationally and globally, while providing environmental, economic, social and cultural opportunities for the benefit of future generations. atural R esources C ana d a/ ian F orest S ervice N atural Dr. J.D.B. Harrison, director of Forestry Branch, 1956–60 and dep- In keeping with this objective, the department’s focus and uty minister of the Department of Forestry 1960–62.

Resource Development Agreements were concluded with the provinces. By 1985, federal forest expenditures exceeded $1 billion a year, with the CFS in a key coordinating role. By this time, the overall structure of federal forest administra- tion had been dramatically revised. The Canadian Council of Resource Ministers had been created, providing a framework for federal-provincial cooperation. A federal forest-sector strategy committee was set up to co-ordinate federal forest activities. The CFS had been moved into the Department of Agriculture, with a minister of state for forestry established, and Jean Claude Mercier appointed associate deputy minister. In 1985, the Canadian Council of Forest Ministers was formed. It sponsored a series of Canadian forestry forums across the coun- try, which led to the adoption of a National Forest Sector Strategy in 1987. This followed a 1981 strategy that had focused on the long-term need to increase timber supply and forest renewal. The 1987 strategy was the first that expanded to more comprehen- sively address the multiple uses of forests. While these events were transpiring, a major shift in public attitudes about forest use had occurred. Even at a time when the sustained yield of timber was still an unrealized goal in much of the country, a new concept of forest use had appeared which gave greater weight to non-timber forest values. This new idea lay at the centre of the 1987 report by the World Commission on Environment and Development, and was known as “sustain-

able development.” Over the next decade this concept would be R esources C ana d a/ ian F orest S ervice N atural adapted by the Canadian forest sector to create a new, more inclu- Dr. L.Z. Rousseau, deputy minister of the Department of Forestry sive approach to the human use of forests. The CFS, its scientific 1962–66 and the Department of Forestry and Rural Development capabilities still intact, was at the centre of this development. 1966–67.

26 Forest History Today | s p r i n g /f a l l 2001 resources were shifted to basic science and cooperative research It has undertaken visionary, forward-looking research that led to programs. The department also increased its international role, many forest management tools, methods, policies and programs. most significantly, perhaps, by bringing Canadian expertise in But its successes are often forgotten, even within the sector. forest science and technology to a growing array of global forest- In several instances, the CFS has initiated research projects related forums. As custodian of one-tenth of the world’s forests, where findings are passed along to forest managers. That knowl- Canada is expected to take a lead role in the global forest com- edge or product becomes a part of everyday forest management, munity. Perhaps the most valuable contribution the country can with the CFS role diminishing as it moves on, and tending, over bring to this forum is its forest science, along with its century- time, to fade from consciousness. But, even as one product is long experience in forest management. being turned over to forest managers, CFS has already begun Beginning with the Rio Summit in 1992, Canada became a work on the next challenge—and usually, on several “next” chal- signatory to a string of international agreements related to sustain- lenges simultaneously—to develop the tools and techniques that able resource use. Most of them have a forest component and it will become the new standard for forest management practice a fell to the CFS to represent Canada and take a lead role. The CFS few years, or perhaps a few decades, down the road. function, in this case, was to provide other nations with Canada’s A prime example of this process was its work in developing— expertise and experience, and to bring the content of the agree- well ahead of the call for alternatives—the biological insecticide, ments home to the provincial governments that, ultimately, bear Bacillus thuringiensis, for use when it became apparent the spray- the responsibility for implementing them on the forest floor. ing of chemical insecticides on insect-infested forests had undesir- In certain respects, within the jurisdictional framework able side effects. For this kind of work, CFS scientists have defined by the constitution, the CFS has assumed a leadership received numerous awards, including, during the past several role within the diverse network of interests that comprise years, three Orders of Canada and a Governor General’s Canada’s forest sector. It has succeeded at this by maintaining a Meritorious Service Medal. balance between its scientific and policy-coordination func- One of the biggest challenges facing the Canadian forest sector tions. over the past decade has been to take the concept of sustainable Perhaps the most important function the CFS has come to fulfill development, add to it the scientific foundations and feedback in recent years is that of the pilot or navigator, looking beyond the capabilities it requires to become practical, and realize this complex next wave for problems and opportunities unforeseen by of visions and strategies—known as “sustainable forest managers engaged directly in the day-to-day work of caring for the management”—in actual Canadian forests. To help meet this country’s forests. The CFS has always been a bit ahead of its time. objective, in 1992 the CFS initiated and funded a Model Forest Program. It consists of 11 sites, totalling 7.5 million hectares, in different forest regions across the country. Each involves a diverse partnership of people—governments, landowners, various types of forest-resource users and others—with a common interest in sustainable forest management of a particular forest area they have agreed on. Another research partnership, the Montane Alternative Silvicultural Systems project–between the CFS, the B.C. Ministry of Forests, FERIC, the University of Victoria and MacMillan Bloedel (now Weyerhaeuser) provided the scientific information needed by the company to undertake the radical initiative of phasing out clear-cut logging. In 1993, the CFS once again lost its departmental status and became a service within the Department of Natural Resources. Dr. Yvan Hardy, a well-known entomologist and former Dean of Forestry at Laval University, became assistant deputy minister. Unfortunately, the task of meeting the new challenges coincided with a period of budgetary restraint. The Federal Research Development Agreement (FRDA) programs were wound down, the CFS budget cut by 60 percent, and the staff reduced by one- third. In spite of the difficulties these curtailments created, the service has continued to thrive. To meet the social and economic aspects of sustainable forest management, the CFS expanded its scientific capabilities to include social sciences and a broader range of economic sciences. One application of this thrust was a First Nation Forestry Program, jointly funded and administered with the Department of Indian

atural R esources C ana d a/ ian F orest S ervice N atural Affairs and Northern Development, to promote forest-based eco- Dr. M.L. Prebble, assistant deputy minister of the Department of nomic development in First Nations communities. Other CFS Forestry 1965–66, the Department of Forestry and Rural Development researchers are developing a means of quantifying non-timber for- 1966–68 and the Department of Fisheries and Forestry 1969–71. est values, such as hunting, fishing, camping and biodiversity.

Forest History Today | s p r i n g /f a l l 2001 27 Today, the CFS uses its legacy of scientific knowledge and experience in both traditional and new ways. It is still a leading agency in forest fire research, protection and control, in forest entomology, and forest pathology. It continues to provide the economic analysis required for policy development and the main- tenance of industrial competitiveness. It is also applying these skills in new fields, such as the development of criteria and indi- cators needed to make the concept of sustainable forest manage- ment an operational reality in Canada’s forests.

Conclusion For more than a century the CFS has been most successful in its role as a catalyst in the Canadian forest sector. At times it has been assigned, or even sought, a more bureaucratically conven- tional and, on occasion, administratively powerful role in the country’s governing structures. At various points in its history, some of its leaders or its critics have looked wistfully at its south- ern counterpart, the U.S. Forest Service, with its vast national forest land base, and its authoritative position in U.S. society. If the primary purpose of a public agency such as the CFS is to expand, and its success is to be measured in the number of its staff and the size of its annual budget, then the CFS could be rated a failure. Today, as has been the case during most of its long history, it possesses no abundance of either of these attributes. atural R esources C ana d a/ ian F orest S ervice N atural But, if the true measure of such an agency is the degree of pos- Dr. Yvan Hardy, assistant deputy minister of the Canadian Forest itive influence it has had in its field of operations, and its ability Service of Natural Resources Canada. to survive hard times and emerge when its skills and capabilities are needed, then the CFS story is one of astounding success. Looking carefully at forest management successes in Canada The future of Canada’s forests is, today, as uncertain and and abroad over a span of decades, the CFS thumbprint, if not insecure as it has always been. The best insurance for their con- its brand, can be found on many of them. Moreover, an extraor- tinued health and well-being is the vision, the knowledge and dinary number of CFS initiatives have been remarkably prescient. the skill of those who work in and care for them. At the centre More often than not the CFS was developing innovative solutions of this group, where it has been for more than 100 years, is the to problems that had yet to be defined, and in some cases, would Canadian Forest Service. ■ not be clearly identified until five, 10 or 20 years later. Judging by much of the current research underway in the CFS one could predict that the important Canadian forest issues in the early part Ken Drushka is a journalist and author in Vancouver, BC and Bob Burt of this new century are likely to be biodiversity, ecosystem man- is Manager of Communications with the Canadian Forest Service in agement, biotechnology and plantation forestry. Ottawa, ON. Where to from here? During the CFS centennial celebrations in 1999, Ralph Goodale, Canada’s Minister of Natural Resources, indicated the service’s future role:

“As we head into the 21st century, this is my vision: We must become the smartest steward and developer of our forests, the smartest user and exporter of our forest prod- ucts. This means we must be the most high-tech; the most environmentally friendly; the most socially responsible; the most productive and competitive.

And we look to the Canadian Forest Service and the men and women of the CFS to continue to lead the way in anticipating and preparing for these challenges and in building consensus among all parties with interests in the Canadian forests.”

28 Forest History Today | s p r i n g /f a l l 2001 There is no question that the profession of forestry is a profession with a long history of mentoring. Most, if not every forestry school also has a mentor that stands out in the school’s history, one who touched the lives of so many and thereby affected the profession to degrees they may never had realized at the time. This reminiscence of James F. Dubuar, who served at the Ranger School of the SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry, is dedicated to the many mentors who made a difference.

James F. Dubuar:

Lessons Learned From The Man

or a period of years in the 1980s, John Shanklin urgently requested me to write a biography of James F. Dubuar. I got as far as asking Ranger School alumni for their input and then writing the first three paragraphs below.M y intent was to do thorough archival research and write a real history for a scholarly publication like Forest & Conservation History. FIt didn’t happen, and I sincerely apologize to John Shanklin, who has community since he left (and it has been 43 years, longer than long since passed the great divide, and to the many alumni who the 37 years he served as Director)—as students, faculty, staff, responded to my call for anecdotes about Jim Dubuar and wished me or friends—the name James F. Dubuar evokes an institutional well with the project. memory. He is the benevolent face in the oil painting in the Recently I came across those responses, and I decided to write main hall; a face with a wry grin and penetrating eyes. (Kerm about Jim Dubuar based on them. So what follows isn’t a learned Remele, ’43, reports Mr. JFD didn’t like this painting, saying, “It treatise on James F. Dubuar, but something about the man as told by makes me look like a beaver.”). He is the name on the awards those who were his students, employees, friends, and family, and by plaque, the name on the plaque on the rock in front of school, Prof. Dubuar himself. Although he will not read it, I hope it meets the the man whose name the school forest bears. His spirit sweeps spirit of John Shanklin’s request. from the walls and cries out to all, “Listen, brother, there’s a right way to do it and that’s how you’ll do it.” These good folks Jim Dubuar, James F. Dubuar, Mr. Dubuar, Uncle Jimmy, JFD. say that Dubuar obviously touched many lives, and they’re For those who did not know him or never heard of him, the right. names have no meaning, no memory. It’s like saying “Babe But those of us who were his students, or colleagues, or Ruth” to someone who neither knows about or cares about friends, know more. Jim Dubuar didn’t just touch our lives; he baseball, or only eats chocolate bars. whacked them but good! We laugh, joke, and commiserate about To those who have become part of the Ranger School the verbal whacks we took that were so obvious. Then we pause,

By James E. Coufal, RS ’57

Forest History Today | s p r i n g /f a l l 2001 29 - ESF A rchives SUNY James Dubuar (left) with faculty members Phil Haddock, Jim Hensel, and Orrin Latham at the Ranger School.

and the enormity of the subtle, or not so subtle, message we put it while describing an incident, “No WWI Army sergeant got received from James F. Dubuar the role model is felt more than his stripes for having seen and not heard. Needless to say there known, tasted more than seen, and penetrates more than any 11 was never another disciplinary problem for the rest of the school months of anything else most of us have experienced. Like so year.” My Class of ’57 must have been different from your Class many things in life, it is an experience we wanted to escape while of ’27 Hal, because even after the opening day chewing out about we were in its midst, and now cherish. “If I made it through that, sitting on the drafting table, my classmates almost daily risked the I can make it through anything.” Jim Dubuar may be long gone, royal reaming for a little adventure. but the tone and the standards he set live on. So let’s hear what Not everyone thought the military treatment was wonderful. some of his students, colleagues, and friends had to say about John Ackerman, ’54, reminiscing in his class’s neat publication, Jim Dubuar and his effect on their lives. Class of 1954 Thirty Years Later, said, “I know how proud everyone Jim didn’t wait long to start the learning process. Walt is that managed to survive the Ranger School experience. But so Sergeant, ’49, recalls that, much of it, in my opinion, was the product of a somewhat obsessed and maniacal individual bent on establishing a tradition At our first class in the drafting room, Prof. Dubuar entered the based on pro-military lines.” John spoke to the Ranger School room and immediately climbed atop a drafting table on his hands experience most of us appreciate in his next sentence by adding, and knees. He then said, “A drafting table is for drawing or map “They were able to instill more knowledge, however, than at any making, etc. and is not to be sat on, stood on, or used for any other time in the next three years at Syracuse.” This is an idea to this purpose than drafting. day that the Syracuse faculty doesn’t understand and can’t accept. Many cases also reveal that Uncle Jimmy had a soft side. Jim must have been prepared to make an opportunity unless given George Myers wrote in a letter to then Ranger School Alumni one. In my class (’57), he came in to find a classmate (Herb Allen?) Association President Tom Martin, sitting on a drafting table. In this case, Jim didn’t climb atop a table but much to Herb’s chagrin he emphatically gave the same mes- My first impression of Professor Dubuar was very misleading in sage about the use of drafting tables and fools who used them that I saw the person but did not know him. He reminded me of otherwise. Several alumni agree that it appeared Jim looked for an angry owl with his short compact stature, his slicked-back hair, instances during the year to give everyone a top sergeant dressing thick glasses and lantern jaw, and a mien that would frighten or down, with a few exceptions for those older or more mature stu- give pause to the most stout-hearted. His abrupt “bark” assured dents who had sufficient life experiences so they didn’t need to him of our attention, and very few of us saw kindness, humility learn what it feels like to be verbally massaged. As Hal Bush, ’27, and gentleness lurking there.

30 Forest History Today | s p r i n g /f a l l 2001 Jack McConnell, ’41, recalls that

We were having a “bull session” in one of the (dorm) rooms and got quite noisy. For some reason one of the guys put a laundry bag over my head and I guess I really got carried away. I must have sensed something was wrong because things became quiet—I removed the bag and lo and behold, Mr. J.F. Dubuar was standing in the open doorway. With his stern look & piercing black eyes he looked at me and remarked, “You sound like a Jack-ass braying in a rain barrel.” I didn’t think I’d be long at the school—Needless to say, the hallways became quiet once more and I even think he laughed to himself as he turned away.

I think many of us experienced the “sensing” Jack writes about, including a sense of foreboding when one received a terse note that said simply, “Please see me. JFD.” About what? What did I do? Oh my God, what will I tell Mom and Dad? But there was compassion. Hal Bush, ’27, even recounts Dubuar overlooking the fact that adjacent dorm mates kicked a hole in the wall to have a dormitory suite. Of course, the building was scheduled for demolition and replacement by the main building. I’ll recount a situation of my own. Recall that no drinking was allowed, anywhere, anytime. My class had lost a member the very first weekend due to a drinking incident. I lived in the Long Dorm and early one evening all the Long Dorm residents decided a drink was in order. But no one wanted to go to town—too much work to do. So we drew straws and I “won.” I collected the money and took the orders and off to Wanakena I did go. With a brown bag full of beer and wine bottles in my arms, I - ESF A rchives

made the turn onto the Ranger School Road and had not gone but SUNY a few chains when I heard a car behind me. With this load, a ride James F. Dubuar was a dedicated fly fisherman and waterfowl hunt- would be welcomed, but when I saw a black Buick driven by James er. His Afghan hound, Emma, was famous for chasing students. - ESF A rchives SUNY The ranger school in 1962. Before 1972, when the school year ran from March to February, some of the earliest surveying field exercises were conducted on the frozen Oswegatchie River in front of the school.

Forest History Today | s p r i n g /f a l l 2001 31 F.

This is the millpond in Wanakena in the early 1900s. Wanakena had a variety of operations—saw- mill, buggy whip mill, shoe- last mill—and a population of about 1,000. Today it is a

- ESF A rchives tiny village of about 100

SUNY permanent residents. Dubuar, I nearly filled my britches, especially when he stopped, The Ranger School Today looked out the window and said, “Get in, Brother,” indicating the back seat. The bottles rattling loudly were playing “Temptation,” he Ranger School is located just outside the hamlet of but I thought I had an out when I saw Emma, his famous Afghan TWanakena, New York on the western side of the hound in the back seat (she also had a thing for britches!). Adirondack Park. Students attending this unit of the State “I’m afraid of her,” I said as she bared her teeth and emitted a University of New York College of Environmental Science and low grumble. “She won’t hurt you. Get in, Brother,” he said with Forestry receive an associate in applied science degree in forest that command module that allowed for nothing but getting in. technology. The unique 1+1 structure of the program allows Nary a word was spoken during the drive to school. Emma students to spend their first year of school at a college of their growled, I shook, the bottles rattled, Dubuar drove, and I swear I choice and the second year is spent at the Ranger School. could see through the back of his head to a wry little grin. When Ranger School students attend class 8 hours per day, five we got to the Long Dorm—he knew where I lived like he knew days a week and earn 48 credit hours during their 10-month so much of what went on—he stopped. I don’t recall that he said stay in Wanakena. On a typical day students spend 4 hours anything, just looked over his shoulder and dismissed me (from in the classroom and 4 hours in field and laboratory exer- the car, that is). By this time, the bottles were playing the War of cises. Field and laboratory exercises held on the 2800-acre 1812 and I just knew I was done. However, nothing was ever said, James F. Dubuar Forest provide students with a hands-on and I’d like to believe that he saw something in me worth saving. experience in the various aspects of forest technology. These kind of remembrances served me well when I later joined An extremely diverse student body makes up the enroll- the Ranger School faculty and then as Director. Still, Kerm ment that ranges between 40–55 people. The five full-time Remele, ’43, remembers Jim Dubuar talking of ulcers and saying, faculty, most of whom live on the campus, bring a wide “I don’t get ’em, I give ’em.” range of technical and professional forestry and surveying Events such as those described may have been taken as “teach- experience to the program. Graduates are heavily recruited able moments” by James F. Dubuar. But he also used his famous by a variety of forestry companies and organizations. A sig- course, Elements of Forestry, to teach much more than forestry. nificant number of graduates continue their studies at the Long before forestry educators decided that they had missed the College of Environmental Science and Forestry or other boat by not including large doses of the human element, Dubuar colleges offering forestry degrees. talked ethics, psychology, sociology, organizational behavior, and The Ranger School boasts a very supportive and active professionalism. Alumni talked in two themes about Dubuar and alumni association. An endowment has been successfully his course, Elements of Forestry; style and content. established to help support student scholarships and provide Tom Farrenkopf, ’54, reminisced about both: program support. A $4.5 million capital construction project is scheduled to break ground in the spring of 2001. The first time Jim Dubuar lectured usI thought he was someone who had escaped from the state hospital. He laid his expectations on the Ranger School, PO Box 48, Wanakena, NY 13695 line the first day.I remember sitting in the classroom near the end of (315) 848-2566 the day, not quite awake, when he told us we were expected to be at http://rangerschool.esf.edu each class on time, ready to go, and we should continue to work until it was time to quit, and how this related to the working world and

32 Forest History Today | s p r i n g /f a l l 2001 putting in a full days work for a full days pay. All the time he was to his heart: Morality, integrity, and the WORK ETHIC, as though talking he was pacing up and down, moving the chair, moving the the very force of his personality you would remember. We did.” table, and when he finished up it was the end of the day, and he said Therein was his secret; we remembered the message he gave by “…and when it gets to be five o’clock drop everything and quit for the way he lived. the day, don’t you see?” With that he dropped a large wooden tri- How we each remembered has to do with “story,” the most angle (the one used to contain the tips of the transit legs when it was important method of transmitting values. Larry Hill, ’50, writes set up in the classroom) on the floor with such a bang that everyone that for him it was a lot of things: rose up in his seat. It was that night in March 1949, the night before the first class day Walt Sergeant remembers something I also have fond memories at Wanakena when I was fooling around with the piano in the of. Walt says, “I remember also being in the classroom at the “library” (such as it was in those days), when Mr. Dubuar came head of the stairs when the bell would ring to begin. Prof. in all in a hustle and announced that he hoped that I was a better Dubuar would at that instant leave his office at the foot of the student than a piano player. It was that afternoon in mid April stairs. He would start his lecture as he cleared his office door, and when I thought I had washed out after hitting Professor Hensel continue up the stairs and into the classroom with no interrup- with a snowball destined for classmate Rene Elisar that he told me tions.” In my recollection, he ended his lectures in a parallel fash- my aim was no better than my piano playing, but that he thought ion. That is, when the bell rang he turned and walked out the I could make it as a student if I’d just “grow up.” It was that day classroom door to his office, continuing to lecture until he arrived in February when he shook my hand at graduation and suggested at his office. Good ears at the front and back ends of his lectures that now I had grown up. were an absolute must! George Myers, ’50, perhaps sums it up best; “The man would Stories make myths, events, and people that become larger than pace back and forth like a caged tiger and challenge you to try to life to pass on our fundamental values. Jim Dubuar is one of meet his standards! (Author’s comment: I and some others also those myths or legends. As Larry Hill went on to put it, “There remember a style where he seemed to hang on to the podium for is so much that I owe that gentle giant. I can never repay him dear life, with his head lifted skyward and never looking at the that debt except to behave like he did when he left Michigan in class, while continuing to lecture). He’d get on and really pound 1913….just be darn good at it.” This requires just a bit more subjects (often remote from the official ones being taught) dear explanation. - ESF A rchives SUNY James Dubuar with Tinker (center), a student, and Elmer Martin (right), the shop and maintenance man in 1920 at the Ranger School. Some students lived in tents that year.

Forest History Today | s p r i n g /f a l l 2001 33 Larry wrote of how in 1958 he was vice-president of the my parents’ permission. It was 1 a.m. and they couldn’t get my Michigan Foresters’ Club at the University of Michigan. It hap- parents in Syracuse, so Mr. Dubuar told Dr. Persson that he would pened to be the 45th anniversary year of Jim Dubuar’s graduation personally take responsibility for the operation, and it was done. in 1913 from UM, so the yearbook was dedicated to Mr. Dubuar, Students keeping in touch with Jim Dubuar via correspon- and he was invited to give a talk on campus. Larry says, “I don’t dence or naming their children after him were only two ways he remember much of his talk, but I do remember him saying that was honored. We all know that the school forest is named after when he left Michigan, he had ‘no real clear idea of what he him, but it was not the first James F. Dubuar Forest. In 1960, Art wanted to do, but whatever it was, he wanted to be darn good at Flick, ’53, named a 145 acre tree farm after Mr. Dubuar, saying it.’” My brief review of original correspondence kept in the ESF that “The first couple of times I marked the lot for selective har- Archives indicates that Jim Dubuar was about as confused when vest, Jim Dubuar came down to tally for me. It was a tremendous he arrived at Wanakena as each of us were when we arrived as experience.” Prof. Dubuar was also very proud that the school’s students. The common belief that he came to Wanakena as if on forest was named after him not because of the initiative of the a mission doesn’t hold up. What does hold up is that he went college administration or staff, but because of “his alumni.” Mr. about figuring out what he wanted to do, and once figured out Dubuar was also very pleased when the Class of 1927 made a he was darn good at it. donation to the Clifton-Fine Hospital in his name. Like Larry Hill’s piano playing, snowball throwing, and growing Roswell Miller, ’52, actually took his wife to visit Mr. Dubuar up, Dubuar remembered. Many alumni sent in letters they had and the Ranger School when on his honeymoon in the received from Jim Dubuar many years after their graduation. Adirondacks in 1955, and how many professors and schools are Dubuar had a regular correspondence with many alumni at likely to have had that kind of honor! Ros went on to say that his Christmas time. But that was not all. Perhaps the most interesting wife, Ruth, later told him she was worried they would someday is the note from an alumnus who while in the military wrote Mr. end up at Wanakena. Instead, Ros went on to a distinguished Dubuar and made an offhand comment about surveying. He was career at Michigan Technological University, in another hotbed surprised and very pleased to get back five pages of hand written of population and culture, Houghton, Michigan. response going into great detail about surveying. Speaking of the There is a bit of conventional wisdom that says Jim Dubuar military, George Fillian, ‘46, expressed something heard many times was lucky to have retired when he did, because he wouldn’t have from others. George wrote, “I was 17 during most of my RS year taken to “modern times” and modern students very well. This and this was my first experience away from home. My 2nd was overlooks the fact that he adapted to 37 years of changing condi- Army Basic Training and that was a piece of cake after the RS.” I tions as director of the Ranger School, and that he lived through heard the same thing years later from Dan Mannix, only about and adapted to three major wars (I, II, & Korea). However, let’s marine Boot Camp. Of his correspondence with alumni, Roswell hear from The Man himself. Miller, ’52, summed it up by saying, “ I know that many RS alumni In 1974, responding to Jack McConnell, ’41, Prof. Dubuar also sent cards and letters, and each of them were answered as best wrote, “You have not let me down by not following the forestry he could, and always in such a way that I (we all) knew that he knew profession…. Forestry, the forestry profession and the forestry who we really were and was interested in what we were doing after schools never offered the students any guarantee of work & graduation.” Graduates remained, his “boys.” opportunities in forestry so, most certainly, the graduate was Jim Dubuar was a fully human person. Francis Smalley, ’27, under no obligation to follow a line of work which the school wrote that Dubuar said that “while walking along the campus taught him. What I have always been interested in is in seeing my one day he looked across the street and saw this young lady. He former students find an activity in which they could live happily said that it was as if he had been hit over the head with a peavey and produce some satisfying results.” There is certainly nothing and that he knew this was the lady for him, and it was. Mr. in this philosophy that would be “anti-modern.” Dubuar often bragged on the beauty and energy of his 89-pound In a 1975 letter to another RS graduate, Mr. Dubuar wrote that wife, Margareet, who many of us also have fond memories of. “Though the RS is not a professional school I suppose one can say He loved fishing and bird hunting. Sam Starbuck, writes how it offers graduates work. It certainly is a far cry from its original Mr. Dubuar told him of hooking a “monster trout” that, after a purpose of offering a short course to those who could probably tough battle, he got up to the river edge only to have the fish slip not make it in college, were afraid to try or who were held back away. Dubuar said he sat down on the riverbank and cried. He was by being unable to finance college training. Well, it will be inter- also human enough that he got himself involved in a discussion of esting to know its history fifty years from now. I have no doubt which was his favorite class, naming 1927 and 1942 as very special, there will be some startling changes.” He presided over and rec- but you’ll need to ask members of those classes about this. He also ognized the need for change, and though it has only been 25 years had his idiosyncrasies, like never wearing snowshoes working the since he wrote these words, there have been startling changes at weather route (a series of weather stations measured on a daily the RS, with more to come. basis for many years) even in the deepest snow. In that same letter, he indicated that he was an “ecologist” Mr. Dubuar was one of the leading citizens in getting the ahead of his time. Writing of a fishing expedition on the RS Clifton-Fine Hospital started, and wrote fondly of his efforts, but property, he said, “I almost landed a fly on the back of an otter. that’s another story. However, I must add my personal thanks for It always seemed to me that if forestry was really interested in the presence of the hospital since my appendix ruptured two providing such forms of recreation as fishing, hunting and trap- weeks before graduation and that is where Dr. Persson removed ping, the swamps and low lands adjacent to the creeks should be it and saved me. Dubuar’s character came into play here too. I was left for wildlife, the trout, the black and wood ducks and deer.” only 17 and Doc Persson could not legally operate on me without Today we talk of riparian corridors and wetland preservation.

34 Forest History Today | s p r i n g /f a l l 2001 But what of things some alumni and observers think of as the biggest changes at the RS, the acceptance of women as students and changing student attitudes. Writing on April 1, 1969 to Frank Kuhn, ’27, Mr. Dubuar said, “So Hildegard (Frank’s daughter) would like to attend the RS! Well, this is the day when we are being reminded of civil rights and the fact that no one is to be discriminated against because of race, sex, color, or political or religious beliefs. I think that some day girls will be allowed to enter the RS, and why shouldn’t she be the first one?” Lest anyone think the reference to “girls” is sexist or demeaning, recall that Mr. Dubuar referred to his students as “boys.” And yes, Hildegard Kuhn did go on to become the first female graduate of the Ranger School, class of 1974, but more on that below. In a 1971 letter to Frank Kuhn, Mr. Dubuar chastised the Ranger School, saying, “…it would seem that the RS would get with it and approve your daughter’s application for admission…” He then went on to tell of having a girl at summer camp, which the College of Forestry held at Wanakena, during the War, and said, “My family solved the housing problem for the young lady by letting her have a room in our house.” Later Hildegard enrolled at the RS, and in October 1973 Mr. Dubuar again wrote to Frank Kuhn. “It is too bad your daughter has to live in town…This tendency for girls to want to enter at - ESF A rchives

Wanakena will put it up to the state to furnish some dormitory SUNY space for them. If there is resentment at the school over girls A family affair. Frank Kuhn, RS Class of 1927 with his daughter enrolling there, the resenters better take a tumble to themselves. Hildegarde, the first female graduate of the ranger school, Class of Some things and ideas have been changing. There is no sense in 1974, at the Alumni Reunion of 1984. Hildegarde’s Uncle Cornelius resenting something that one can’t control In fact, there should was also a graduate, Class of 1937, and her brother Joe was in the be no reason in trying to control some of the changes that face class of 1957. us. Why shouldn’t the girls be allowed to attend at Wanakena or any other school, for that matter?” So much for Jim Dubuar hav- ates the school, and his standards that still drive it. ing problems with women students at the RS. And of course, the Dave Clark, ’52, a student near the end of Mr. Dubuar’s ten- state did furnish dormitory space for them. ure at the RS, said, “…no matter how difficult he seemed he was In addition, what of the “modern” students (modern of course consistent and earnestly worked to develop good men as well as meaning something different just about every year!). In 1974, Prof. train competent rangers. He could be trusted and he supported Dubuar responded to Jack McConnell, ’41; “So you would like to anyone who made a genuine effort to improve…. Yessir, we were hear my remarks on the topic of the ‘hippy’ generation…I think privileged to be directed by James F. Dubuar.” What a legacy of if I had been at the RS as this new mode of life and attitudes consistency over his long tenure! changed I would have been able to get along and we could still Jim Burnett, ‘38, put it a bit more personally, but in language, have produced some worthwhile results.” He then went on to that makes Mr. Dubuar’s wisdom clear. “He was exactly like my recount his experiences with his grandchildren, not budging an father who never accepted excuses for goofing off, but did under- inch on his standards, but finding ways to live with change and stand that young men sometimes make mistakes because they influence it. And who am I and who are we to think he wouldn’t just didn’t know any better, and this was something that could have got along and produced some worthwhile results. He was, be corrected by education.” after all, someone who was darn good at it, whatever “it” hap- So, “Don’tch ya know, brother,” it comes down to the words pened to be. on the Dubuar Memorial in front of the Ranger School. “Jim So what’s the upshot of the legend of James F. Dubuar? It’s made men, therein lay his power.” in the way graduates felt after leaving, no matter when they graduated. Listen to Harold Densmore, ’36, who wrote “Jim Thanks, Jim!! ■ Dubuar had a profound influence on every student that attend- ed the Ranger School during his tenure there. We were all aware of his deep dedication to the school and its goals. Jim James E. Coufal is a retired professor from the State University of New York, Dubuar was a man of very intense nature who gave of his best College of Environmental Science and Forestry, Syracuse, New York. constantly and expected no less of his students. I left the Ranger School feeling that there was no task too hard and no effort too Photographs are courtesy of the Terrence J. Hoverter College Archives, great to achieve ones personal goals.” This was written 52 years F. Franklin Moon Library, State University of New York, College of after Harold’s graduation. In my opinion, Jim Dubuar has had ­Environmental Science and Forestry, Syracuse, New York. a profound influence on every student that attended the RS during and since his tenure there, for it is his spirit that perme-

Forest History Today | s p r i n g /f a l l 2001 35 The lessons of history are evident in this article adapted from an upcoming book that will trace 100 years of research history at the Wind River Experimental Forest. The authors demonstrate the value of long-term research as the Wind River story shows that outcomes are not always predictable and research results can change over time. The article is offered in recognition of the 75th anniversary of the USDA Forest Service Pacific NW Research Station.

Forest of Time:

Research at the Wind River Experimental Forest 1908–1919

he Forest Service was three years old in 1908, and forestry was a new field of science, when a handful of freshly minted foresters came west to study the giant trees of the Pacific Northwest. Their first laboratory was nestled Tin the Cascade Mountains of Washington, between Mt. St. Helens and the Columbia River, in the Wind River valley. Yacolt Burn Studying forests is slow business. A tree can easily outlive a Here, in a land so famously wet, it is not easy to understand the human, and the forests of the Pacific Northwest had outlived role of fire. Along the length of the Cascade Range, mountains civilizations. The young researchers faced trees that were larger block the flow of moist air blowing in from the ocean, and the and older than any they had studied back east, in forests that were wet western valleys and slopes grow some of the largest trees in more ancient than anything described in their European texts. Yet the world. But the Columbia River has carved a narrow slot in the same scourges that had ravished forests across the American the mountains, where the wind funnels with particular strength. continent were making their mark in this last forested frontier. An And sometimes, when air pressure differences are especially industry of cut-and-run logging and an increasing number of strong east to west, the wind reverses to pull hot, dry air from massive fires left bare scars across the shoulders of the Cascades. the arid eastern plateau toward the coast and into the forests. The The forest laboratory would eventually be known as the Wind power of these desiccating winds can fan a small fire into a holo- River Experimental Forest. It would be the site of ground-break- caust. ing research as Douglas fir became the preeminent commercial At the turn of century, small fires were common throughout tree species, and the Pacific Northwest became ground zero for the summer and fall. During the brief dry season, fires were start- changes in forest policy. But in 1908, the foresters’ attention was ed by Native Americans clearing meadows, or by lightning strikes, on how trees grow and how to reforest the burn-scarred land. or by settlers trying to grub out a farm from the towering forest.

by Margaret Herring and Sarah Greene

36 Forest History Today | s p r i n g /f a l l 2001 Service, the young chief forester hoped the sale of timber would help pay for his programs to manage the nation’s forests. Fire-killed timber sold to the Wind River Lumber Company was one of the first large commercial timber sales on forest reserve lands in the Pacific Northwest. The 1906 sale covered 280 acres and 14.6 million board feet of timber, sold for $12,921. Much more of the valley was harvested in the next eighteen years.2

The Forest Service To supplement his meager farm income, one hardy Wind River homesteader, Elias Wigal, had hired on as a ranger in the Mt. Rainier Forest Reserve. It fell to Wigal to manage the Wind River timber sales. His job required close contact with the lumber operations, so he built a small cabin on the south side of Trout Creek, directly across the creek from Wind River Lumber Company’s Logging Camp #3. By 1908, Camp 3 was a large operation with several bunkhouses, an office, a cookhouse, a filing shed, and a barn. In contrast, Wigal’s new headquarters consisted of a one-room, cedar shake cabin. It was the first sta- tion built on the vast Mount Rainier Forest Reserve, and it was called the Hemlock Ranger Station, because of the western hem- locks surrounding the site. Privately-owned forests at this time were often abandoned after harvest, left to the whims of natural revegetation and reoc- curring fire. Even the cutover lands of the federal forests were On September 11, 1902, sudden east winds fanned a series of ignored. Few records were kept on federal lands following timber small fires throughout Washington and Oregon. These fires sales, and nothing was known about the rate of regeneration. merged with fires blowing in from the east, and exploded into Reforestation was not in the minds of those who cut the trees, mammoth proportions. Eyewitnesses described a wall of fire but it was uppermost in the minds of the young foresters when burning across southern Washington, roaring and rolling in waves they arrived at the new Forest Service District office in Portland of flame that leapt hundreds of feet into the air. Survivors in 1908. described the deafening roar of the firestorm with its fierce, puls- Earlier that year, Gifford Pinchot had divided the national for- ing wind. The fire burned for three days, and for weeks afterward the sound of falling trees cannonaded across the scorched land- scape. The fire was named for the small town of Yacolt that had miraculously escaped incineration. In much of the Wind River valley, the fire left a ghost forest of dead, blackened snags.1

Settlement and the logging industry Before the Yacolt fire, some homesteaders had settled in the Wind River valley. But the hopes and investments of most of them had been doused by chilling frosts that tumbled out of the mountains at almost any time of year. The best way for some settlers to make it on this land was to sell out, and the Wind River Lumber Company was there to help with the transition. Similar transitions between homesteaders and timber com- panies were occurring throughout the west, which raised con- cern for the fate of the nation’s forests and eventually helped to prompt the creation of several forest reserves. By the time of the Yacolt fire, much of the western Cascades in Washington was part of the Mount Rainier Forest Reserve. In the Wind River valley, most of the land that was not part of the reserve was claimed by the Wind River Lumber Company. The laws that had established the forest reserves provided their

managers with the authority to sell mature or dead trees as a sup- U . S F orest ervice P hoto plement to local timber supply. In 1905, when responsibility for the J. V. Hofmann overlooks Yacolt Burn at Wind River Experimental reserves was transferred to Gifford Pinchot’s fledgling Forest Station (1919).

Forest History Today | s p r i n g /f a l l 2001 37 ests into six inspection districts, each with four branches of inves- tigation: Operations, Grazing, Products, and Silviculture. District Six, including the states of Washington and Oregon and the ter- ritory of Alaska, established headquarters in Portland, Oregon, where E. T. Allen was named District Forest Inspector. E. T. Allen, a largely self-taught forester, had made a study of Douglas fir in 1903. In it he had recognized that few other trees “promise to exert such influence on the lumber supply of the future.” “Since the ultimate exhaustion of virgin timber in the United States is certain, it follows that the forest regions that can be relied on to furnish the first and largest supply of second growth are National resources of great value and knowledge of their capacity to furnish this supply is of the utmost importance.”3 This work continued through the District Branch of Silviculture, in its section of Silvics, headed by a young forester fresh out of Yale School of Forestry named Thornton T. Munger.

T. T. Munger T. T. Munger was the son of a New England minister, and his manner reflected a disciplined, no-nonsense approach to life and study. Munger had come west to study pines in the dry country east of the Cascades. When reassigned to Portland, he turned his attention to the tree that dominates the moist western forests,

the Douglas fir. U . S F orest ervice P hoto Munger reviewed the few studies available to him at the time, T. T. Munger (1883–1975) pioneer scientist at Wind River. including E. T. Allen’s early report of the so-called red fir. Munger’s assignment in Portland was “to make an authoritative, Oregon, Washington, and British Columbia. There, explorers useful report on the silvicultural requirements, rate of growth, marveled at the massive old-growth stands of Douglas fir. The and volume and stand tables for this tree.” tree grew straight toward the sun, shading out side branches to This was a tall order. What was known at the time about form tall trunks of clear strong wood. The young wood was red; Douglas fir had been learned primarily from observation. the older wood was yellow. Early names were varied, including Munger set about to quantify that knowledge, to put measure- red fir, yellow fir, and false hemlock. David Douglas, the British ments on those observations. botanist whose name the tree now bears, called it Oregon pine. Munger found a natural laboratory of Douglas fir in the vast burned-over hillsides of the western Cascades, including the Wind Douglas fir River valley. The Yacolt fire had burned the southern half of the Although cedar had been more important to the Indians of the valley, and left untouched a patchwork of ancient forest and older Pacific Northwest, Douglas fir captured the attention of the earli- burns to the north. The older burns particularly caught Munger’s est European travelers. In the early 1800s, the Hudson Bay attention. Where fires had burned through 40 years earlier, Company developed a vigorous trade in ship timbers from the Munger found a solid stand of 40-year-old Douglas fir growing. tall, straight firs. Douglas fir was recorded from the Rocky Similarly throughout the Cascades and Coast Range, he found Mountains to the Pacific, and from the Mexican border to Canada, pure stands of Douglas fir clustered by age from 30 years old up but its most dominant presence was in the western forests of to 125, “and they weren’t very hard to find because there was

Wind River Experimental Forest In 1908, after the Forest Service established its first experiment shared information, and established new research. Even during station, in Arizona, the search was on for an appropriate site for World War I, when manpower was short, the permanent plots an experiment station in the Pacific Northwest. The record is not were remeasured, maintaining a continuous record of growth in clear if there were any other serious candidates, but Wind River the experimental plots. The Wind River Experimental Station seemed like the natural choice, with the Hemlock Station in place was replaced by the Pacific Northwest Forest and Range and growing, its nursery established, and increasing research in Experiment Station in 1924, with T. T. Munger as its director, and the valley and surrounding hills. In 1913, the Wind River administrative offices were moved to Portland. Research contin- Experiment Station was officially designated, and J. V. Hofmann ued at Wind River, and in 1932, it was designated as part of the hired to be its director. Each year, the station put out publications, Wind River Experimental Forest.

38 Forest History Today | s p r i n g /f a l l 2001 a great deal of second growth Douglas fir on old burns.”4 The would accumulate slowly, but eventually he would have “the most natural tendency for Douglas fir to revegetate burned land had convincing evidence that lumbermen needed to show that those created a laboratory of single age stands just right for compara- stands do grow.”5 A sample of these original plots are still main- tive study. tained and periodically measured. Munger examined single-age stands throughout the region, and noted different qualities of land within each stand. He mea- Regenerating the forest sured 40-year-old trees and compared them to the size of 50-year- old trees, and to 60- and 70- and 80-year-old trees. He compared However, James Wilson, Secretary of Agriculture, did not have trees on similar sites, so that only the growth and not the Munger’s patience. He did not think the Forest Service was acting favorability of the site would be measured. fast enough to replant cutover and burned lands. Wilson was a Such fieldwork could be done for only a few months of the farmer, and according to Munger, his idea of reforestation was to year. During the long wet winter, Munger employed “comput- toss out seeds and hope they grew. It did not matter to Wilson ers,” which in 1908 were men hired to compute the measures that the Forest Service had no nursery, no seedlings, not even any into tables for comparison. Munger poured through the com- seeds for tossing. “That doesn’t make any difference,” Munger puted growth tables and saw how the numbers increased rap- quotes Wilson, “get some seed from Europe.” So they did. idly across the age classes. Munger’s documentation confirmed Munger recalled a trip up to the flanks of Mt. Hood to what E. T. Allen’s observations had shown, that Douglas fir grew carry out Secretary Wilson’s directive. Armed with five horses very fast. and several sacks of tree seed from Europe and the East Coast, The next year, Munger decided to test his findings. Again Munger and two colleagues set out in November to reseed the working in the even-aged second growth stands on old burns, most suitable sites for reforesting. Caught in a sudden snow- Munger mapped acre-size plots, and tagged and recorded the size storm, men and horses had to get out quick. They jettisoned of each tree within each plot. He hoped to be able to demonstrate all the seed onto the snow, and beat a hasty retreat to lower the rate of growth of the trees over time. Munger was only 26 altitudes. Munger latter quipped, “People who have gone years old at the time. His plan was to measure each of the trees through that area since then are surprised to discover once in in his permanent plots every few years from then on. Evidence a while an eastern oak or a European pine of some kind, and wondered how in the world it got there.”6

Wind River Nursery While Munger was establishing research plots at Wind River, another young forester from the Portland office, Julius Kummel, was planning a nursery. Multiple attempts to broadcast seed had failed, and it was becoming clear that in order to replant the cut and burned land of the western Cascades, the Forest Service need- ed seedlings. Lots of seedlings. Kummel estimated that it would require 2 million tree seedlings annually to replant the federal for- ests of the region, and keep them stocked after future harvests. Of particular concern was the Bull Run watershed, within one of the first Forest Reserves and the source of drinking water for the city of Portland. A series of fires over the course of sev- eral decades had left 13,000 acres bare. Kummel drew up a plan and chose the Hemlock Ranger Station in Wind River as a good site for the nursery operations. According to documents, the site was chosen for its good soil, mild climate, good growing season, and abundant rainfall. However, two other features not officially documented must have been considered strong advantages. First were the facilities at the Hemlock Ranger Station, and second, was the ranger sta- tioned there, Elias Wigal. The work to clear five acres for the nursery would be back- breaking. The site contained huge stumps and snags that had with- stood fires and logging. Wigal’s journal entry for November 26, 1909 reads: “Snowing; left home; went to Carson to get men to look over ground and take contract to grub five acres on hemlock Station that Mr. Kummel wanted to use for nursery....”7 Over the winter, Wigal hired three men and began breaking new ground for the nursery.

U . S F orest ervice P hoto Wigal and his crew blasted the big stumps with dynamite. Old growth Douglas fir forest atW ind River (1944). They hacked out large blocks from what remained, split and piled

Forest History Today | s p r i n g /f a l l 2001 39 U . S F orest ervice P hoto Plowing nursery field, Wind River Nursery (1910).

them around the massive roots for burning. The process left mas- that tumbled down into the valley on clear nights. Production sive holes that had to be filled. They plowed and replowed the came with a host of new practical questions, such as how to land to dislodge smaller roots, and finally leveled the land with control germination, how to thin, how to irrigate, and how to shovels and a harrow, and readied it for planting. prevent damping off. From the beginning, much of the nursery work was experi- To understand the scale of the planting that was needed, mental. As Kummel directed, Douglas fir and western white pine the Wind River Nursery would produce over a million seed- were the primary species grown that first year. But Kummel also lings in its first year alone. A million seedlings would cover two planted eastern hardwoods, such as shagbark hickory (a valuable to three thousand acres of bare, burned ground. The Yacolt wood for building wheels) and black walnut (much desired for fire alone had burned over 238,000 acres of forest. The need furniture making), and several European conifers including for immediate results meant that Kummel and his crew had to Scotch pine, Norway spruce, and European larch. learn quickly what was required to germinate seeds and pro- tect the young seedlings from rot, rodents, and disease. They invented the tools and techniques they needed to extract and Nursery practices store seed, to lift and transport delicate seedlings, and to plant When the Wind River Nursery began, its primary purpose was in the steep, unforgiving moonscapes of the burns. Their early to provide seedlings to replant the massive burns that scarred experiments refined techniques for successful planting that are the region. Although a crop of Douglas fir usually reseeded the cornerstone of much of the reforestation that occurs in naturally following fires, the young trees and their seed sources northwest forests today. were often destroyed by subsequent fires, making regeneration The nursery’s practical questions were focused on growing even more difficult the second time. In 1908, some of the larger seeds into seedlings. But Munger’s interests went further. The burns, such as the Yacolt and the Bull Run fires, were not rees- nursery created a need for better information about growing tablishing forests. Early attempts at direct seeding left many trees, the best trees, for the Pacific Northwest. well-fed mice, but few seedlings. Some of the most creative solu- Research in planting methods led to rapid improvement, and tions to deterring rodents—coating seed with red lead, tar, or allowed two important studies at Wind River. One was the plant- mink urine—led to even more loss of seed. The direction to ing of the arboretum, the other was the Douglas fir Heredity hand plant the burns with nursery-raised seedlings was monu- Study. mental, and launched research that would last until 1997, when the nursery was finally closed. Wind River Arboretum Much of the nursery work was trial and error. The crew built contraptions to drill a million seeds into seedbeds. They struggled At the turn of the century, the search was on all over the world against the whims of the climate, to keep seeds from dessicating for fast-growing trees. Larches from northern Europe, pines from in summer, and drowning in winter, and protected from the cold the Himalayas, and chestnuts from the Appalachians were turn-

40 Forest History Today | s p r i n g /f a l l 2001 ing up in unlikely places around the world, where native forests had been diminished and wood-hungry populations were look- ing for quick alternatives. Douglas fir had caught the eye of early travelers to the Pacific Northwest, and experimental plantings of that species were appearing from Europe to Australia. In the Pacific Northwest, foresters trained in the hardwood forests of the eastern United States wondered how their familiar hickories and oaks would fare in the west. They also wondered about the fast-growing trees from other parts of the world. In the nursery, Kummel included small sowings of pignut, mul- berry, black locust, and red oak, among others, in order to test the viability of exotic seed. Munger’s questions were bigger. He wanted to test the suit- ability of exotic trees to the specific climate and conditions of this part of the Pacific Northwest. He established an arbore- tum with experimental planting of 10 trees each of 16 exotic species from the nursery’s first trials. When Munger designed an experiment, he had a very long timeframe in mind. He knew that when he planted those 160 seedlings the experiment would outlive him. Trees have a way of doing that. Relatively few of the hardwoods survived the first year, and fewer still made it through their first decade. Increasingly, research at the arboretum focused on testing conifers from around the world, and more were planted. Although the exotic hardwoods had failed early, some of the northern European conifers showed great promise. Larches put on rapid growth for

the first 25 years, outperforming the native Douglas fir. Norway U . S F orest ervice P hoto spruce and Scotch pine were also strong producers for the first Wind River arboretum established in 1912 to test suitability of exotic quarter century. Had the experiment stopped there, our forests tree species in the Pacific Northwest. U . S F orest ervice P hoto Covered seed beds, Wind River Nursery (1910).

Forest History Today | s p r i n g /f a l l 2001 41 might look very different than they do today. tests bore fruit immediately. In 1915, Wind River scientists But the experiment continued. Records were kept on each published preliminary findings, including observations that individual tree for another half century. In the slow march of large cones from open growing trees, young or old, large or time, larches slowed their growth rate, and proved to be brittle in small, bear larger, more viable seed. And seedlings from differ- heavy snowstorms. Native sapsuckers developed a special prefer- ent altitudes display different times of bud opening. ence for Scotch pine and Norway spruce. Pines that had sprinted The experiment was just beginning. Thousands of seed- at the beginning were eventually checked by blister rust, drought, lings with known heritage were ready to plant. Munger or frost. Even the native species from farther inland gradually lost directed the crew to locate six planting locations throughout vigor to needle diseases and damage from heavy, wet snow. After District Six, including Wind River, and to plant representa- more than 75 years’ of record, Wind River scientists concluded tives of each family in each location to compare results over that the search for superior trees had been a one-way street. time. Each tree in each plantation was marked with the code Douglas fir has been successfully transplanted around the world, of its individual inheritance. but in the Douglas fir region, there is no substitute for the It was innovative that Munger had designed his study with six native. replications and two seasons of planting. The design was spe- This outcome was not suspected when the experiments began cifically aimed at in-plot variation, and so lacks randomness nec- in 1912, and it did not become obvious in all cases for 60 or 70 essary for most modern statistical analyses. However, the years. After reviewing 75 years of record, Wind River scientists long-term value of these plots cannot be overstated. concluded, “one grows to appreciate the genetic precision that Wind River scientists achieved 90 percent survival rate of first is showing through the statistical chatter of the measurement year plantings in the heredity study. Within a few years differences data. Even though most of these data were not anticipated when among the races became apparent. Saplings from the Darrington Munger [and others] carried on their work, they are now impor- source of seed, for example, outpaced most of the other trials in all tant enough that all practicing foresters and biologists know of locations. Racial differences, long assumed in such a wide-ranging them as part of their educational background”8 species as Douglas fir, now could be demonstrated The notion of superior seed sources for general use dominated nursery practices for decades to come. But the experiment was not Forest genetics over. By the 1940s, different patterns began to emerge in the exper- The suitability of trees to sites was the problem posed by another imental plantations. High elevation races survived the rigors of high study that grew from the needs and the advances of the nursery, elevation sites better than those from lower elevations. The coastal the Douglas fir Heredity Study. The nursery required a huge vol- race eventually died in every plantation except the coastal site. ume of seeds. But, from what kind of trees and from what kind Cascade seed did best at Cascade sites. The notion of specific seed of sites should seeds be collected? Wind River scientists needed source for specific use emerged just as large-scale tree plantations information about how seeds grow, what seeds grow best at spe- began to appear in the Northwest following World War II. cific sites, and ultimately, which seeds make the best trees in the The heredity study demonstrated genetic differences in long run. Such questions would take a lifetime to answer, but Douglas fir races, and provided a mechanism for improving the Munger understood their importance. In 1912, he launched what genetic stock of trees for planting in particular locations. This has he assumed would be a 40-year study of Douglas fir seed from proven to be much more effective than the old system of grafting known sources throughout the region. from selected trees that was the practice in Europe and the east- The study is remarkable for many reasons, not least for the ern United States. details of heredity and genetics it demonstrates, general princi- ples that had been described only a decade earlier when Gregor Douglas fir natural revegetation Mendel’s experiments had been rediscovered by European scien- tists. Munger’s study was meticulous. Other early experiments at Wind River also have had important In the fall of 1912, Munger sent out a crew to collect cones from consequences. Because the task of reforesting the burns was so thirteen locations in the western Cascades of Washington and vast, both planting and natural regeneration of forests had to be Oregon. He had selected sites that would provide a range of alti- undertaken. Wind River scientists wanted to know what limited tudes from 100 to 3,850 feet, and instructed his crew to select both the natural reforestation of harvested and burned land, and what young and old trees, large and small, with and without infection, forest practices could be developed to better ensure a second from both good and poor sites, from both dense and open stands crop of trees after harvest. within each location. That way, Munger obtained seeds from In 1913, J. V. Hofmann was hired to direct forest experiments at known individual trees with observable, comparable traits. Wind River, and he took up the questions of natural revegetation. Munger’s crew selected several individual trees to represent spe- Hofmann established a transect of small plots across the Wind cific combinations of traits, sketched each tree in each group to River Valley where he recorded establishment and growth of record its form and placement of cones, and recorded the traits every natural seedling within the transect plots. Because the represented in each collection of cones. To eliminate “the personal Wind River valley had been logged from a railroad, cutover land element and the chance of bias toward this or that conclusion,”9 extended across the valley and up each slope to the limit of sky- the recorded traits were coded and each lot of cones assigned a line yarding. The transect of plots across the valley allowed number. researchers to compare seedling success on northeast and south- Upon return to the nursery, the cones were subjected to a west facing slopes at various distances from the edge of standing battery of tests to determine differences in seed quality. The timber. Establishment and growth of every natural seedling was

42 Forest History Today | s p r i n g /f a l l 2001 measured 5, 10, 15 and 22 years after logging. The first 22 years of observations showed that the northeast slope was fully replanted within a quarter mile from the forest edge, whereas the corresponding southwest slope had sparse, irregular restock- ing within only a couple of hundred feet of the forest edge. This was one of a number of regional studies that concluded that harvested openings should be between 200 feet and a half-mile, depending on the suitability of the site.10 Once again, time would reverse the earlier conclusion. Generations of Wind River scientists continued to observe grad- ual changes along the transect. Over time, growth on the heav- ily stocked northeast slope slowed and included many openings from snow damage. The southwest facing slope has maintained a density of about 100 trees per acre, and is now of commercial size

and more valuable per acre than the overstocked northeast U . S F orest ervice P hoto slope. Wind River Experimental Station 1914. Wind River arboretum is in lower right, nursery fields in center, Yacolt Burn to the right and unburned forest to the left in the background. Douglas fir management Many of the early studies at Wind River were designed to help eral trajectory of research trials and errors. And only by having generate the fastest crop from a second growth stand. an experimental forest in which to conduct long-term studies In 1919, J. V. Hofmann instituted one of the first precommer- have scientists at Wind River been able to ask questions that take cial thinning studies. He established three plots in a dense stand a lifetime to answer. ■ of Douglas fir that had established after logging nine years ear- lier. He thinned two plots to an 8 by 8 foot spacing, one at exact spacing, the other to favor the dominant trees, and he left a third Margaret Herring is a science editor and writer in the PacificN orthwest plot unthinned as a control. and Sarah Greene is a forest ecologist and manager of the Wind River For the first thirty years, the plot thinned for dominance had Experimental Forest. the most growth. By mid-century, however, the results took a surprising turn when the exact spacing plot began to show better Notes growth. In this plot, a number of poorer trees had been retained because they grew on the exact spacing. Eventually, these poorer 1. Rhonda Bartosh, “1902 DNR Yacolt Burn History.” GIS Project. 1995. trees died out, leaving wider spacing for the remaining trees. This Margaret Elley Felt, “Yacolt! The Forest that Would not Die”. Washing- was the first study to document a correlation between early thin- ton Department of Natural Resources, 1977. 2. Jamie Tolfree, “History of the Wind River Lumber Company in the ning and increased stem growth in Douglas fir, and showed that Wind River Valley, Part Two.” Skamania County Heritage, Bulletin 13, thinning to exact spacing was a more reliable technique. This #4, March 1985; pp 2–10. study, along with a spacing study initiated a few years later, was 3. E. T. Allen, “Red Fir in the Northwest.” SS Tree Studies, R6 manuscript used to promote the widespread practice of commercial thinning no. 1.31825, 1903. p 2. in the region. 4. Amelia Fry, Thornton T. Munger: Forest Research in the Pacific Northwest. Experiments such as these within the natural forest prompted Forest History Society Oral History Series, 1967; p 30. questions of how to manage young, planted stands. As early as 5. Ibid; p 44. 1903, E. T. Allen had seen that the future of forestry research in 6. Ibid; p 48. the Northwest would be in the management of second growth. 7. Cheryl Mack, “Archaeological test excavations and significance evalua- Much of the early work at Wind River was meant to urge private tion of four sites in the Wind River Nursery fields.” Heritage Program, timber owners to retain and replant their land after cutting, to Gifford Pinchot National Forest; 1999; p 19. 8. Roy R. Silen and Donald L. Olson, “A pioneer exotic tree search for the grow forests as a crop, not to mine them and move on. Douglas fir region.” USDA FS GTR-PNW-298; March 1992. p 32. 9. Thornton T. Munger and William G. Morris, “Growth of Douglas fir Retrospective trees of known seed source,” USDA Technical Bulletin No 537. December 1936. Forest research that began at Wind River in 1908 continued to 10. Leo A. Isaac, “Reproductive habits of Douglas fir.” USDA Forest evolve throughout the twentieth century. Through that time, Service and Charles L. Pack Forestry Foundation. 1934. forestry research has been designed to help make forests more predictable. Yet, long-term research at Wind River has often shown that outcomes are not predictable and results can change over time. It takes a lifetime to grow a tree, and longer to make a forest. Throughout that time, the tree and the forest change. Both forests and research can be rearranged by events that cannot be predicted. It is only over very long periods of time that we can begin to perceive the pulse of change in the forest and the gen-

Forest History Today | s p r i n g /f a l l 2001 43 From the mid-eighteenth century until after World War II, thousands of young Basques came to the American West to tend the vast flocks of sheep that roamed the mountains and meadows of the region. Isolated in remote areas and frequently arriving and departing without ever appearing on official records, they left their mark on the western economy and the western forests. For more than twelve years, J. Mallea-Olaetxe has been documenting more than 20,000 tree carvings and studying them as valuable records of the Basque presence in the American West.

Carving Out History:

The Basque Aspens

spen tree carvings or arborglyphs are ubiquitous to the American West, yet most people have never heard of them. They are a phantom by-product of sheepherders—mostly Basques—whose involvement in the sheep indus- Atry started in the 1850s and lasted through the 1970s. It is strange, but true, that something that covers so much of the western geography the mines without the high quality protein of mutton.2 can be so unfamiliar. In this age of Internet and paper docu- The Basques are the “Indians” of Europe, the original ments, they represent a strange way of recording history. Finding Europeans that we know of, and the likely descendants of the in the mountains a stately aspen with a name carved in 1900 is Paleolithic peoples who lived in the Pyrenees.3 We can say this somehow more valuable and exciting than seeing that same for the following two reasons: 1) the Basques speak a language name written on a piece of paper. that is unrelated to any other on earth,4 and 2) their blood type The carvings provide the closest thing to a compressed auto- shows the highest incidence of Rh-negative and lowest B-type in biography of sheepherders, who are one of the most forgotten Europe.5 Clearly, they stand out as a unique group, and recent social groups in American history. But during the development studies on human genes confirm that.6 After thousands of years, of the West, sheepherding was a major and critical industry.1 the Basques are still in their original homeland in the Pyrenees Many ranchers ran both cattle and sheep and they provided meat Mountains, straddling the modern nations of France and Spain, for the early mining camps throughout the West. People ate a lot and are clinging fast to their own identity.7 Today, fewer than more mutton than we perceive they did. Fred Fulstone, member three million people live in the Basque country and about half a of a pioneer Nevada ranching family, is convinced that the early million are Euskaldunak (speakers of Euskara, the Basque lan- miners could not have endured the harsh working conditions in guage), which is how the Basques define and call themselves.

By Joxe Mallea-Olaetxe

44 Forest History Today | s p r i n g /f a l l 2001 Basque governors, officials, Jesuits, friars, and notable explorers could be found in Baja and Alta California and in the Southwest.8 Because the Basques did not have an officially independent country of their own (and the inherent entrapments such as national literature, universities, schools of thought, etc., as the French, the English, and the Spaniards), their distinctiveness has been often diluted and their history assimilated under the umbrella of Spanish and French narratives.

The Tree-Carving Environment Soon after 1848 the Basques in the American West found their niche in sheepherding, which required them to spend many months isolated on the range. Arborglyphs were produced during the summer months—normally from late June to September/ October—when the sheepherders lived alone in the remote high country. Each herder was charged with the care of a herd (usu- ally 1500 ewes plus their lambs), and on a daily basis his only company were the donkey—or horse—and the dogs. Occasionally, the closest herder on the same mountain range might ride in or walk for a visit. The camptender visited the herder from once a week to ten days and brought the provisions, the all-important mail from home, and news from the “other” world. Sheepherders were ambivalent about summertime. On the one hand, the job itself was fairly easy. With the exception of drought years, pasture in the high country was plentiful and the sheep grazed until 10 A.M. and after 5 P.M. They laid down in the shade the rest of the day. The herder could do the same, unless predators were present. He selected a campsite in the cool aspen forest, preferably near a creek, and most days he could daydream, take a long siesta, do some cooking or laundry, or go fishing to spice up his diet of beans, potatoes, bread, mutton, and wine. In this life in Eden there was an important detail missing: P hotograph by J. M allea- O laetxe Adam had no Eve; he was all alone and the isolation could be P E 1896 JULY 10. This arborglyph is very old for an aspen carv- crushing. Therefore, the happy coincidence of three compo- ing. After it was carved the tree has been growing for over a centu- nents—leisure time, loneliness, and trees—made the arborg- ry, which explains the great distortion of the “P” (it looks as if lyphic phenomenon possible. there is a “B” in front of it, but that is an illusion caused by the The herders used knives to carve, though the paper-thin soft, large vertical gap in the bark). The figures are difficult to identify. white bark of the aspen could be carved or scratched easily with The one on top appears to be a star (the most common symbol just about any sharp object, even a thumbnail. The herders carved by sheepherders). Below the date, 1896, a sketchy human made a thin incision or cut, which could hardly be seen, and that figure can be discerned. P. E. may stand for Pierre Erramouspe, was all the human hand contributed. The rest was up to the tree who was known to be sheepherding in this area. P. E. carved other itself. The outline of the carving begins to show a few years later trees as well, the last one in 1909. In 1911, Erramouspe and three after the tree scars over. If the incision is too deep the scar will others—two Basques, one Englishman—were killed by Indians, be thick and hard to read later on, because as the tree grows, the during the episode known in Nevada history as “The Last Indian letters will merge together. If the carver had a steady hand, the Massacre.” (Humboldt County, Nevada). scar is likely to remain clear for a century. It is the darkness of the scar against the whiteness of the bark that many people find appealing. The Basques in the Americas No matter how beautiful a carving might be, it always is a There was an influx of Basque emigrants to the United States one-try art, like life itself. No re-doing and no correcting mistakes in the wake of California’s discovery of gold in 1848, but their are possible, and in the end you know that the tree will wither, presence in the Southwest dates from much earlier. During the revert to the earth, and the carving will self-destruct. 1492–1848 period the Basques emigrated throughout the American continent from Argentina to California. Though small A Vast and Secret Living-Forest Museum in numbers they wielded disproportionate economic and polit- ical clout. One reason for this was that since the early sixteenth Nobody knows even remotely how many arborglyphs the sheep- century, they all claimed noble status. In the eighteenth century herders carved, and we shall never know. The average lifespan of

Forest History Today | s p r i n g /f a l l 2001 45 d a B ureau of L an d M anagement P hoto, Winnemucca, N eva Researcher recording a grove. The tree closest to the camera contains a highly unusual carving: “Arima baduca nic ez ikusia dut 15 aout 1925 zer astoa den Jakes Marchanta arima saldut” (If he has a soul, I have not seen it, August 15, 1925, what a jackass Jakes Marchanta is! I sold my soul). The only problem here is that it makes more sense if it said “he sold his soul.” The photograph illustrates the physical environment in the high country, where the sheepherder set up his summer camp. (Humboldt County, Nevada).

an aspen tree is considerably less than one hundred years, so we a horse. When asked if he carved any trees himself, he answered have already lost the great majority of the carvings. We do know “Lots, but don’t look at them.” that hundreds of thousands of aspens were carved, and over the decades the Basques created nothing less than a “museum” that stretches from Washington to Texas and from California to North A Lost Opportunity Dakota.9 In the American West you can still hike up a canyon and come face-to-face with historical documents growing on trees, What made a phenomenon that geographically extends so far and which stand as living witnesses to the herder who passed through wide to be so unknown? Primarily the immensity of the land. in 1935, 1913, or in 1901, and they might even tell us what he was Most of the arborglyphs are now located on public lands managed thinking at the moment. More significantly, in 95 percent of the by the U.S. Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management. cases you cannot find that information anywhere else, not on Ellis Sheepherders did not share their landscape with the rest of the Island and not at any city hall. In fact, the names of most sheep- population. Distance kept the arborglyphs remote and that was herders are not in the censuses. just fine, because the sheepherders carved trees for the exclusive The sheepherders rarely, if ever, mention in conversation the consumption of fellow herders. existence of these forests of inscriptions, as if the carvings did not Had the Basques been cowboys, the fate of the carvings might mean anything or they simply forgot about them. Actually, the have been quite different, for cowboy lore captured the imagina- reason for such cautious behavior was that a number of the mes- tion of popular culture. The Basques were sheepherders and did sages and the figures are of a very private nature, and Basques are not attract nearly as much attention as the cowboys did. However, tight-lipped about these things. One sheepherder interviewed for what tipped the balance against the arborglyphs was the minority general information on arborglyphs on a certain mountain range status of the Basques and the inaccurate perception that they of Nevada was slow to offer any information. He said that the were clannish or refused to learn English. grove would be extremely difficult to find, and that I would need The often-strained relationship between the Basques and forest

46 Forest History Today | s p r i n g /f a l l 2001 rangers and land managers must be regarded as a factor for the loss of the arborglyphs. Some of the charges against the sheepherders— Basques and others—were true no doubt, as millions of sheep invaded public lands, causing erosion and overgrazing, but others were more imaginary. Until the federal land managers discovered the benefits of fire for themselves, the Basques were often accused of setting fires deliberately.10 John Muir, a former sheepherder turned environmental crusader, certainly contributed to the anti- herder sentiment in literature when he called sheep “hoofed locusts."1 Because of the anti-herder sentiment and the strained relationship between the sheepherders and the early park rangers12 the arborglyphs went unrecorded until the 1970s and 1980s, and by then the heydays of aspen carving, Basque immigration, and sheep- herding were over. Had arborglyph research started in the 1930s we would have a rich and a fairly complete roster of Basque immigra- tion (95 percent of the herders carved), and a better understanding of the sheep industry in the American West.13

What We Learn from the Carvings About 80 percent of the recorded arborglyphs include the name and surname (and very often the nickname) of the carver as well P hotograph by J. M allea- O laetxe Carrantza. Herder petting his dog. This was carved in 1932 by the great artist Etienne Maizkorena, who favored animal figures, but also carved self-portraits, couples, and symbols. The dog was the sheep- herder’s confidant and right-hand worker, as this figure suggests. The square above the head of the herder, sporting a big hat, is a puzzle, and it turns out that “Carrantza” is not the name of the herder’s farm- stead, as initially believed. This arborglyph—in fact, the whole grove— has deteriorated rapidly in the last ten years. (Lake Tahoe, Nevada).

as the date, because they documented each passing year meticu- lously. These individuals did not pick a historian from among them to interpret their life experiences for them. Instead, each became a historian and offered their own version of life as a sheepherder. This behavior was a reflection of Basque society, which was predominantly classless. The majority of the herders in the United States came from rural areas where the economy was the only variable socially. However, to a Basque, democracy is not as important as individuality and personal pride. The thousands of names and surnames are the ultimate answer to the question, “to be or not to be” (bok ezpok in Basque). As primitive as sheep- herder life was, some of them confessed to feeling as somebody P hotograph by J. M allea- O laetxe important, lords of immense mountain ranges and plains, since Daniel Peyron. The style of the thousands of names carved by there was no one else near to dispute their claim or will. sheepherders is as individualistic as each carver. In this example Along with the last name the herder sometimes gave his birth- Daniel Peyron deviated considerably from the more conventional pat- place and the region, which allow us to track immigration patterns. terns. First he incised huge block letters on this large aspen and wrote Most sheepherders were young single men who overnight had to the name in the vertical position beginning at the bottom (most oth- learn to cook, wash clothes, and do dozens of other unfamiliar ers begin at the top and are carved horizontally), and then he used a chores. We may think that the culture shock was hard on them, but spent bullet shell to embellish the letters. (Douglas County, Nevada). in reality they suffered most from emotional starvation. They did

Forest History Today | s p r i n g /f a l l 2001 47 out that the dry grasses in Nevada were more nutritious than the green blades in the Basque Country. However, during drought years, then the sheep let the herder know their displeasure by running away to forbidden greener pastures or by simply acting restive and unruly. “Puta sierra” (“damn sierra”) is a classic statement on many groves. Sometimes, their frustration would turn them against the sheep. “Sheep, you are killing me,” one carved, but this was a no-no. It showed a weakness on the herder’s part, who should never forget that the welfare of the sheep was paramount. There is considerable and very localized information on the condition of the range, pasture, rainfall, heat, wind, and espe- cially cold weather and snow storms. Tree carvings can be used as markers on the western map to determine the presence and impact of sheep on the range. They are like toy soldiers left on the western landscape, while the provided dates can be used to retrace their movements as well.

Hurting and Humoring The third largest topic of the arborglyphs is that of loneliness, though the issue is not so simple. People who are not acquainted with Basque disposition will definitively find strange the combina- tion of painful cries from loneliness and humor carved side by side by the same herder and replicated by many others. With sheepherding came a solitary life, away from human contact, and many herders were not ready for it. Some herders who said they were mislead about life in the United States, which had been painted to them in glowing terms. One tree that stands near Reno, Nevada, puts it this way, “If [sheepherder] life is what these damn oldtimers told me it was, my balls are carnations.”

P hotograph by J. M allea- O laetxe But there was an unspoken code about complaining: you could Equesto Lea Jodido Comoyo Se Vea 1908 A good example of not complain too much, lest you were labeled a complainer or striking black-on-white-bark inscription, still very clear after almost worse, a weakling. In the last message quoted, the herder is com- a century. The message in Spanish is typically misspelled; It should plaining all right, but the wording doesn’t make him appear as a be, “El que ésto lea jodido como yo se vea,” (Whoever reads this may weakling—after all, what’s more manly than one’s genitals! be as [messed] up as I am). It is not what it appears to be, a message Loneliness and melancholy were the herder’s number one by a grouchy and mean old herder. Those who read it took it humor- enemies. Talking to the dogs was acceptable, but when a herder ously and laughed about it, no doubt. In standard fashion it com- started to talk to himself aloud it was a sign for alarm. No man bines the cry of the solitary herder with humor, all wrapped up in a wanted to remain too long in the mountains and risk becoming rhyming verse. (Elko County, Nevada). “sagebrushed,” (gone crazy or weird), though a number of them did. One herder carved the neat figure of an animal with four legs, not know America, therefore, they could not miss it. Their only a tail like a coyote’s, and a human head. recourse was to replicate home, including their spirit of competi- J.L., a sheepherder, recounted that when he arrived in America tiveness, which is reflected in the many hurrahs to their home- the camptender took him to this godforsaken mountain in the towns, regions, and countries. wilds of northeastern Nevada and told him, “This is going to be After personal information, naturally, the most common topic your home for a while.” After the camptender left he felt so ter- carved is sheepherding. The unpleasant aspects, such as problems ribly alone that he instinctively walked over an aspen and carved, with coyotes, the sheepowner, or the camptender are freely dis- “Hotel Derrepente” (“Hotel Suddenly”). It was a classic example cussed. The latter was often accused of being lazy and full of of ironic Basque humor that consisted of stating the opposite of excuses. Envy may have played some role in the criticism; because what reality was: a desolate place, that for this sheepherder, sud- the camptender had mobility, he could go to town, and the denly, turned into home (which, for contrast, he called “hotel,” sheepherder couldn’t. One aspen carving equates the campt- a comfortable place that the rich can afford). The other herders ender’s life to a “lazy donkey with a sombrero.” of the outfit found the inscription so funny that from then on The condition of the range was the most pressing matter for that camp was called Hotel Suddenly. the welfare of the herd and the herder. The West was a shock for There are dozens and dozens carved examples of this duality the Basques, who had hailed from a rainy country with green of emotional pain (from loneliness) and humor. Some are truly fields and valleys. At first, they could not believe that sheep could discordant statements, such as the following by a fellow named thrive in such a barren environment, but eventually they found Candido, “[I am] screwed up, but happy.” Another wrote that life

48 Forest History Today | s p r i n g /f a l l 2001 in America was the most miserable but “there are no dollars with- Not Exactly E-Mail out [it].” Another, who was feeling the load, carved a Basque mes- sage that was as defiant as it was uplifting, “Hurrah for the The herders used aspens as their medium of communication, sheepherders and those who have the guts to stay here.” though it was not a very speedy one—in the best cases it took To lift their spirits herders could think of their families back years for a “conversation” to be completed. Actual questions and home and feel better. The carved figure of an imposing, three- answers were carved on aspens. For example, someone stated, story Basque farmhouse—of which there are many—must be “Wine and women both are good,” which, years later another understood in this vein. The chimneys are prominently displayed answered, “Yes, but they are hard on your pocket.” By then the with smoke billowing upwards and serve as a symbol of family first herder may have retired or returned home to Europe. life around the warm, faraway hearth. When new co-workers arrived in the groves they often added their own comments to many of these earlier carvings, especially the humorous ones. The messages tend to be very laconic. They Erotic Fantasies chose words carefully in order to deliver the punch with just a few Mention tree carvings in some circles and people will have a words. The whole idea behind the exercise was entertainment, a knee-jerk reaction and think of pornography and sexual art. Yet, powerful weapon to fight isolation and to remain sane. erotic material is only the fourth largest topic of the arborg- The arborglyphs cover a wide range of other subjects and lyphs. For many young and healthy Basque males, loneliness sometimes include Latin words and Roman numerals. Some tried easily translated into erotic expression, and they proceeded to to communicate local situations such as when a coyote killed a carve figures of women, many stark naked with high heels, lamb. That was an emergency situation, the top news of the day. often without arms—as to not obscure the curves. Many of When a bear or a cougar killed ten or twenty sheep, now, that was these women shown in compromising positions depicted the “world war.” Political statements are abundant and indicate that prostitutes that the herders visited in town. the herders followed major world events, albeit in delayed form. The herders were often very young, inexperienced, and Most references are pro-Basque and anti-Spanish, particularly they could not speak English. Some carvers provided lavished against the dictator Franco. Numerous comments and diatribes details of that first rendezvous, which remained burned in on the 1936–39 Spanish Civil War in the Central California moun- their memory. A few actually confessed to losing their virgin- tains appear to be made by one or two individuals. Northern ity. When the encounter with the prostitute was satisfactory, Basques carved many “Biba Frantzia” (“Vive La France”) slogans the herder, after returning to the range, would proceed to with various spellings, especially during World War II. carve an image of her or a statement about the experience. A The messages that refer to the United States are overwhelm- large majority of the comments were favorable, but if the ingly favorable, but some Mexican herders made some harsh experience had been soured by something—like overcharging statements about the “Gringos.” One Basque didn’t agree with for the services—the tone of the carving was understandably President Nixon’s policy of overture toward China, and several very different. times he carved that Mao had fooled him (the actual word used All in all, it was a convenient reciprocity. Some enterprising is more graphic). There are hails to Fidel Castro, hurrahs to the prostitutes drove wagons to the high country and parked them Russian sputniks, and pedestrian details recorded, such as the reac- for the summer in areas where the herders were particularly tion of one herder who watched television for the first time. numerous. Several of these “Whorehouse Meadows” are known There are many carvings in English. Lacking formal knowledge in the West. of the language, the herders tried to spell English terms phoneti- cally. The first words that they learned were expletives such as,fok , chit, buse, sanabich, etc. Usually within three or four years herders started spelling their names in the American form, again phoneti- cally, thus, Pit or Pet (for Pete) or giving their profession as that of siper (for sheepherder). Sheep was spelled chips, seeps, or similar, and good-bye as gudbay or goodbay. Place names, too, are frequently misspelled—Troki (for Truckee), Kacepik (for Castle Peak), Reino (for Reno), and krik (for creek), but California is always correct.

Reflections To put the arborglyphs in their proper historical perspective, one might compare the sheepherders to other groups in western United States like Indians, trappers, early explorers, scouts, and prospectors. These groups spent considerable time alone in the P hotograph by J. M allea- O laetxe wilderness and could have recorded their names and movements A running female. Notice what happens to the original single line on trees or rocks, like the Basques did, but in fact few did. Also, incised by the carver. It spreads as the tree grows, making it look like there were other groups of sheepherders, such as the Scots, the a double line. The lady is running from the man carved on the back Irish, and the Chinese, but they, too, carved much less. side of the aspen. It is not dated, but it is probably between 80 and 90 One reason may be that the Basque is an oral society; people years old. (Alpine County, California). are the number one topic of conversation. Every individual must

Forest History Today | s p r i n g /f a l l 2001 49 be accounted for, therefore, in the sheep ranges of the American G. taped by author, Elko, Nevada, 1990). West nearly everyone’s name is recorded. So, it was the type of 2. Interview with the author, June 1996. As an aside, the first item fea- history that an oral society might “write,” that is, democratic, tured in the menu of upscale What Cheer Restaurant in nineteenth- which soon became a tradition, and no Basque will tamper with century San Francisco was mutton. Joseph R. Conlin, Bacon, Beans, and tradition. Conformity and uniformity are important elements in Galantines: Food and Foodways on the Western Mining Frontier (Reno: University of Nevada Press, 1986), 141. Basque culture as expressed in their saying, “you don’t want to be 3. Thomas J. Abercrombie, “The Basques: Europe’s First Family,” National any less than the others.” Geographic 188, no. 5 (November 1995): 74–97. On the other hand, the arborglyphs signified a drastic breakage 4. James M. Anderson, Ancient Languages of the Hispanic Peninsula (Lanham: of a long-standing practice. Traditionally, the Basque peasants and University Press of America, 1988), 103, 109. farmers, because of the oral nature of their society, had written 5. Etre Basque, Sous la direction de Jean Haritschelhar (Toulouse: Editions little or nothing. But in the American West these nearly illiterate Privat, 1983), 100–103. people were somehow persuaded to change and started to write, 6. See L. Luca Cavalli-Sforza, Paolo Menozzi, and Alberto Piazza, The not with pen and paper but with knives on trees. They certainly History and Geography of Human Genes (Princeton: Princeton University wrote more than they would have had they not emigrated. Press, 1994), 276, 300. While some has been written about the quarrels between the 7. Ten thousand years ago the homeland of Basque-speaking tribes was no cowboys and sheepherders, not one of 20,000 carvings mentioned doubt much larger, but curiously, even today’s Basque Country, a mere anything about disputes with cowboys. There are plenty diatribes 20,742 sq. kms., is located almost dead center of the great Paleolithic against fellow herders and even their own bosses, but nothing about cave-painting region of southern France and northern Spain. Experts cowboys. On the contrary, several sheepherders recalled the times have labeled it as Franco-Cantabrian Paleolithic art, even though we when hungry cowboys riding the range would pay them a visit, know that the historic Franks had nothing to do with the paintings (see Annette Laming, Lascaux: Paintings and Engravings (New York: Penguin hoping to find a few leftover beans at the bottom of the Dutch Books, 1959, 19, 21). As for the Cantabrians, long ago they may have oven, a slab of bread, and a swig from the wine jug. The cowboys spoken Basque, but not any more. Today, only the Basques can claim a were seldom disappointed. Literature eagerly embellished the virtually unbroken link to prehistory. slightest disagreement between sheepowners and cattlemen and 8. Since the 1560s, all of northern Mexico, including parts of present- ignored the friendships forged in this manner between two lonely day United States, was called Nueva Vizcaya or New Basqueland; see workers who could hardly communicate with each other. J. Lloyd Mecham, Francisco de Ibarra and Nueva Vizcaya (Durham: The fate of the arborglyphs is reminiscent of the fate that the Duke University Press, 1927). Many prominent people were Basque Basques have suffered at the hands of historians: they either or had Basque ancestry, for example, Juan Oñate, colonizer of New ignored them or they deprived them of their identity. They say Mexico; four governors of California; explorers like Sebastian that one has to die in order to become famous and recognized Vizcaino (which means Basque), and J. B. Anza, who was instrumen- and the same seems to be true about arborglyphs. Only now that tal in the settlement of San Francisco in 1776. For an overview of most of them have disappeared have we become concerned these questions, see William A. Douglass and Jon Bilbao, about their recording. But the best we can do now is to hope that Amerikanuak: Basques in the New World, (Reno: University of Nevada, the guardians of the arborglyphs, the federal agencies, will imple- 1975). Finally, the very name Arizona appears to be Basque rather ment a strategy for recording the last of the carved aspens that than Pima Indian or Spanish (from aritz=oak tree[s], ona=good). See, Donald T. Garate, “Who named Arizona? The Basque ■ remain standing. Connection,” Journal of Arizona History 1999 40(1): 53–82. This makes sense, for the oak is a symbolic tree among the Basques, and according to Garate the original “Arissona/Arissonac” (onak, plural) Joxe Mallea-Olaetxe is an instructor in Basque history at the University was part of a Basque-owned ranch. Incidentally, in the same general of Nevada, Reno. He also teaches Latin American history at Truckee area there is another toponym that seems to bolster the theory in Meadows Community College. question—the town of Arizpe in northern Mexico, which is clearly Basque (aritz=oak tree[s], pe=below of). 9. Aspens cover just a small part of the western landscape, because they NOTES require a considerable supply of water and only grow near creeks and wet 1. Wool and meat were two fundamental commodities that the sheep indus- meadow areas. try produced. In 1885 there were 50 to 60 million sheep in the United 10. Wm. S. Brown and S. B. Show, California Rural Land Use and Management: A States (Government statistics vary considerably), versus 29–30 million cat- History of the Use and Occupancy of Rural Lands in California, (United States tle. In 1900 the numbers had dipped to 41 million sheep, versus 27 million Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, California Region, 1944), 155. cattle; see Statistical Abstract of the United States, 1908 (Washington: 11. Barney Nelson, “The Flock: An Ecocritical Look at Mary Austin’s Sheep Government Printing Office, 1909), 144. Sheep numbers fluctuated wildly and John Muir’s Hoofed Locusts,” in Exploring Lost Boundaries: Critical in the West, specially in California, which in 1880 had 5,727,349 head but Essays on Mary Austin, edited by Melody Graulich and Elizabeth in 1900 only 1,724,968. During the same period the ovine numbers in the Klimasmith (Reno: University of Nevada Press, 1999), 221–242. western states increased into the millions. Montana, for example, went 12. See Mary Austin, The Flock (New York: Houghton, Mifflin and Company, from 279,277 sheep in 1880 to 4,215,214 in 1900; see Census Reports. Volume 1906), Chapter XI. V. Twelve Census of the United States, Taken in the Year 1900: Agriculture. Part I: 13. I began researching aspen carvings in 1989, which resulted in the publica- Farms, Live Stock, and Animal Products, William R. Merriam, Director tion of Speaking Through the Aspens: Basque Tree Carvings in California and (Washington: United States Census Office, 1902), 708. But these national Nevada (Reno: University of Nevada Press, 2000). Recently, Forest figures are only estimates at best. According to a lifelong sheepman, the Service archaeologists and historians are using programs such as sheep owners reported just 60 percent of the total number of sheep they Passport in Time to attract volunteers to search the forest for carvings. owned, and, he said, everyone followed that practice. (Conversation with J. In past projects we were able to record over 1000 carvings in a few days.

50 Forest History Today | s p r i n g /f a l l 2001 On October 14, 2001 a tree planting ceremony was held in memory of Bob Wood, a very well known and respected British Columbia forester. It was sponsored by the Tree Canada Foundation, the Town of Ladysmith, BC Hydro, and Weldwood of Canada. Born in Ladysmith, BC in 1931, Bob made a profound contribution to forestry in Canada. The address below was adapted from the presentation made by his daughter Tina Oliver on behalf of her “Uncle Jack” (John Spence Wood) during the ceremony.

Robert (Bob) Selkirk Wood, RPF

By Tina Oliver

ur Uncle Jack Wood, Dad’s cousin base he so dearly loved. Owho was like a brother to Dad, and The highlights of his forestry career, who grew up spanning more than forty years, include the in Ladysmith­ position of Chief Forester for Weldwood with him, has Canada, Vice President of Forestry for the asked me to Council of Forest Industries of BC, the co- offer these founder of Rim Forest Products and the words on his establishment of a successful sawmill and behalf as he is logging company near Hazelton BC and his unable to join distinguished career as a noted forestry con- us today. We sultant and co-founder of the Sterling know, like Dad, Wood Group, which provided his special he is here expertise of re-writing the Forest and Range

C ourtesy of tina oliver among the trees Legislation for the Ministry of Forests some Robert Selkirk Wood and ever in our 25 years ago. thoughts. Bob was awarded the “Distinguished Robert Selkirk Wood’s family sincerely Forester Award” in 1980, by the Association

appreciates the great honour bestowed of Professional Foresters of BC, and con- S teven A n d erson today, by the enduring memorial plaque tinued over the following years to assist Tina Oliver, Bob Wood’s daughter provided to their noted native son and forester, and the industry and governments as a forest the address at the tree planting ceremony. wish to extend their thanks to all the citi- policy consultant. His expertise and lead- zens, family and friends involved. ership in helping solve earlier “Softwood” Logging and Railway Company arrived Uncle Jack would like me to extend our disputes is sorely missed today. with logging equipment and, more impor- heartfelt thanks, and acknowledgement of Who was this Robert Selkirk Wood— tantly, many new logging families to take this successful effort, to the Ladysmith noted forester—when he was a juvenile their place in the community, which had Green Streets Committee and Tree resident of Ladysmith? Born on July 4th been suffering from the “Great Canada Foundation for the Arboretum 1931, as the “new addition” to a Canadian- Depression” blues. renovation and the Millennium Tree Scottish family with a coal mining back- The arrival of logging trucks and later Planting Project, and also to Mike Apsey ground, he started life as the coal mines logging railways, along with log dumping and Grant Ainscough for their diligence in were closed down and when, in 1935, the booming grounds and tug boats, were the honouring their dear friend Bob. forest industry moved into Ladysmith for things of wonder for small boys, and Bob Bob’s heart never left Ladysmith as he a major expansion. This was a result of was no exception. Also, the wonderful pursued his forestry education, subse- disastrous windstorms in 1934, which blew new citizens that arrived, with logging quent career and family life, and this down huge areas of mature forest behind and forestry skills that quickly permeated acknowledgement has enormous signifi- Ladysmith. The “wind-felled” timber had the atmosphere of Ladysmith, created a cance to his lasting memory of the home to be harvested or lost—and Comox learning environment that thrilled and

Forest History Today | s p r i n g /f a l l 2001 51 President of Forestry for the Council of Forest Industries of BC, aka COFI. Following his work there, he and Bill Sterling formed Rim Resources and Rim Forest Products to establish a sawmill and logging operation in the Hazelton area. The “resources” part of Rim provided consulting services to industry and government. Bob was a “Senior Consultant” to the British Columbia govern- ment on forest policy and worked directly with Tom Waterland, the Minister of Forests, as the head of a special committee that pre- pared the new Forest and Range Legislation, accepted by the Legislature in 1978, and which still endures today.

S teven an d erson He also represented Canada as a for- The plaque created in honor of Bob Wood. estry expert—in Canada, the US, Japan, China, South America to name but a few excited the minds of the younger genera- was—and unfortunately still is—and it regions of this globe—on senior forestry tion of that time. uniquely prepared him for a career in for- issues, so his mark is global to be sure. Bob grew up to enjoy all the wonderful estry. Bob thoroughly enjoyed his three After 1980, Bob was a leading member things and natural assets that Ladysmith summers of logging and recalled in his of the Sterling Wood Group, a highly had—and continues to have today—to writings the sense of pride, importance and respected forestry-consulting group, which provide play areas and recreation—there good humour that the loggers possessed. continues to do good work and enjoy suc- were no video games or television to Bob’s working career after graduating cess today. Bob continued his chairman- ­provide Saturday morning cartoons! The from the University of British Columbia ship of the company after his retirement. “Creek”—the “beach”, and the “bush” in 1954with a B.S. degree and Syracuse On behalf of Bob’s family, I would like were the playgrounds of young Ladysmith. University with a Master of Science in to again express our gratitude for the sig- At the time we did not realize the influ- 1956, began as a resident forester at the nificant honour bestowed today by the ence that these natural geographic features UBC teaching forest in Haney, BC. He Ladysmith community and friends. Our and our resultant adventures had in form- then joined Weldwood Canada in Quesnel memories of his life and career can never ing our development as citizens of this and rose to the position of Chief Forester be separated—and will always be wonderful area of Vancouver Island and for Weldwood by 1965. enhanced—by the memories and regales British Columbia, and then Canada, and He then accepted the position of Vice- of his adventurous life in Ladysmith. ■ later, even the world. In Bob’s case, the bush seems to have provided the overriding influence, and he wisely chose forestry as his career. The Ladysmith school days also influ- enced Bob—and many others—as we were blessed with many wonderful teach- ers who helped launch many “wet behind the ears” students into the waiting world of citizenship and commerce. An impor- tant guide to our ‘budding forester’ was his father, Robert Selkirk Wood Senior— the Senior was a well known and respect- ed citizen of Ladysmith—a long time columnist to the “Chronicle” newspaper, a librarian, police court magistrate and City Clerk—Bob’s father instilled an intense love of learning, reading, writing and history which was to serve Bob well in his life and career. Bob’s university days were provided with summer opportunities to work in the

logging industry near Ladysmith. He S teven A n d erson gained a first-hand awareness of just how hard, dirty and dangerous the logging work Michael Apsey and Chuck Geale, FHS Board members, plant the cedar tree in honor of Bob Wood.

52 Forest History Today | s p r i n g /f a l l 2001 A forest talks…if you listen. Millicoma: Biography of a Pacific Northwestern Forest by Arthur V. Smyth, was published recently by the Forest History Society. The author worked part of his early career on the Millicoma and so writes first hand of its early management history during the second half of the 20th century. The following is a short excerpt from the book telling about the forest and how it came into Weyerhaeuser ownership. Millicoma is a story of the life of a forest—how it began and how the forces of nature and the human hand changed it.

Millicoma: Biography of a Pacific Northwestern Forest

By Arthur V. Smyth

y the 1820s, when the first settlers Barrived in Oregon, the Millicoma Forest still had not been seen a white man as far as we can determine. All of the early explorers and trappers traveled up and down the Willamette and Umpqua valleys or along the coast. None of these early explorers had pen- etrated the wilderness lying between the Umpqua and the Coquille. McLoughlin’s trappers found the beaver trapping poor when they ventured south of the mouth of the Umpqua in 1826. In 1828 Jedediah Smith was the first white man to bring a sizeable company up the coast from California to Oregon. He met disaster when fourteen of his eighteen-man company were killed by Indians at the mouth of the Umpqua. Smith escaped to Fort Vancouver. The Wilkes expe- dition in 1841 produced a “Map of the Oregon Territory” which included Fort Nisqually on Puget Sound but Coos Bay was not mentioned. The Scottish botanists, Archibald Menzies and David Douglas, for whom the Douglas fir was named, never saw Coos Bay or most certainly the Millicoma Forest. The forest was now about eighty years old with some trees approach- ing 200 feet tall and three feet in diameter. Most of the lower limbs had fallen and the bark on the clear boles were beginning to

furrow. The forest floor was carpeted with A rchives Weyerhaeuser C ompany sword fern and mosses. Except for an occa- The 180-year old Millicoma forest as it looked in the late 1940’s. The forest was a sional windfall, the forest contained few result of a major fire event about 1765.

Forest History Today | s p r i n g /f a l l 2001 53 F orest H istory S ociety P hoto C ollection Frederick Weyerhaeuser (right) was known for his business acumen, commonly bringing together a variety of investors in business ventures. This photo taken on the Snohomish River Boom near Everett, Washington.

obstacles for travel, and it was crisscrossed would develop the land and its resources. settler was married he received an addi- with elk and deer trails. Indians dug carefully Also, they felt the only way to bind this tional 320 acres. If the settler had arrived covered pits to trap an unwary elk along vast nation together was to encourage the between 1850 and 1853 he was granted 160 these game trails. building of railroads. So it was that during acres and again it was doubled if the man Three thousand miles away in the halls the years just preceding and then follow- were married. Women were assiduously of Congress, lawmakers were devising ing the Civil War, a variety of proposals courted by land hungry bachelors and one ways to encourage the settlement and became law: the railroad land grants, the record shows a twelve-year-old girl being development of the American West. From Donation Land Act, the Homestead Act, led to the altar, but she lived with her folks the very beginnings of our nation the land the Timber and Stone Act, the Timber for several years after the wedding. The question was one of the most important Culture act, and the Forest Lieu Act. date for the land claims was later extended facing the young Republic. Thomas Under the provisions of these Acts, to 1855 and the requirements were further Jefferson in 1776 said, “The people who between 1850 to 1950, almost 30 million loosened when the residency requirement will migrate to the Westward will be a acres of Oregon’s 62 million acres of pub- was shortened to two years, after which the people little able to pay taxes...by selling lic domain were transferred to individuals, land could be purchased for $1.25 per acre. the lands to them you will disgust them companies or the state. After April l, 1855 all public land west of the and cause an avulsion of them from the By 1850 all of the land in Oregon Cascades in Oregon except for Donation common union. They will settle the lands belonged to the federal government except Land claims, mineral lands, and public in spite of everybody....I am at the same for vague, frequently ignored Indian titles. reserves were subject to public sale. Jerry A. time clear that they should be appropri- But what about all of the earlier settlers O’Callaghan in his treatise, “The Disposition ated in small quantities.” In 1841 John C. who had come into the Oregon country of the Public Domain in Oregon,” which Calhoun stated, “I regard the question of beginning in the 1830s? Until the passage of was published by the Senate Committee on public lands next to that of the currency, the Donation Land Act in 1860, settlers Interior and Insular Affairs in 1960, showed the most dangerous and difficult of all could exercise squatter sovereignty or pre- how Oregon’s public lands were disposed: which demand the attention of the coun- emption rights to 160 acres. After the land try and the government at this important was surveyed a more legalistic method of Homestead: 11,097,982 acres juncture of our affairs.” In that year the transfer of title was called for, hence the Land Sales: 6,455,551 preemption laws were passed and the Donation Land Act. This act granted 320 Grant to State: 4,329,445 event was hailed as “truly a frontier tri- acres to any white settler who was a citizen Donation Claims: 2,614,082 umph.” Congress determined that the of the U.S. residing in Oregon before Wagon Road Grants: 2,490,890 national interest could best be served by December 1, 1850. It required the settler to Railroad Grants: 1,588,532 transferring the public domain by gift and reside on the land for four years during Miscellaneous: 992,921 sale to individuals and companies which which he was suppose to cultivate it. If the Total: 29,569,921 acres

54 Forest History Today | s p r i n g /f a l l 2001 according to the General Land Office, the NP had constructed 2,021.38 miles of its road all of which had been approved by President Abraham Lincoln. Of the road constructed, 35.80 miles were within the states of Wisconsin, Minnesota and Oregon and 1,669.58 miles were within the territories of Dakota, Montana, Idaho and Washington. At this rate, in 1886 the railroad company was entitled to 47,244,288 acres and it was still building. During long evening conversations with his neighbor, Weyerhaeuser learned that the railroad had to quickly raise some money for redemption of bonds that were due. To raise the money the railroad had to sell some of its enormous land holdings. Weyerhaeuser and some of his associates

F orest H istory S ociety P hoto C ollection had been to the Northwest. Frederick In order to encourage the building of the Northern Pacific Railroad, President Abraham Weyerhaeuser’s eyes must have lit up when Lincoln made grants of land on either side of the railroad line. James Hill acquired part of he saw the magnificent stands of Douglas the Millicoma forest in exchange for land needed for Rainier National Park. This land was fir that Jim Hill’s people showed him. It was later sold in to Frederick Weyerhaeuser in 1902, starting with 31,000 acres. This section of also apparent that the end was in sight for the Northern Pacific Railroad is located near Lewiston, Idaho. the white pine in the Lake States. So on January 3, 1900, Frederick Weyerhaeuser years and have not lost anything by it.” He and William H. Phipps of the Northern The forest of our story did not yet have a enjoyed making deals and for his time was Pacific Railroad signed the papers transfer- name, but it was soon to have an owner. remarkably far-sighted. In St. Paul, ring 900,000 acres of timberland in The biggest real estate transaction in the Weyerhaeuser was blessed with a neigh- Washington State to the Weyerhaeuser nation’s history up to that time had its bor he got to know well—James J. Hill, the Timber Company for $5,400,000. Three beginnings at 266 Summit Avenue in St. railroad magnate. Hill through the million of the purchase price was to be paid Paul, Minnesota. Here, in his large plain immense land grants given to the immediately and the remainder in eight house lived Frederick Weyerhaeuser, a Northern Pacific Railroad (NP), which semi-annual payments at 5% interest. German immigrant, who had made a for- was building a line from Minnesota to It took almost all of Weyerhaeuser’s tune in the great white pine forests of Puget Sound, owned immeasurably more associates in the upper Mississippi region Wisconsin and Minnesota. He was born in pine trees than even Fred Weyerhaeuser to raise the money. They were apprehen- the Rhineland of Germany and immigrated and his associates had dreamed of. A good sive about this gamble, but finally trusted to the United States as a young man. His deal of Jim Hill’s pine trees were Douglas the judgment of Weyerhaeuser and named first job in America was in a brewery in fir far out in the Pacific Northwest. Most the newly established company after him. Erie, Pennsylvania. He disliked this job and of Frederick Weyerhaeuser’s peers were The news of this bold transaction spread moved to Rock Island, Illinois where he more interested in the southern pine than across the country, and some in the Pacific took a job as a night watchman at a saw- in the wilderness on the west coast. But Northwest immediately feared that the mill. Through hard work he impressed the that was about to change. small operator would be squeezed out by owners and moved up to other jobs in the The first land grants to the Northern the “syndicate.” At $6 an acre it proved to mill. When the mill owners went bankrupt, Pacific Railroad were made in 1864. be a bargain indeed, but in 1900, it was a he and his brother-in-law Frederick Additional grants were made in 1870. The huge bet on the future. Denkman bought the mill. Soon he left the original grant specified a twenty-mile strip The Millicoma Forest was hundreds of job of running the mill to Denkman and on each side of the completed sections of miles away from Puget Sound, so how did headed up the Mississippi to find timber. the line that passed through a state and a Weyerhaeuser end up with these lands in Throughout the woods he was known forty-mile strip on each side where it southwest Oregon far from the Northern as Dutch Fred, probably because of his passed through a territory. The railroad Pacific mainline? In 1899, Congress estab- accent. He was a shrewd judge of both was granted alternate sections of land lished Rainier National Park after some timber and men and had established the within the strips. In addition, if the lands years of intensive lobbying by Tacoma and respect of many of the leading lumber- within the strips were already reserved, an Seattle boosters for Congress to protect men of the region who found that they additional ten-mile strip was added as this beautiful mountain. Officials within seldom lost money if they listened to Fred. indemnity lands. This was later extended the Department of Interior had advised He reportedly said, “I know this much: by another 10 miles. In essence, the rail- Congress not to establish the park until whenever I buy timber I make a profit; road had a swath of alternate sections of the railroad claims had been exchanged whenever I do not buy I miss an opportu- land 120 miles wide from Minnesota to for other federal lands. The NP lands that nity. I have followed this practice for many the shores of Puget Sound. By 1886, were taken up in the park could, under the

Forest History Today | s p r i n g /f a l l 2001 55 provisions of the Lieu Land Act, be London, described the Douglas fir, which Hidy, Ralph, Frank Hill, and Allan Nevins. Timber exchanged for other federal lands. The now bears his name, as, some of the most and Men. The Weyerhaeuser Story. New York: railroad issue stalled the Washington striking and graceful objects in nature. The Macmillan Company, 1963. National Park bill long enough to prevent trees in the Millicoma in 1902 were now clear Holmes, Kenneth L. Ewing Young, Master Trapper. its passage in 1897. Supporters tried again of limbs for one hundred feet or more. The Portland: Binford and Mort, 1967. O’Callaghan, Jerry A. The Disposition of Public in 1898 and 1899. By that time the bill had trees in the creek bottoms were so much Land in Oregon. New York: Arno Press, 1960 been rewritten to grant the NP lieu land taller than those on the ridges so that if the [reprint]. rights in exchange for its lands on Mount forest could have been viewed from the air, Pethick, Derrick. First Approaches to the Northwest Ranier. The railroad had built relatively the terrain would have appeared much more Coast. Vancouver: Douglas and McIntyre, 1976. few miles in Oregon. Charges were made gentle than it really was. The understory Puter, S.A.D. Looters of the Public Domain. New that the Northern Pacific had itself framed contained hemlock and cedar. The forest York: DeCapo Press, 1972 [reprint]. the bill that established the Park and open- floor was carpeted with sword fern, mosses, Robbins, Roy Marvin. Preemption, a frontier tri- ly lobbied for the passage of the Enabling oxalis, and trillium. Devil’s club and salmon- umph. Cedar Rapids, Iowa: The Torch Press, Act of March 2, 1899, which created the berry grew along the creeks and the open- 1931. nation’s fifth national park. Critics claimed ings left by windfalls were commonly choked Robbins, Roy Marvin. Our Landed Heritage; the that under the provisions of the lieu land with tangles of vine maple and salal. Public Domain, 1776–1936. New York: P.Smith, act the NP was exchanging glaciers for Elk foraged throughout the forest. Red 1950. rich timberland. According to some fig- squirrels chattered in the tops. At dusk the Salo, Sarah Jenkins. Timber Concentration in the ures, the Mount Rainier Forest Reserve wide-eyed flying squirrels would drift Pacific Northwest. Ann Arbor, Mich.: Edwards deal netted the railroad 540,000 acres, of down through the trees. Martin preyed on Brothers, 1945. Sparks. W. Report of the Commissioner of the which 320,000 acres were yellow fir in the squirrels, cougar on the elk and bark General Land OfficeR elative to the Lands Oregon, 100,000 acres of fir in Washington beetles on the fir. With each year the trees Granted to the NP Railroad Company. U.S. and 120,000 acres of pine in Idaho. added another wide ring of wood. To General Land Office, April 20, 1886. The Progressive era of Teddy Roosevelt lumbermen this was still red fir, not to be Washington D.C.: Government Printing saw an outcry against the wide spread land valued as highly as the much older yellow Office, 1886. frauds in the West. Federal investigations fir with its dense, close grained clear wood. Twining, Charles. George S. Long, Timber resulted in the conviction of a United States But it was indeed a treasure chest and Statesman. Seattle: University of Washington Senator from Oregon, and many public growing more valuable every year. ■ Press, 1994. officials went to jail. The so-called muck- raking journalists began writing stories about the mysterious Weyerhaeuser who Arthur V. Smyth is a retired Weyerhaeuser they claimed was richer than Rockefeller. employee who spent his early career on the Millicoma: Biography of a PacificN orthwestern­ One article described him as an “octopus.” Millicoma Forest. He now resides in Forest can be obtained from the Forest The always shy and now aging Alexandria, Virginia. History Society, (919) 682-9319; www.for- Weyerhaeuser was dismayed and stoutly esthistory.org. ISBN: 0-89030-058-5, paper maintained that every dollar he had made $12.95 plus shipping and handling. References was earned honestly, and no evidence indi- cated otherwise. However, C.A. Smith of Bancroft, Hubert Howe. History of Oregon. San the Coos Bay Lumber Company and Booth Francisco, Calif.: The History Company, 1890. of Booth-Kelley Lumber Company were Collins, Dean. “Ewing Young’s Cattle.” Oregon Millicoma both charged with using illegal dummy Journal. (1933). Biography of a pacific northwestern forest Dodge, Orvil. Pioneer History of Coos and Curry entrymen to secure valuable timberlands. County. Capital Printing Company. (1898). George Long, Weyerhaeuser’s manager in Douglas, David. Journal of David Douglas. the West would not condone this practice. London: W. Wesley, 1914. The close buyer-seller relationship with the Farnham, Thomas, Jefferson. History of Oregon NP continued, however, and in July of 1902, Territory it being a demonstration of the title of Weyerhaeuser purchased 31,000 acres of these United States of North America to the same. NP land in Oregon for about five dollars per New York: W. Taylor, 1845. acre. It was the first of many acquisitions Fremont, John Charles. The Expeditions of John on the Millicoma. Charles Fremont. Edited by Donald Jackson After four centuries of conflicting claims, and Mary Spencer. Urbana: University of much of this remote forested area became Illinois Press, 1970. Gates, Paul Wallace. Public Land Policies, the property of Weyerhaeuser’s timber com- F o r e s t Hi s t o ry S o c i e t y Arthur V. Smyth pany. Neither the Spanish or British had ever Management and Disposal. New York: Arno seen this forest nor had the Weyerhaeusers. Press, 1979. Historic What had they purchased? Gillette, Jane Brown. “240 Summit.” Preservation 46 no.4 (July/August 1994). David Douglas, a young botanist who Greenhow, Robert. The History of Oregon and traveled through Oregon in 1826 sponsored California. Los Angeles: Sherwin and by the Royal Horticultural Society of Freuntal, 1970.

56 Forest History Today | s p r i n g /f a l l 2001 This paper was the banquet presentation at the conference Making Environmental History Relevant in the 21st Century, a joint meeting of the Forest History Society and the American Society for Environmental History in March 2001. The author’s George Perkins Marsh, Prophet of Conservation, was published in the University of Washington Press’s Weyerhaeuser Environmental series in 2000.

Marsh’s Man and Nature in the 21st Century

By David Lowenthal

an and Nature is a title that crosses Mtime: Marsh’s 1864 classic speaks to our own environmental angst. Forests engrossed Marsh first and last; “forest- born,” he held that few people had “as good a claim to personality as a respectable oak.”1 Man and Nature’s key chapter is “The Woods,” whose loss had triggered far-reach- ing global impacts. “The too general felling of the woods,” he sums up, is “the most destructive among the many causes of the physical deterioration of the earth.”2 Rapid runoff and soil loss from forest clearance were for Marsh man’s worst wound to nature, forest renewal the prime remedy. Yet his title proved troublesome. It was a problem at the outset because Marsh’s publishers feared “Man and Nature” too vague to make its point; the phrase seemed metaphysical, not material. Hence the sec- ond edition reversed title and subtitle. Less memorably crisp, “The Earth as Modified by Human Action” was candidly down-to- earth. All through life Marsh stressed his “earthy, material” “mudpile” bent.3

George Perkins Marsh, conservationist and author of the 1864 Man and Nature, or, Physical Geography as Modified by Human Action. An acclaimed linguist, lawyer, congressman, and diplomat,

he served 25 years as U.S. envoy to Turkey A rchives, Woo d stock, V ermont amily and then to Italy. He helped found and

guide the Smithsonian Institution. B illings F

Forest History Today | s p r i n g /f a l l 2001 57 “Man and Nature” today poses a differ- lable, varying with time-scale, technology, sina, noce, pino, quèrcia. But by Marsh’s time ent problem, one unseen even when and social condition. Human agency was these towns were devoid of forest—and Harvard reissued the book in 1965. But also morally imbued. Free-willed men also of their former prosperity. Owing in soon afterwards, feminism began to ought to steward nature: they were answer- part to geological causes, but largely to ­proscribe the inclusive use of “man”; able for any damage they did, whether “man’s ignorant disregard of the laws of “human” or “humankind”­ became de from ignorant zeal or insensate greed. nature” and attendant “tyranny and mis- rigueur. Environmental­­ like other history Thus began environmental history as rule, . . . the fairest and fruitfulest provinces today bends to the vogue for salving our now seen. Well-informed on tree growth of the Roman Empire” were now exhaust- forebears’ linguistic sins. It was hard for and riparian regimes, soil absorption and ed, decrepit, infertile, barren.7 the publisher of my new biography to erosion, Marsh deployed natural science to allow “man” in the generic sense Marsh explain plant and animal history, resource The prehistory of meant. Harder still to leave nature as use, and land cover change. He reviewed ­environmental history “her”: despite Marsh’s deference to dune control and watershed management, nature’s needs, he saw man as being irrigation and empolderment, domestica- Marsh’s precursors were of course not blind “above” and “conquering” “her.” tion and desertification, from the Alps to to man’s links with nature. Indeed, natural The modern vogue for regendering man Appalachia, the Sahara to the Great Salt history mirrored human history, the book and nature barely scratches the surface of Lake, the Roman Campagna to the Missis­ of nature echoed the annals of mankind. awkward lexical change. The long century sippi, Midwestern prairies to the Po plain. The earth gave food and shelter, sanctuary since Marsh has seen nature not only neu- His chronicles blend data from things and spirit. The reciprocal effects of locale tered and idolized but nationalized, politi- and from words— mountains and manu- and life had long intrigued historians, who cized, economized, not to forget poisoned, scripts, topography and toponymy. Why invoked landscape and terrain, climate and purified, and cloned. The myriad meanings had Old-Norse no name for sand dunes? soils, to explain why peoples differed. In of nature explicated by Raymond Williams4 Because “only since the comparatively Western thought, dominion over nature continue to metastasize. And if like Marsh’s recent destruction of the forests of Jutland was divinely decreed and spurred by publishers we seek a down-to-earth proxy, [had] the shifting coast-downs excited any Enlightenment science. To environmental we fare no better with “environment” or interest as a source of danger to the culti- determinists nature was mankind’s master, “landscape,” both of which today are as vated soil.”6 Like Darwin, Marsh devised to apostles of progress mankind’s servant. messily multiform as “nature”. an archaeology of knowledge long before But both stressed the two realms’ disparities Foucault coined the phrase. But where and scanted their parallels. Nature was Darwin built evolution from fossil beings mundane and mindless, humans alone fash- Marsh’s pioneering and reproductive processes, Marsh derived ioned in God’s sublime image. This chasm ­environmental history ecology from fossil language, artifacts, and made it clear to most, with Cambridge Our convenors’ aim—an environmental landforms. Darwin rewrote biological his- Regius professor Charles Kingsley, that “his- history to inform public policy—was also tory as life science; Marsh fused environ- tory is the history of men and women, and Marsh’s: he termed it “important to the mental with human events in a history of nothing else.”8 interests of the American people to show combining man and nature. Later seers tried to tailor human history the evils resulting from too much clearing For instance, ancient brickwork in to supposed laws of nature. Marx and and cultivation, and often so-called Rome pointed to fuel scarcity owing to Hegel likened social progress to the growth improvements.”5 His method was histori- deforestation: of living organisms. Toynbee and Eliade cal: chronicling Old World environmental equated the rise and fall of social orders to follies and nascent reforms, he cited past The oldest bricks are very thin, and very fixed planetary orbits; economists ascribed events to explain present conditions. Man thoroughly burnt. A few generations fluctuations of boom and bust, even war and Nature was the first historical glimpse later the bricks were thicker and less well and peace, to sunspot cycles.9 But such of human global impact. burnt. In the [late Empire] the bricks analogies are too simplistic to explain com- Before Marsh, human agency was muf- were still thicker, and generally soft- plex and contingent history. Historians fled by biblical prophecy or dominated by burnt. This is due to the abundance and rightly dismiss meta-narratives that account terrain and climate. Man’s link to nature cheapness of fuel in earlier, and its for the cosmos but collapse at every aber- was foreordained: for certain doom, as growing scarceness and dearness in rant event. They also mistrust environmen- 17th century divines said; or for predes- later, ages. When wood cost little, con- talism, both the old determinism that tined progress, as 18th century philoso- structors could afford to burn their brick makes society a pawn of all-powerful phes held. Marsh scrapped airy thoroughly; but as the price of fire-wood nature, and the new primitivism that fears prejudgment for attested fact: he showed advanced, they were able to consume to upset nature’s fragile harmony. that human impress had differed with less wood in brick-kilns, and the quality Environmental history has locale, intensified over time, reflected and quantity of brick used in building pretty well outgrown such shibboleths. myriad diverse causes and choices. Man were gradually reversed in proportion. Human history is still unique within the and Nature chronicles manifold effects— vast saga of nature. The changes and stases beneficial and harmful, intended and Linguistic history confirmed deforestation: of mankind’s brief annals conform little unsought, deliberate and heedless, imme- many ancient Italian towns bore tree-names with the longer-range shifts and rhythms of diate and remote, foreseeable and incalcu- like abete, àcero, càrpino, castagno, fàggio, fràs- global and stellar time-spans. Consciousness,

58 Forest History Today | s p r i n g /f a l l 2001 imagery, and communications unexampled North American hunters. Meanwhile, cos- Science had dispelled fears of planetary in the biosphere make human history sin- mic aberrations beyond mankind’s present collision, but left earthquakes and volca- gular and human impact formidable. control episodically impact both natural nic eruptions in fearsome limbo. Memory and intent, awareness of death and human history. In short, the closer one peered, the less and of former and future lives, uniquely The refutation of Clements’s ecological constant nature looked. “Disturbing causes, enrich our annals with hindsight and fore- paradigm, Mart Stewart’s “splendid consen- infinite in number, and various in opera- sight. In sum, brief recency, transcendent sus” of the 1960s and 1970s, deprives us of tion,” undermined every presumed regular- awareness, and archival cumulation set what seemed a sure model of nature.11 But ity and subverted general laws. “Led to human history apart.10 the collapse of old certitudes is, in my view, expect uniformity, we are embarrassed and not dismaying but liberating. The unknown confounded with variety.”14 So too with is no longer shunned but embraced. For the interplay of slope and sediment, water Growing convergence example, consider attitudes toward irrevers- and soils, predator and prey, in every spot of s­ cience and history ibility. Conservation dogma once enjoined on earth. “The equation of animal and veg- This caveat aside, the current melting-pot doing nothing that could not be undone. etable life is too complicated a problem for of environmental history and earth science This stultifying mandate applied alike to human intelligence to solve,” he added in promises a feast of novel insights. While nature, to buildings, and to works of art. Man and Nature. Hence the environmental historians learn to grapple with environ- But now we realize that reversibility is a chi- future could never be foretold.15 mental science, biologists and geologists mera: nothing can ever be wholly undone, Least knowable was the effect of perforce turn historical. Gone are yester- both culture and nature run in the one-way human agency. “We can never know how day’s equilibria and enduring climaxes, stream of time. To come to terms with wide a circle of disturbance we produce in Frederic Clements’s and Howard Odum’s time’s arrow is more fruitful, as well as nature when we throw the smallest pebble stable states deranged only by remote and wiser, than to yearn for untenable reversion. into the ocean of organic life.”16 And as rare events or by human interference. In Landscapes are better relished as living we are ever able to hurl more and bigger their stead is a nature buffeted by episodic ephemera than as dioramas fixed in pebbles we keep outstripping our calculus uncertainties, whose dating and outcomes amber.12 of their impact. This insight has even demand historical appraisal in ways familiar greater resonance today, notes William to human annalists. In tracing what has Meyer, now that “the secondary, distant, Modern Relevance happened on earth, even in galactic space, and surprising effects of which Marsh of Man and Nature scientists study vestiges of historical spoke have become commonplace.” More events—volcanic eruptions, meteor Marsh’s Man and Nature presages many alert to the invisible and the unexpected, impacts, earthquakes, tsunami, fire, shifts modern insights in environmental history. we are less bemused than Marsh by of climate and ocean currents—much as Here I discuss three: ecological ignorance nature’s inconstancy.17 But we have not prehistorians and archaeologists do. always outpaces knowledge; small is adopted his resultant ecological humility. The more we learn of natural and potent; human might forever alters the Marsh came to terms with nature’s “baf- human histories, the more evident their earth. fling complexity, its inherent unpredictabil- fusion becomes. No history of forests or ity, its daily turbulence”;18 many who fire can ignore human impact; a merely Ignorance followed forgot his humbling cautions. natural saga of domestication or of epi- What made the everyday world so bizarre- demics would be a contradiction in terms. ly baffling? The issue piqued Marsh in an Small is potent A true overview of any locale requires 1847 lecture at Harvard, even as he urged All levels of being, from tiny to huge, integrated chronicles of rocks and soils, Congress to secure science in the new shape ecological outcomes. Undue heed plants and animals, early tribal and later Smithsonian Institution.13 Some quirk to what is big or prominent blinds men to national peoples—histories not segmented revealed the remote in nature while causal links and nuances. Darwin saw how by separate disciplines, as before, but syn- obscuring the near; scholars could incremental deviations over millions of thesized in commingled narratives. “decompose the sunbeam” but were years transformed living forms beyond Also being bridged is the traditional unable “to weigh a scruple”: recognition; Marsh stressed the cumula- temporal chasm between natural and tive impact of myriad tiny beings, the human history. To be sure, farming and The astronomer can predict with aggregate weight of the least of human industry vastly magnified human impact, unerring precision the courses of the agencies. “We habitually regard the whale but it is now common knowledge that stars in all past and all coming time, and the elephant as essentially large and hunters and gatherers were no strangers yet no seer can tell whether favorable or therefore important creatures,” but rock to ecological debacle. Prehistory grades adverse breezes will impel the ship that layers owe little to their bones, whereas with little break into history proper. this day ventures forth upon the uncer- diatoms and other microscopic creatures Processes operating over many millen- tain deep. . . . We know the place, the make up strata thousands of feet thick nia—like the conversion of Australian for- dimensions, the specific gravity of the over much of the earth. De minimis non est into grassland and desert by Aboriginal remotest planets, but the observations curat lex, “the law does not concern itself fire —are seen to act in tandem with far of six thousand years have added noth- with trifles,” was a good legal maxim but swifter disruptions—such as the extirpa- ing to our knowledge of the irregulari- a poor guide to environmental history.19 tion of major fauna by precolumbian ties of our own seasons. Like accretions of organic decay,

Forest History Today | s p r i n g /f a l l 2001 59 human impacts multiply step by step to tims [un]limited by the cravings of appetite, Damage wrought by human agency staggering effect. Thus erosion escalated [and] unsparingly persecutes, even to extir- might be repaired only by human agency. by clearing and cultivating might at length pation, thousands of organic forms which No less than Marsh, we inhabit a world thicken the earth’s crust beneath deltas he cannot consume.” indelibly marked by being managed. and estuaries, and so shift the global center Human damage was swift, pervasive, of gravity. Such a process might be and enduring; “the wounds . . . are not Future of environmental unquantifiable, its end result obscure. But healed until he withdraws the arm that ­history “we are never justified in assuming a force gave the blow.” And often not for years to to be insignificant because its measure is come, perhaps forever. On land cleared Whether bettered or botched, man and unknown, or even because no physical fifty years before in Marsh’s native nature in the 21st century will become effect can now be traced to it.”20 Vermont, springs still dried up, rivulets more entwined. So will their histories: This point is amplified in Man and dwindled, as unchecked runoff depleted new ecological dilemmas will make it Nature’s last (1884) edition. “Cosmic forces aquifers; fire-charred Mount Tom might imperative to know how man and nature of little comparative energy may, by long need centuries to form “a stratum of soil shaped one another in the past. Not only continued or often repeated action, pro- thick enough to support a full-grown for- resource managers but the concerned duce sensible effects of great magnitude . est.” Against such assaults nature is largely public will need awareness of environ- . . as the sum of an almost infinite number helpless. Species wiped out are never mental history. Let us hope our numbers of infinitesimal impulses.” Ordnance dis- reborn. Woodlands cleared may never and training meet the need. charge might “accelerate or retard the recover. “When the forest is gone, the Barring global catastrophe, growing rotation of the earth, or even . . . deviate great reservoir of moisture stored up in its technical nous portends a nature ever the earth itself from her orbit.” Every deed vegetable mould is evaporated, and returns more manmade, both for good and for ill. may leave a physical imprint that science only in deluges of rain to wash away the How far the earth becomes garden or could in time reveal, and future mathemat- parched dust.”23 dunghill depends partly on attitude, partly ics might “calculate even these small cos- Here and there men replant forests, on action; but the imprint of human agen- mical results of human action.”21 Such a stem inundations, drain swamps, vegetate cy will be ever more manifest, persistent, calculus could be crucial to mankind’s dunes; but stewardship is rare. Instead, and inescapable. Of course no locale is welfare; carefully harnessed technologies neglect and greed lay waste the world. ever solely manmade—or wholly wild. might shape a well-husbanded, reforested But human impress will augment even world. Plainly salient in the context of [In] parts of Asia Minor, of Northern where we most closely copy nature. As in global warming, Marsh’s prevision “is still Africa, of Greece, and even of Alpine restoration forestry, we will refashion the ahead of its time.”22 Europe, . . . the operation of causes set earth neither as it was nor as it would have in action by man has brought the face of been but for us, but as a creative mix of Man’s powers for good and ill the earth to a desolation almost as com- natural and human rhythms and distur- The dark menace, yet also the bright prom- plete as that of the moon . . . The earth bance regimes. ise, of culture’s impress on nature was is fast becoming an unfit home for its How will we gauge our hybrid scenes? Marsh’s most profound insight. noblest inhabitant, and another era of “Sight is a faculty, seeing, an art,” wrote Conventional Western wisdom had rated equal human crime and human improv- Marsh; “in general the eye sees only what human influence either benign or negligi- idence . . . would reduce it to such a it seeks.” To see nature in full was, he felt, ble. Nature was designed by an omnipotent condition of impoverished productive- “the power most important to cultivate Creator who gave mankind dominion and ness, of shattered surface, of climatic [yet] hardest to acquire.”25 We as his heirs bade him subdue and cultivate an earth excess, as to threaten the depravation, are both more and less alert. Eagerness to thus rendered ever more fruitful. Marsh barbarism, and perhaps even extinction see has surged in America since the 1960s. exposed this saga of certain progress as of the species.24 This reflects public concern in issues from delusive. Mankind had fouled as well as NIMBY to nuclear, stoked by media-hyped fructified the earth.M an and Nature limned Even more than Marsh we now see how alarm, by rising personal wealth, and, as enrichment less than ruin—ruin made malign and enduring our impingement Sam Hays has shown, by a shift from valu- worse by every technologic gain. If undis- often is. Aghast at the havoc, some idealize ing land as provider not only of material turbed by man, terrain and soils, flora and nature free of human sway. The dream is goods—timber, food, fuel—but also of fauna were in the short term nearly “con- futile. We can amend our impact but can- intangibles—health, recreation, beauty, stant and immutable.” But man’s “self-con- not curtail its intensity. Our impress on sense of place.26 The spread of tourism scious and intelligent will aiming as often at nature will be ever greater—and graver. presages a similar global shift. As in for- secondary and remote as at immediate To Marsh, giving up dominion over estry, “sustained yield” and “multiple use” objects” shattered nature’s quasi-balance. nature would have meant regression will cease to denote extractive drain and Humans were unique among predators in from science’s clear benefits to primeval come to encode ecological sense. the magnitude and purpose of their impact. hunger, fear, and superstition. Reform New visual habits at once enlarge and “Wild animals have [n]ever destroyed the entailed not ceasing to impact nature but cramp environmental awareness. Some smallest forest, extirpated any organic spe- taking care in doing so. Growing human schooled by the screen then learn to look cies, or [caused] any permanent terrestrial might demanded not relaxing but order- around. In the 1960s, the dominance of change.” By contrast, “man pursues his vic- ing a more intense manipulation. print culture atrophied my landscape

60 Forest History Today | s p r i n g /f a l l 2001 architect students’ vision. They knew how has too long forgotten,” thundered Marsh, an increase of [the] evils” of gutting the to design specific sites, but could not relate “that the world was given to him for usu- woods.31 Unlike Old World serfs, their gardenesque jewels to a broader fruct alone, not for consumption, still less American yeomen owned the land they milieu. Today not only designers but for profligate waste.” Not for our own but tilled and could hope to profit from their anthropologists and litterateurs exalt for our offspring’s sake we need to mend own improvements. But the growth of “landscape” as a visual metaphor for in- our prodigal and thriftless ways, “thus ful- unprincipled corporate monopoly depth discernment. filling the command of religion and of dimmed Marsh’s faith in both enlightened The downside is that visual media dif- practical wisdom, to use this world as not self-interest and “the diffusion of general fuse worldwide images ever more alike. As abusing it.”28 Above all this required intelligence,” and he deleted this hopeful difference and variety dwindle, local and restoring forested terrain. “The preserva- line from later editions of Man and Nature. regional settings become more similar, less tion of existing woods, and the far more Abuse of nature could be curbed, resourc- worthy of note. And the spread of pictures costly extension of them where they have es protected, the common weal served, demeans the felt milieu; when surfing the been unduly reduced, are among the most only by public ownership or control. Over- Internet is so easy, why endure actual obvious of the duties which this age owes government also risked abuse by officials. waves? Copies, duplicates, and cults of the to those that are to come.” Such action “But the corruption thus engendered, foul virtual devalue the tangibly unique. Marsh felt “especially incumbent upon as it is, does not strike so deep as the rot- Artifact and scene are sundered from Americans” deeply indebted to pioneer tenness of private corporations.” Unless locale, experience confined to displays forebears’ “toils and sacrifices”—a debt “the sacred right of every man to do what of simulacra. No longer within a place, repayable only “by a like self-forgetting he will with his own” were rescinded, subject to vagaries of climate and terrain, care for the moral and material interests disaster loomed.32 the interactive viewer becomes a topo- of our own posterity.”29 As with woods,33 so with waters; logical gamester. Digital artifice deletes But could Americans who heeded the Marsh insisted on public ownership in a environment. past so little learn to steward the future? 1874 irrigation report to Congress. Private A restless mobility severed them from control led to “vested rights and monopo- home, from forebears, and from tradition. lies liable to great abuse.” The huge capital Marsh as modern mentor? “It is rare that a middle-aged American outlay needed for irrigation squeezed out I am often asked what Marsh would do dies in the house where he was born, or small landholders, leaving only hired labor- today. How would he judge our environ- an old man even in that which he has ers lacking any “proprietary interest in the mental views and acts? The query is highly built,” lamented Marsh. “This life of inces- land they till.” In Italy, where Marsh was American—it never comes up in the Old sant flitting is unfavorable for the execu- then American envoy, irrigation had long World. In one sense it is naively ahistorical: tion of permanent improvements.” since eliminated the rural middle class. how could a 19th-century mind fathom our Because “the longest life [of any individu- The moral as well as the physical future of modern plight? In another it is devoutly al owner] hardly embraces the seedtime America meant not just protecting but hopeful: might musing on a forebear’s ideas and the harvest of a forest, the value of its actively favoring smallholders. Social and enhance our own? Noting how recall of timber will not return the capital expend- economic equity in the arid West required Abraham Lincoln has changed, Barry ed and the interest accrued” for many declaring “all lakes, rivers, and natural Schwartz shows that such questions—often generations. “It requires a very generous water-courses the inalienable property of posed to Lincoln buffs—transcend the issue spirit in a landholder to plant a wood on the State.” Long-term water-rights conces- at hand: seeking wisdom from a past men- a farm he expects to sell, or which he sions must also be prohibited, lest chang- tor helps to free us from the our own imme- knows will pass out of the hands of his ing environments or needs render such diate mental confines.27 descendants.” concessions injurious to future public But another era’s lessons, however salu- So “the planter of a wood must be interests.34 tary, cannot simply be recycled. Marsh’s actuated by higher motives than those of “The sacred right of every man to do views stem from a world whose memories an investment”—the future wellbeing of what he will with his own” has scarcely and mind-set, habits and hopes were pro- the wider community. And aiding the abated since Marsh’s day. Land-use con- foundly unlike ours. They made sense in future would benefit the present too; straints have made marginal gains where terms of their own time, not our time. But securing “an approximately fixed ratio” environmental health is at risk, but private in reviewing his concerns we may see bet- among woodland, pasture, and arable property in general remains sacrosanct. ter how we relate to our own world and would reduce the “restlessness” and Economists preach intergenerational equi- begin to bridge the gulf between the land- “instability” Marsh saw as major defects ty but seldom apply it. Legislators pay scapes we have and those we need. So I of American life. For “the very fact of ritual deference to their grandchildren but end with Marsh’s take on stewardship, in having begun a plantation would attach act like the senator of a century ago, when his day an ideal seldom preached, in ours the proprietor more strongly to the soil implored to consider posterity: “Posterity? more preached than practiced. for which he had made such a sacri- What’s posterity done for me?” fice.”30 Some deny any need to forgo immedi- Marsh initially trusted “enlightened self ate benefits for the sake of a probably Stewardship then and now interest, for which [Americans] are remark- more competent and fortunate future. The root concern of Man and Nature was able, [to] introduce the reforms, check the One renowned economist scorns “the the welfare of future generations. “Man abuses, and preserve us from imposition of any burdens on people alive

Forest History Today | s p r i n g /f a l l 2001 61 today . . . in order to add a few percentage factions, or who is engaged perhaps in Papers Relating to Foreign Affairs: Italy: points to the incomes of their far richer some industrial pursuit, and is oftener Diplomatic Despatch no. 72, National descendants” a century on.35 Solutions to stunned with the clang of the forge and Archives. shortages and environmental perils that the hum of machinery, than refreshed by 6. Man and Nature, 412n42, 414–15; George now menace may indeed emerge. But this the voice of the Muses.”42 Perkins Marsh, A Dictionary of English Etymology, by Hensleigh Wedgwood, Vol. I misses Marsh’s further point: concern for Marsh himself was the supreme model. (A—D), with Notes and Additions (New York, future welfare is vital to present interests. Lauding “this eminent man, who studied 1862), 237. Acts of communal care that bind present languages while he practiced law, who 7. Marsh, The Earth as Modified by Human to past and future enrich us by extending divided his time between business and Action: A New Edition of Man and Nature meaning and enlarging purpose beyond politics, who wrote books and delivered (New York, 1874), 320n; Man and Nature, 10. our shallow single lifespan.36 lectures on literary subjects, and who 8. Charles Kingsley, The Limits of Exact Stewardship is not innate; it must be investigated geographical problems while Science as Applied to History: An Inaugural induced and cherished. In postindustrial he elevated diplomacy,” the Harvard geog- Lecture. Delivered before the University of society, recurrent imminent crises, corpo- rapher William Morris Davis a century Cambridge (Cambridge, England, 1860), 4. rate avarice, frayed community ties, the ago strongly doubted that “advice on . . . 9. Paul A. Roth and Thomas A. Ryckman, democratic process itself impose a tyranny national scientific problems can be as well “Chaos, Clio, and Scientistic Illusions of of the present inimical to future concern. given by intensive specialists of the mod- Understanding,” History & Theory 34 (1995): The short-term immediacy that bedevils ern school as by men of a wider experi- 30–44. us today atrophies collective vision. Like ence, of whom Marsh was so admirable 10. David Lowenthal, “Environmental History: the far-sighted builders of medieval cathe- an example.”43 From Genesis to Apocalypse,” History Today 51:4 (April 2001): 36–42. drals, American Founding Fathers had a In our yet more specialized present the 11. Mart A. Stewart, “Environmental History: lively sense of their enduring importance. need for generalists is greater still. Profile of a Developing Field,” The History They were “painting for eternity,” so they Nowhere is the tyranny of expertise more 37 Teacher 31 (1998): 351–68 at 356–57. had to be sure to get things right. To obnoxious than in environmental affairs. 12. See David Lowenthal, “Environment as instill a like sense of purpose we need our When even lethal impacts can be detected Heritage,” in Culture, Landscape and the own transcendent projects. We might only by arcane machines, it is the more Environment: The Linacre Lectures 1997, ed. tackle long-term threats like the byprod- urgent that ordinary citizens become Kate Flint and Howard Morphy (Oxford: ucts of nuclear decay, lethal for maybe a broadly familiar with the forces that make Oxford University Press, 2000), 197–217 at million years. Indeed, dealing with these and shape us. Only so armed can we 209–10. remote risks is vital if future generations responsibly use those forces and curb their 13. George Perkins Marsh, Speech on the Bill for are to inherit a viable planet.38 risks. Rightly wary of flawed and fallible Establishing the Smithsonian Institution, Environmental reform cannot, Marsh experts, amateurs must cope as best we Delivered in the House of Representatives of the argued, be left to the experts. Unless can with environmental enigmas that we U. States, April 22, 1846 (Congressional wanted by society at large stewardship admit we can never fully fathom.44. ■ Globe, 29 Cong. 1 Sess., App., 850–55). will be spurned as imposed tyranny. 14. George Perkins Marsh, Human Knowledge: Discourse delivered before the Massachusetts Hence he addressed Man and Nature “to Alpha of the Phi Beta Kappa Society, August 26, the general intelligence of educated, David Lowenthal is Professor Emeritus of 1847 (Boston, 1847), 18–19, 22, 24. observing, and thinking men.” It made Geography at University College London. 15. Man and Nature, 91. “no scientific pretensions and will have 16. Ibid., 91–92. Marsh here referred to “the no value for scientific men”; he sought Notes harmonies of nature,” but he understood only to “interest some people who are such harmonies to be relative, not absolute. willing to look upon nature with 1. George Perkins Marsh to Charles Eliot 17. William B. Meyer, Human Impact on the Earth unlearned eyes.”39 He aimed to breach Norton, May 24, 1871, Norton Papers, (New York: Cambridge University Press, not just the bounds between the sciences Harvard University. 1996), 5–6. but the walls that segregated academe 2. George Perkins Marsh, Man and Nature; or, 18. Donald Worster, The Wealth of Nature: Physical Geography as Modified by Human Environmental History and the Ecological from active life. He wanted “the world of Action [1864], ed. David Lowenthal the mind, like the world of politics,” to Imagination (New York: Oxford University 40 (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1993), 170. become “a democratic republic.” Press, 1965), 3, 189. Subsequent references Populist breadth was a frontier 19. Man and Nature, 111–12, 463–64. and paginations to Man and Nature are to 20. Ibid., 464–65. Emily W. B. Russell, American trait. Early American needs this edition unless otherwise specified. “Discovery of the Subtle,” in Humans as made “every man a dabbler in every 3. Marsh to Harriet Preston, April 12, 1882, Components of Ecosystems, ed. Mark J. knowledge,” omnicompetent in all and to William Tecumseh Sherman, Feb. 27, 41 McDonnell and Stewart T. A. Pickett, eds., realms. “The American scholar [was] 1872, both in Marsh Papers, University of Humans as Components of Ecosystems: The not a recluse devoted to literary research, Vermont (hereafter cited as UVM). Ecology of Subtle Human Effects and but one who lives and acts in the busy 4. Raymond Williams, Keywords: A Vocabulary Population Areas (New York: Springer whirl of the great world, shares the anxiet- of Culture and Society (London: Fontana, Verlag, 1993), 81–90 at 81, 85, classes ies and the hazards of commerce, the toils 1976), 184–89. Marsh’s unknowns into (1) obvious activi- and the rivalries of the learned professions, 5. Marsh to Secretary of State William H. ties with subtle effects (fossil fuels and pol- or the fierce strife of contending political Seward, July 7, 1864, U.S. Dept. of State, lution), (2) subtle activities with obvious

62 Forest History Today | s p r i n g /f a l l 2001 effects (DDT and raptor numbers), (3) sub- 33. Even public ownership, Marsh feared, Yorker, Oct. 20–27, 1997, pp. 210–18; Stewart tle activities with subtle effects (green- might not save American forests. “The Brand, The Clock of the Long Now: Time and house gases and global climate change). Federal government . . . proved itself Responsibility (London: Weidenfeld & 21. George Perkins Marsh, The Earth as unable to protect the live-oak woods of Nicolson, 1999); Andrew Blowers, “Nuclear Modified by Human Action, a Last Revision of Florida, and it more than once paid con- Waste and Landscapes of Risk,” Landscape Man and Nature (New York, 1884), 616–17n. tractors a high price for timber stolen Research 24 (1999): 241–61; Paul R. Portney Marsh here enlarges on Charles Babbage’s from its own forests” (Man and Nature, and John P. Weyant, Discounting and Ninth Bridgewater Treatise (2d ed., London, 202n138). Intergenerational Equity (Washington, D.C: 1838). See also George Perkins Marsh, 34. George Perkins Marsh, Irrigation: Its Evils, Resources for the Future, 1999). “The Study of Nature,” Christian Examiner the Remedies and the Compensations, 43 Cong., 39. Marsh to Charles Eliot Norton, October 17, 68 (1860): 41. 1 sess., Sen. Misc. Doc. 55 (Feb. 10, 1874), 1863, UVM. 22. Wilbur R. Jacobs, “The Great Despoliation: 15–17, 19. John Wesley Powell’s Report on the 40. George Perkins Marsh, “Physical Science in Environmental Themes in American Lands of the Arid Region of the United States Italy,” The Nation 7 (1868): 420. Frontier History,” Pacific Historical Review 47 (Washington, D.C., 1878), echoed Marsh’s 41. George Perkins Marsh, Lectures on the (1978): 1–26 at 15. warnings and met similar resistance from English Language. First Series (New York, 23. Man and Nature, 41, 37, 24n22, 235n180, 42. land promoters (Donald Worster, A River 1861), 15–16. 24. Ibid., 42–43. Running West: the Life of John Wesley Powell 42. Marsh, Human Knowledge, 4. 25. Ibid., 15. (New York: Oxford University Press, 2001), 43. William Morris Davis, “Biographical 26. Samuel P. Hays, Explorations in Environmental 354–60. Memoir of George Perkins Marsh 1801– History (Pittsburgh, University of Pittsburgh 35. Wilfred Beckerman, “Warming to Global 1882,” National Academy of Sciences, Press, 1998), 44–45, 150–52, 176, 381–83. Change,” The Times [London], Dec. 11, Biographical Memoirs 6 (1909): 71–80. 27. Barry Schwartz, Abraham Lincoln and the 1997; see also his Small Is Stupid (London: 44. Brian Wynne, “May the Sheep Safely Graze? Forge of National Memory (Chicago: Duckworth, 1995). A Reflexive View of the Expert-Lay University of Chicago Press, 2000), 306–9. 36. Emile Durkheim, The Elementary Forms of Knowledge Divide”, in Risk, Environment and 28. Man and Nature, 36, 13. Religious Life [1912], transl. Karen E. Fields Modernity: Towards a New Ecology, ed. Scott 29. Ibid., 277. (New York: Free Press, 1995), 213–14, 351– Lash et al. (London: Sage, 1996), 44–83; Rolf 30. Ibid., 280n250. 52, 372, 379. Lidskog, “Scientific Evidence or Lay 31. Ibid., 259. Marsh first broached this topic 37. Quoted in Cynthia S. Jordan, “`Old words’ People’s Experience? On Risk and Trust in his Address delivered before the Agricultural in New Circumstances: Language and with Regard to Modern Environmental Society of Rutland County, Sept. 30, 1847 Readership in Post-Revolutionary America,” Threat,” in Risk in the Modern Age, ed. (Rutland, Vermont, 1848), 17–19. American Quarterly 40 (1988): 491–513 at 501. Maurie J. Cohen (London: Macmillan, 32. Man and Nature, 51–52n53, 201–2. 38. David Remnick, “Future Perfect,” New 2000), 196–224.

Conservation Diaries of Gifford Pinchot, edited by Harold K. Steen

From 1889, when he was 24, until 1946, the year of his death, conservationist Gifford Pinchot kept a diary in which he recorded details of his daily activities and encoun- ters. What Pinchot and others were able to accomplish was quite extraordinary, and his diaries offer a unique window into the conservation movement as it evolved.

Diary entries are organized into topical sections, with a narrative introduction by the editor that offers important context and background for each section. Thus readers will be familiar with the individuals described and can fully appreciate the historical significance of entries on topics including Forest Service policies, Pinchot’s dispute with Secretary of the Interior Richard Ballinger, his relationship with President Teddy Roosevelt and his leadership of the National Conservation Association.

Hardback copies are $29.00 and softcover $19.00 plus $4.00 shipping and handling

The Conservation Diaries of Gifford Pinchot FHS members do not pay S&H. Send checks made payable to the Forest History Edited by Harold K. Steen Society, 701 Vickers Ave., Durham, NC 27701. Call 919/682-9319 for credit card 250 pages, illustrations, index orders and for discounts on ten or more copies. Also available from IslandPress at published 2001 www.islandpress.org.

Forest History Today | s p r i n g /f a l l 2001 63 Biographical Portrait Patrick Matthew— Forest Geneticist

(1790–1874)

by John E. Barker

uring the 1600s and 1700s, degraded As Nature, in all her modifications of Dforests around many European life, has a power of increase far beyond towns had led to localized wood shortages what is needed……those individuals and development of widespread concern who possess not the requisite strength, regarding the poor forest conditions. swiftness, hardihood, or cunning, fall Strong pressure arose for the development prematurely without reproducing ... of ways in which to improve management of such forests. This led to the develop- The same principle was put forth by Darwin ment during the 1700s and 1800s of what and Wallace twenty-seven years later. is today, the science of forestry. While for- W. J. Dempster has published an inter- estry had its roots in the practical skills of esting book which gives us insight into the earlier forest artisans, something more some of the details of Matthew’s life and was required. Foresters of the day were character.3 Patrick Matthew was born in characteristically empiricists who based 1790 in Scotland near Dundee. His parents their activities on recipe-like forest prac- were relatively well-to-do farmers and as a tices. A different approach was taken by result, he was able to obtain a good educa- the cameralists who attempted to general- tion, apparently attending Edinburgh ize practices based on scientific analysis. It University although he did not receive a was a period of lively debate between ....the knowledge of the art and the degree. Instead he returned to the family these two groups as foresters everywhere power of communicating that knowl- estate at Gourdie Hill in 1807 to manage took up the challenge of improving forest edge, are of so different a character ...... the large family apple and pear orchards management. that those write who cannot act and where he no doubt, became aware of the Much of the credit for developing a sci- those who can are incompetent to influence of heredity and variation during entific basis for forestry is attributed to early write.—a sentiment directly attribut- his cross breeding and selection activities German foresters of that period such as able to Heinrich Cotta.2 there. von Zanthier, Pfeil, Cotta, Hartig. There Matthew had difficulty in reconciling were many others whose contributions Matthew also pointed out the deleterious the Linnaean concept of immutable species were significant and received recognition. effects of dysgenic selection (high-grading) with his observation that species differences In one case, however, a truly remarkable on the inherent quality of the forests. He are often difficult to define or as he stated contribution was made which has gone vir- outlined, very clearly, the principles of “which certainly under culture, soften into tually unnoticed. natural selection and further, applied this one another.” This observation led him to Patrick Matthew, a Scottish forester theory to practices influencing the genetic speculate on the origin of species. By inter- from Errol, on the Firth of Tay, published qualities of forests. Interestingly, his book preting the geological record as giving evi- a book, Naval Timber and Arboriculture,1 in was published eleven months before dence for environmental changes, and by 1831, presenting his views on a range of Darwin sailed on the Beagle. applying his direct observations that species forestry practices of the day. His book, in The most interesting and unique parts of under domestication could change under general, was a summary of the forestry the book dealt with what Matthew called: artificial selection, Matthew stated: practices of the early 1800s, practices which Matthew found to be ‘imperfect ... a law universal in Nature, tending to Is the inference then unphilosophic, that and inaccurate”. His view of why this render every reproductive being as the living things which are proved to have a was so was, in his words, best possibly suited to its condition ..... circumstance-suiting power—a very

64 Forest History Today | s p r i n g /f a l l 2001 slight change of circumstance by culture With regard to one of these papers on selected as reproductive stock, from the inducing a corresponding change of what is termed Darwin’s Theory of ease and convenience with which their character—may have gradually accom- Natural Selection, but which theory was seed could be procured; ... May we, modated themselves to the variations of published by me about 30 years before then, wonder that our plantations are the elements surrounding them … The Darwin (honourably acknowledged in occupied by a sickly short-lived puny progeny of the same parents, under great his last edition by Darwin) at a time race, incapable of supporting existence difference of circumstance, might in sev- when man was scarcely ready for such in situations where their own kind had eral generations, even become distinct thoughts, surely I had the best right to be formerly flourished ... species, incapable of co-reproduction. heard on this subject. Yet others were allowed to speak upon it, and its parent He even went so far as to suggest that His book was received with quite mixed denied to do so.9 some form of seed certification might be feelings judging from the published reviews. desirable by advocating: One of these disclaimed any participation For whatever reasons, the scientific estab- in his laws of nature4, another dismissed lishment of the period ignored Matthew’s That nurserymen should attest the them as pert nonsense5, while a third contribution. variety of their timber plants, sowing received them as original contributions.6 It is curious that Matthew did not pur- no seeds but those gathered from the Perhaps the most accurate indication of the sue his ideas on natural selection further. largest, most healthy, and luxuriant book’s reception is found in one of After publishing Naval Timbers & Arbori­ growing trees.... Matthew’s letters.7 He mentions a univer- culture, he apparently lost interest in the sity professor who said that if he were to topic. Perhaps it was because of the intel- Matthew was a forester who both wrote bring such ideas before his class he would lectual climate of the time but he believed and practiced, in accordance with the Cotta be likely to be placed in the pillory. that no direct proof was possible in one dictum, but his ideas have not been widely His work generally appears to have had man’s lifetime and was content to accept recognized or acknowledged. It is perhaps little impact within the scientific commu- his theory as an axiom10 from which timely to restate the values of his contribu- nity of the day. When Darwin and Wallace proper forestry procedures could be tion to forestry and science in general. ■ proposed their ideas on the origin of spe- derived, rather than emphasize it’s evolu- cies in 1858, Matthew claimed priority for tionary aspects. In the years following the idea.8 Darwin freely acknowledged this 1831, he moved on to other interests and John Barker is F.R.B.C. Chair in Silviculture claim (I freely acknowledge that Mr. Matthew in 1839, published a second book, at the University of British Columbia, has anticipated by many years the explanation Emigration Fields,11 which emphasized the Vancouver, B.C. which I have offered of the origin of species...) benefits of emigration to countries similar but denied any prior knowledge of the to Great Britain (particularly New Notes book either by him or by any other natural- Zealand) as a means of spreading British ist with whom he was acquainted. This influence around the globe. 1. Matthew, Patrick. 1831. On Naval Timber and may have been because much of the mate- Matthew used his ideas to formulate a Arboriculture—with critical notes on authors rial was presented in an appendix of number of recommendations for who have recently treated the subject of planting. Matthew’s book or because the title Naval improvement of silvicultural practices. Edinburgh : Adam Black. 391 pps. 2. Forest History Today, Fall 2000. Forest History Timbers held little attraction for a naturalist He espoused principles that are still valid Society. p.27–28. and he had simply not bothered to read it. and form a central theme in the forest 3. Dempster, W.J. 1983. Patrick Matthew and In addition to the evolutionary aspects genetics and silviculture we practice Natural Selection. Paul Harris Publishing, of his ideas, Matthew had extended his today. The poorness of the practices of Edinburgh.156 pps. arguments on natural selection to include his time may have been recognized ear- 4. United Services Journal, No. 33, August, 1831, what might be called a “social survival of lier by others but his arguments against p.457 the fittest” and violently attacked the laws such practices, a direct out-growth of his 5. Quarterly Review, Vol. 49, 1833, p.126 of entail and hereditary nobility, arguing precocious Darwinian concepts, were 6. Louden’s Gardener’s Magazine, Vol 8, 1832, that the laws of inheritance were stran- certainly original. The following quote p.702 gling the abilities of highly capable people illustrates this point. 7. The Gardener’s Chronicle and Agricultural who happened to be in the wrong social Gazette, April 21, 1860, p.368 class. Since most influential naturalists of ... man is influential in preventing 8. The Gardener’s Chronicle and Agricultural the period were likely members of the deterioration, by careful selection of Gazette, April 7, 1860, p. 312 social class that he was attacking, such the largest or most valuable as breeders; 9. Dempster, W.J. 1983. Patrick Matthew and Natural Selection. Paul Harris Publishing, content would hardly have encouraged but in timber trees the opposite course Edinburgh. p 125. support for his ideas. In a letter written in has been pursued. The large growing 10. The Gardener’s Chronicle and Agricultural 1867, Matthew complained about being varieties being so long of coming to Gazette, April 7, 1860, p. 433. actively excluded from discussions on produce seed, that many plantations 11. Matthew, Patrick, 1839. Emigration fields,N orth natural selection by the British Association are cut down before they reach this America, the Cape, Australia, and New Zealand : for the Advancement of Science. On rejec- maturity, the small growing and weak- describing these countries, and giving a comparative tion of a paper offered to a meeting of the ly varieties, known by early and view of the advantages they present to British set- Association, he wrote: extreme seeding, have been continually tlers. Edinburgh : Printed by Neill & Co.

Forest History Today | s p r i n g /f a l l 2001 65 History On The Road Marsh-Billings-Rockefeller National Historical Park and the Conservation Study Institute

Marsh-Billings- Rockefeller National Historical Park (MBRNHP) nestled in the rolling hills and pas- tures of eastern Vermont, is the only national park to tell the story of conservation history and evolving nature of land stew- ardship in America. In 1864, Woodstock born George Perkins Marsh wrote the book Man and Nature, one of the seminal texts of environmental thinking. Strongly influ- enced by Man and Nature, Frederick Billings

began reforesting the slopes of Woodstock’s MBRNHP photo Mt. Tom in 1874, creating one of the earli- Rolf Diamant, Superintendent of the MBRNHP and Nora Mitchell, Director, Conservation est planned and scientifically managed for- Study Institute outside the old carriage house which now houses an educational display, ests in the United States. offices and meeting room. The park was established in 1992, when Frederick Billings’ granddaughter, Mary gence of a national conservation ethic. ship with the Woodstock Foundation, man- French Rockefeller, and her husband, con- National Park Service Director James ages the 550-acre forest as a cultural servationist Laurance S. Rockefeller, con- Ridenour promised that the Park would landscape and as a living exhibit illustrating veyed their estate’s residential and forest continue the tradition of sustainable forest more than a century of forest stewardship lands to the people of the United States. stewardship and conservation practiced by in America, from the earliest scientific silvi- The Park, working in partnership with the the Billings and Rockefeller families cultural practices borrowed from 19th Billings Farm & Museum, chronicles three throughout the 20th century. Century Europe to the best contemporary generations of stewardship and the emer- The National Park Service, in partner- practices of sustainable forest management and value-added conservation. The National Historical Park is currently explor- ing the feasibility of third party forest man- agement certification, to demonstrate and interpret certification as a new chapter in its legacy of forest stewardship. The Conservation Study Institute, estab- lished by the National Park Service at MBRNHP, concurrent with the opening of the Park in 1998, contributes to leadership in the field of conservation. The Institute creates opportunities for dialogue, inquiry, and lifelong learning to enhance the stew- ardship of landscapes and communities. In a broad collaboration between the National Park Service, academic and non-profit part- ners, the Institute provides a national and

MBRNHP photo international forum to discuss conservation Aerial view of Marsh-Billings-Rockefeller National Historical Park (foreground) in history, contemporary issues and practice, Woodstock,Vermont. and future directions. ■

66 Forest History Today | s p r i n g /f a l l 2001 Books of Interest

By Michele A. Justice

Turning Trees into Dollars: The British the medical community, and the general Columbia Coastal Lumber Industry, 1858- public. Acts of God and Decade of Disaster 1913 (Toronto, Ont.: University of Toronto are complementary books that empha- Press, 2000; cloth $65.00, paper $22.95). size the role played by humans in the With chapters on local lumber markets, history of so-called “natural” disasters. logging and sawmill companies, govern- ment regulation of the industry, industri- alization, and the structure and content of the industry’s workforce, Turning Trees into Dollars focuses on the economic develop- ment of the industry, its importance to the economy of coastal British Columbia, and the influence of capitalism on logging practices in the region.

Two books published in 2000 analyze the historical circumstances surrounding disasters, providing insight into the myr- iad causes and consequences of such events. Author Ted Steinberg examines natural disasters that have occurred in Forever Green: The History and Hope of the the United States since the late nine- American Forest (Atlanta, Ga.: Longstreet teenth century in his book Acts of God: Press, 2001; cloth $22.00) is a wide-ranging The Unnatural History of Natural commentary on forests and forestry in the Disaster in America (New York: Oxford United States written by Chuck Leavell, University Press, 2000; cloth $27.50). owner of a tree farm near Macon, Steinberg argues that the decisions of Georgia, known as Charlane Plantation. Lumbering has long been an important business leaders, planners, and policy- Leavell’s primary career is that of a musi- economic activity in British Columbia and makers over the past one hundred twen- cian—he’s a pianist who has worked with there are two new books that illustrate the ty years have exacerbated the impacts of such well-known rock music bands as the relevance of the industry to communities earthquakes, fires, floods, hurricanes, Allman Brothers Band and the Rolling in the region. The brief history of Comox and tornadoes on American society, Stones—but his diligent work on his tree Logging Company, one of the largest log- especially on persons with a low eco- farm has earned him a reputation as a ging companies along the coast of British nomic status. In her book Decade of positive voice for the American tree farm Columbia during the early 20th century, is Disaster (Urbana: University of Illinois industry and has resulted in numerous the focus of Richard Somerset Mackie’s Press, 2000; cloth $42.50, paper $15.95), awards and citations, including twice book Island Timber: A Social History of the author Ann Larabee examines societal being named Georgia Tree Farmer of Comox Logging Company, Vancouver Island responses to health hazards and environ- the Year. Forever Green includes brief (Victoria, B.C.: Sono Nis Press, 2000; paper mental degradation caused by five disas- chapters on U.S. forest history, the $39.95). Numerous historical photographs, ters that occurred during the 1980s: the many uses of trees, forest types, the ori- descriptive text, and loggers’ personal rem- nuclear meltdown in Chernobyl, Russia; gins of forest conservation, forest man- iniscences combine in this engaging work the release of toxic chemicals at a Union agement, urban forestry, and forest to relate the story of the concern’s rise to Carbine plant in Bhopal, India, the certification. The text is supplemented prominence at the turn of the century, its Exxon Valdez oil spill off the coast of with an appendix, a list of recommended evolving significance to the livelihood of Alaska; the explosion of the Challenger readings, and historic photographs—some Vancouver Island communities, and its space shuttle; and the HIV/AIDS pan- of which Leavell obtained from the Forest destruction during the Great Fire of 1938. demic. Larabee delves into the resulting History Society. Forever Green ultimately Gordon Hak examines the economic his- debates between disaster victims, gov- promotes a common-sense approach to tory of the timber industry in coastal ernment officials, corporations, academ- forestry and encourages public support British Columbia, Canada, in his book ics, public interest groups, the media, for forest conservation.

Forest History Today | s p r i n g /f a l l 2001 67 ization of traditional natural resource uti- research that piques one’s interest in a field lization practices in Adirondack, seldom studied. Yellowstone, and Grand Canyon national parks on local communities during the late In the autobiographical work Crackers in 19th and 20th centuries. Jacoby states that the Glade: Life and Times in the Old contrary to the popular belief that there Everglades (Athens: University of Georgia was a unified conservation movement in Press, 2000; cloth $29.95), author Rob the United States without any organized Storter reminisces about his travels and opposition, many members of rural societ- experiences as a fisherman and a guide in ies in these newly established park regions the Florida Everglades throughout the continued their traditional fishing, hunting, twentieth century. Born and raised in trapping, and timber removal practices Everglade, Florida, Storter (1894-1987) well after government regulation of natu- spent his entire life exploring this wetland ral resources on the public lands made such region in southwestern Florida. In this John T. Appleyard’s recently published book activities illegal. Examining the conse- book, editor Betty Savidge Briggs has com- The W. T. Smith Lumber Co.: A Chronicle quences of national conservation policy piled a comprehensive collection of (Pensacola, Florida: Appleyard Agency, and the resulting conflicts that arose within Storter’s stories and anecdotes describing 2000; 850-494-2194; cloth $35.00, paper rural communities, this work offers a fresh such varied topics as the flora and fauna $28.00) provides a detailed description of insight into the significance of class, eco- native to Florida’s swamplands; subsis- the history of the W. T. Smith Lumber nomic status, gender, and race to the his- tence fishing; commercialization of the Company since its founding in Chapman, tory of the American conservation fishing industry; and the impacts of devel- Alabama, in 1891. Although originally orga- movement. opment and tourism on local communi- nized by different owners, J. Greeley ties and the environment. Peppered with McGowin and several associates purchased pictures drawn by Storter himself, Crackers the company in 1905, and the McGowin in the Glade reveals the author’s first-hand family ran the enterprise throughout the knowledge of the region’s history and twentieth century until they sold it to Union serves as a unique homage to life in the Camp Corporation in 1966. This book con- Everglades during the pioneer days of the tains chapters on such subjects as logging early and mid-twentieth century. methods, sawmilling operations, lumber sales, timberland ownership, forest policies, labor relations, the company’s role in the development of the local community, and the lives and activities of company owners, officers, and directors. Photographs and illustrations supplement the text. Persons interested in the history of lumbering in the J. Mallea-Olaetxe analyzes a unique form of southern United States or the role played by material culture in his new book Speaking the McGowin family in that history should through the Aspens: Basque Tree Carvings in enjoy reading this new publication. California and Nevada (Reno: University of Nevada Press, 2000; cloth $39.95). The author’s research compares the content and structure of thousands of arborglyphs left by Basque sheepherders on aspen trees in the mountains of California and Nevada William Linnard examines the history and primarily during the 1920s and 1930s. Such utilization of woodlands in the country of tree carving artifacts reveal a wealth of Wales from the Ice Age through the late information about the lives of the Basque 20th century in his book Welsh Woods and in the American West, including data on Forests: A History (Ceredigion, Wales: the structure of their language, their politi- Gomer Press, 2000; cloth £19.95). cal beliefs, their attitudes toward sexuality, Originally published in 1982, this updated and their cultural traditions. Mallea- edition includes additional historical mate- Olaetxe’s detailed study includes numerous rial, numerous illustrations, and new chap- photographs and illustrations as well as sev- ters describing famous trees of Wales and Crimes Against Nature: Squatters, Poachers, eral appendices that provide biographical developments in Welsh forestry not cov- Thieves, and the Hidden History of American data about Basque sheepherders in the ered in the original version. Touching on Conservation (Berkeley: University of region. This examination of twentieth- the subjects of wood utilization, the use California Press, 2001; cloth $39.95) by Karl century Basque cultural history in the west- of forests as hunting grounds, the develop- Jacoby studies the impact of the criminal- ern United States is a work of arborglyph ment of forest-based industries, organized

68 Forest History Today | s p r i n g /f a l l 2001 tree planting, nurseries, forest manage- during the environmental era of the late James Le Monds documents the central ment on public and private lands, big and twentieth century. This government role of logging in the author’s family his- famous trees, and the establishment of a report contains numerous photographs tory since the early 20th century. Through Forestry Commission, Welsh Woods and and illustrations and includes sections stories about his grandfathers, father, Forests provides a broad historical overview describing the various agendas of all for- uncles, and cousins, James LeMonds of the importance of forests and forestry mer Forest Service chiefs from Gifford describes changes in the logging industry to Welsh society since prehistoric times. Pinchot to Mike Dombeck. Persons inter- of southwestern Washington State over ested in a more anecdotal history of the the course of the century, focusing espe- Making Waves: The Origins and Future of U.S. Forest Service might enjoy perusing cially on Weyerhaeuser Company’s influ- Greenpeace (New York: Black Rose Books, What Did We Get Ourselves Into? Stories ence on the development of the 2001; paper $19.99) is the recently pub- by Forest Service Wives (Missoula, Mont.: industry. lished memoir of Jim Bohlen (b. 1926), a Northern Rocky Mountain Retirees research scientist and one of the founders Association, Inc., in association with Dennis Richardson presents a collection of the environmental organization Stoneydale Press Publishing Company, of seventy-two writings compiled from Greenpeace. Although an American by 2000). In this work, wives of former U.S. his long career as a forester, professor, birth, in the late 1960s Bohlen moved his Forest Service employees reminisce about and director of the New Zealand Forest family to Vancouver, Canada, where he their everyday lives, describing their feel- Research Institute in his book Forestry, and his wife continued the anti-war and ings of isolation, adventurous experi- People and Places: Essays and Presents environmental activism they had engaged ences, relationships with their husbands, upon Various Occasions Written for the in for years in the United States. Along and impressions of the various landscapes Entertainment of the Author and Printed with Paul Cote (b. 1948) and Irving Stowe in which they lived. for the Amusement of his Grandchildren (1915–1974), Bohlen founded in 1971 the and a Few Friends Prejudiced in his Favor organization that is known today as (Rotorua, New Zealand: Business Media Greenpeace. Although this work is a per- Services Limited, 2000). The publication sonal account of the history of the orga- is divided into three sections containing nization to the present day, Making Waves general essays, scholarly articles pub- includes discussion of such topics as the lished in professional journals, and identity and motivations of Greenpeace addresses presented on sometimes con- members, the development of campaign troversial topics related to forestry. methods used by the group, and the evo- Although focusing primarily on New lution of the organization’s administrative Zealand, Richardson also relates his structure and function. observations about forestry issues impor- tant to China and other nations through- out the Pacific Basin. The range of topics discussed includes forest management, Sharp Eyes: John Burroughs and American agroforestry, forest economics, plantation Nature Writing (Syracuse, N.Y.: Syracuse forestry, non-wood forest products, for- University Press, 2000; paper $24.95) is a estry education, forestry research, forest recently published biographical work con- products research, and forest policy. taining essays written by numerous Photographs, charts, and an index supple- authors exploring the life and work of ment Richardson’s lively text, which rep- American naturalist and nature writer resents a unique view of New Zealand John Burroughs (1837-1921). Editor forest history. Charlotte Zoë Walker has included writ- ings on such topics as the author’s life Planning a Wilderness: Regenerating the experiences, the development of his liter- Great Lakes Cutover Region (Minneapolis: Forest Service historian Gerald Williams ary voice, and the influence of contempo- University of Minnesota Press, 2001; cloth is the author of The USDA Forest Service— raries Walt Whitman, Henry David $29.95) by journalist James Kates chroni- The First Century (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Thoreau, Ralph Waldo Emerson, and cles the efforts of writers and editors to Forest Service, 2000; report FS-650), John Muir on his observations of natural promote reforestation and land use plan- which provides a general overview of the history and his philosophy of nature. A ning in northern Michigan, Minnesota, history of this U.S. government agency critical examination of John Burroughs and Wisconsin after the logging boom of since its establishment in 1905. The book revealing the importance of his work in the late nineteenth century denuded the covers such topics as the role of forestry modern American literature, this book land. Drawn from his 1997 dissertation in the American conservation movement should appeal to nature writers, literary “Making a Middle Landscape: Writers, beginning in the late nineteenth century; scholars, and lay people alike. Editors, and the Re-imagining of the the administrative development of the Northern Forest, 1919–1933”, the book agency; the evolution of the agency’s for- Deadfall: Generations of Logging in the focuses on the use of frontier individual- est management policy; and the political Pacific Northwest (Missoula, Mont.: ism mythology by popular novelists, mag- challenges faced by the Forest Service Mountain Press, 2001; paper $14.00) by azine journalists, and academics to

Forest History Today | s p r i n g /f a l l 2001 69 influence public opinion in favor of cen- the Forest History Society’s Issues Series during the late 1930s and early 1940s. tralized reforestation projects and multiple booklet titled America’s Fires: Management From 1947 to 1962 Wright served as chief use forest policies during the years on Wildlands and Forests (Durham, N.C.: forester of Canadian Forest Products Ltd. between World War I and the mid-1930s. Forest History Society, 1997). (Canfor), where he focused his efforts on Planning measures promoted and ulti- old-growth forestry research and indus- mately enacted in this era included rural Readers interested in novels that depict life trial forestry. Wright assumed the position zoning, game management, and fire pro- and work in the Canadian lumber industry of Dean of the Faculty of Forestry at the tection. Kates argues that such manage- should appreciate Bill Endert’s book The University of British Columbia in 1962, ment efforts ironically led to increased Timbercruisers (Sechelt, B.C.: Capricorn but returned to Canfor in 1964 to take over government control of land use and the Book Publishing, 2000; paper $9.95 plus as general manager of Coast Logging and implementation of development projects $3.95 shipping). Although a fictional work Forestry, a position he held until 1972. that favored large-scale, sustained eco- about Ed van Zeeland’s life in the Canadian nomic production rather than projects woods, The Timbercruisers nevertheless Old Trees: The Illustrated History of that supported the traditional subsistence incorporates many of Endert’s own per- Logging the Virgin Timber in the lifestyle of the pioneering yeoman farmer. sonal experiences as a Dutch immigrant Southeastern U.S. (Crawfordville, Fla.: SP In 1996 the Forest History Society awarded and timber cruiser working in the forests Publishing, 2000; paper $20.00; 850-421- Kates an Alfred D. Bell Travel Grant in of British Columbia, Canada, beginning in 7420) by Pete Gerrell surveys the history support of his dissertation research. 1960. In two hundred twenty-two pages of the logging and sawmill industries in Endert employs a realistic storyline to the southeastern United States. Discusses faithfully recreate the lifestyle he experi- such topics as the use of the two-man pit enced and remembers fondly. saw, large steam-operated logging equip- ment, and sawmills that operated in the region. Early U.S. Forest Service statistics, photographs, drawings, advertisements, jokes, and personal stories help round out this work. Gerrell is a sixth-generation native of Wakulla County, Florida, where his family lived in the pine flatwoods asso- ciated with the naval stores and timber industries.

Canadian forester Ken A. Armson draws Stephen Pyne’s latest study of wildland on his more than fifty years’ experience as fire history focuses on the devastating fires a forester, researcher, and professor of for- that swept through much of the United estry to reflect upon the unique features States, and especially Idaho and Montana, John Parminter—fire ecologist, forest and characteristics of forest regions during the summer of 1910. Year of the researcher, and founding member of the throughout the province of Ontario, Fires: The Story of the Great Fires of 1910 Forest History Association of British Canada, in his new book Ontario Forests: (New York: Viking, 2001; cloth $25.95) Columbia—has written a short biography A Historical Perspective (Toronto, Ont.: examines the natural and human-induced of Thomas George Wright (b. 1916), argu- Fitzhenry & Whiteside and the Ontario causes of the fires; the heroic and often ably the first industrial forester in British Forestry Association, 2001; paper $32.95 futile efforts of forest rangers, soldiers, and Columbia, Canada. Based on writings by CDN). Providing a general historical over- civilians to fight the conflagrations; and Wright, articles about Wright, and inter- view of Ontario’s forests from before the resulting national fire policy debate views with friends and colleagues, Tom European settlement in the seventeenth that still resounds today. Year of the Fires Wright: Recollections of a Pioneer Forester century to the present time, Armson dis- includes an in-depth look at the experi- and Tree Farmer (Victoria, B.C.: Forest cusses a broad range of topics, including ences of forest ranger Ed Pulaski’s fire- History Association of British Columbia glaciation, climate change, soil structures, fighting crew on 20–21 August 1910 in in cooperation with Trafford Publishing, tree species, vegetation change, aboriginal northern Idaho, where Pulaski directed 2000; paper $15.00 CDN) chronicles the land use, European settlement and land the group to take refuge from a blow-up life of this American-born forester who use, the origins and development of the in a mine shaft, thereby saving the lives of began his forestry career in the U.S. newsprint and lumber industries, and for- all but five of his crew. Historic photo- Civilian Conservation Corps. Wright was est conservation. The work is available graphs, notes, a bibliographic note, and an a lecturer in forest economics at the only in paperback and includes notes, a index supplement the text. Pyne, recog- University of British Columbia and a con- selected bibliography, a glossary, an index, nized by many as the foremost authority sulting forester with the forest products and numerous charts, tables, maps, and on wildland fire history, is the author of company Bloedel, Stewart & Welch, Ltd., photographs, both modern and historic.

70 Forest History Today | s p r i n g /f a l l 2001 Awards and Fellowships

orest History Society awards and fel- by the Southwest Forest Fighter Program 2001 Weyerhaeuser Book Award recipients Flowships are fully supported by and Mescalero Apache “Redhats” in are John R. McNeill, for his book endowment.­ The awards program enables 1948. Other crews followed—Arapaho, Something New Under the Sun: An the Society to recognize research and writ- Hopi, Jemez Pueblo, Navajo, Shoshoni, and Environmental History of the Twentieth- ing in forest and conservation history and Zuni. The story answers significant ques- Century World (New York: W.W. Norton, stimulate further research into our under- tions of identity and purpose. It shows how 2000) and Mark Feige for his Irrigated Eden: standing of the relationships between and why these men came to this seasonal The Making of an Agricultural Landscape in ­people and forests. High standards for work; how it connects to group identity, is the American West (Seattle: University of selection reflect equally upon the recipient an extension of warrior traditions, helps to Washington Press, 1999). and the Society. Following is a list of protect the community and serves as an In its sweeping coverage, global per- awards for 2001. important part of the reservation econo- spective, and clear and well-argued the- my. Fisher explores both the myth and real- sis—that the twentieth century witnessed ity of the Native American firefighters, and the most dramatic environmental changes Ralph W. Hidy Award argues that here is something rare, a Native in world history—McNeill’s Something The Ralph W. Hidy Award recognizes American-government partnership that New Under the Sun provides perspective, superior scholarship in the journal serves both equally. If a student of forest insight, and comprehensive treatment of Environmental History, published jointly by history were to read only one article on environmental history in recent times. the Forest History Society and the Native American firefighters it should be Comprehensive in scope, the author knits American Society for Environmental this one. This is Andrew Fisher’s second scientific, political, demographic, and cul- History. From the inception of the journal Blegen award, and he continues to set stan- tural themes into a coherent overview. in 1996 the Hidy Award has been given in dards of excellence for new scholarship. The book is not only important for its alternate years with the Leopold Award treatment of particular subjects such as air given by ASEH. This year, ASEH present- and water pollution, dams and water John M. Collier ed the Aldo Leopold Award to Chad development, energy and wetlands, and Journalism Award Montrie for his article “Expedient invasive species, it is also an essential text Environmentalism: Opposition to Coal The John M. Collier Journalism Award in the growing emergence of internation- Surface Mining in Appalachia and the recognizes the author of the best article al environmental history, which is arguably United Mine Workers of America, 1945– on forest and conservation history pub- now at the cutting edge of the field. 1977” 5 (Jan. 2000), pp. 75–98. Begin­ning lished in newspapers, trade press, or gen- Fiege, in Irrigated Eden, takes on an old in 2002 the Ralph Hidy Award and the eral circulation magazines. The 2001 topic in environmental history, irrigation, Aldo Leopold Award will be awarded Collier Award was awarded to Sherry and sees it with fresh eyes and keen insight. annually as the Leopold-Hidy award as a Devlin for her four-part series published He integrates the impact of changing modes collaborative effort of FHS and ASEH. August 20–22, 2000 in the Missoulian enti- of production, and the impact on social, eco- tled “The Big Burn of 1910.” Her exhaus- nomic, and political relationships, with the tively researched, carefully crafted stories more intangible world of ideology and myth Theodore C. Blegen Award revealed the huge, unstoppable fires to be in a most innovative manner. While the The Theodore C. Blegen Award recognizes a recurring, natural event, rather than a older histories viewed irrigation as part of the best article in a journal other than freak catastrophe or, as others alleged, the mankind’s obvious conquest of nature, Fiege Environmental History. The 2001 recipient result of recent mismanagement of sees the forces of nature enduring against of the Blegen Award is Andrew H. Fisher, national forests. Devlin’s “Big Burn” series human determination to subdue it. In his for his article “Working in the Indian stands out as a superb example of environ- careful look at this particular land and water- Way: The Southwest Forest Firefighter mental reporting. Her series led readers to scape in Idaho, Fiege offers a view of envi- Program and Native American Wage a more complete and sophisticated under- ronmental change that makes nature as large Labor,” published in Arizona History standing of Western forests and wildfire. of an agent in that change as human will. By (Summer 2000) 41(2): 121–148. With a clear placing nature so close to the forefront of his vision and graceful manner Andrew Fisher narrative, he challenges the traditional con- Charles A. Weyerhaeuser shows how Native Americans incorporated ception of humans conquering the desert Book Award firefighting for government agencies into with dams and canals and irrigation ditches. their own traditions, reshaping it to meet The Charles A. Weyerhaeuser Award for It is a book with wide applications, not sim- cultural and economic needs. Fisher guides best book in forest and conservation his- ply to the particular subject of reclamation, the reader through the theoretical con- tory is biennial, granted in odd number but to the broader understanding of how structs of academic discourse, over racial years. For the second time in the history much humans can and have altered the natu- stereotypes and down cultural trails blazed of the award there are dual winners. The ral world.

Forest History Today | s p r i n g /f a l l 2001 71 F.K. Weyerhaeuser Fellowship Ravi Rajan, Assistant Professor of on wilderness designation on national for- Environmental Studies at the University est lands in the Cascade Mountains from The F.K Weyerhaeuser Forest History of California, Santa Cruz, considered the the 1950s to the 1980s. He used the records Fellowship is awarded annually to a student at training of foresters and priorities in for- of the American Forest & Paper Associa­ the FHS university affiliate, Duke University, estry research in the U.S. from 1875 to tion, the Society of American Foresters, whose research is historical in nature and 1950. He is working on a book about the and the Western Timber Association as related to forestry, land-use, or the environ- origins and spread of tropical forestry well as oral histories, industry journals, ment. The 2001–2002 Fellow­ship was award- and wanted to compare his findings to and manuscripts. ed to Scott Bodien, a Masters student in the the pattern established in the U.S. Nicholas School of the Environment who will Jay Turner, Ph.D. student in history investigate and write the history of the Duke Roland “Rocky” Barker, environmental from Princeton worked on his disserta- University Forest. Focusing on both the his- writer for the Idaho Statesman in Boise, tion on the implementation of the 1964 tory of land-use practices over time and the ID, used oral histories, company files, and Wilderness Act by federal land manage- social interactions surrounding the forest, the government publications to add to his ment agencies. He found the Forest work has the potential to contribute signifi- store of information on the Central Idaho Service History collection most useful as cantly to the body of knowledge in forest and Primitive Area. well as several archival collections such as conservation history. It will particularly reso- American Forests, American Forest & nate with the larger Duke Community while Jose Padua, Professor at the Rural Paper Associa­tion, and Society of dealing substantively with the history of University of Rio de Janeiro investigated American Foresters. research on the forest, making it a valuable the FHS collections related to Brazil. He resource for other university forest manage- also discussed opportunities to contribute Don Simmons, Assistant Director of the ment programs. citations regarding South America to the Mississippi Humanities Council, is work- FHS annotated bibliographic database. ing on a history of labor issues including unionization in the Southern pulpwood Alfred D. Bell, Jr. Travel Grants Kevin Marsh, doctoral candidate in his- industry. He examined the records of the Alfred D. Bell, Jr., travel grants enable tory at Washington State University, exam- American Pulpwood Association and researchers to use the FHS library and ined the perspectives of professional other organizations and individuals archives. Bell Fellows for 2001 included: foresters and the forest products industry involved. ■

Forest History Society Issues Series American Forest Newsprint America’s Forests: Pharmacy Canadian Fires A History of Medicinal Supply Management Resiliency Plants in and American on Wildlands and American Demand and Forests Recovery Forests by Thomas R. by Stephen J. by Douglas by Steven Roach Pyne W. Foster MacCleery

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✂ Charge $______to my MasterCard VISA Please mail your check and this form to: Forest History Society ✆ ❑ Card Number ______701 Vickers Avenue Call for discounts Durham, NC 27701 on orders of ten Expiration Date ______or more. or call: (919) 682-9319 Signature ______

72 Forest History Today | s p r i n g /f a l l 2001 Mark Your Calendar

Environment, Resources, and Sustainability: Third National Natural Resource Extension Policy Issues with the 21st Century. Professionals Conference Athens, Georgia. February 15–16, 2002. This Anthropology Policy Naples, FL, USA. June 2–5, 2002. Theme: Revolutionizing or Conference is being convened to identify and prioritize policy Evolutionizing Extension Programming. Contact: Mandy issues about which anthropology has something to offer in the Padgett, University of Florida/IFAS, Gainesville, FL 32611; realm of environment, resources and Sustainability. Issues of phone (352) 392-5930; fax (352) 392-9734; email mrpadgett@ interest include environmental justice, genetically modified organ- mail.ifas.ufl.edu. isms, intellectual property rights, industrial agriculture and the environment, fisheries resources, conservation, consumption and 9TH International Symposium on Society and globalization, corporatization and consolidation of food systems, Resource Management and energy. The conference is limited to 100 participants. Contact: Bloomington Indiana University Campus. June 2–5, 2002. Kendall Thu; phone (815) 753-0479; email [email protected]. Theme: Choices and Consequences: Natural Resources and Societal Decision-Making. Email [email protected]; URL Fifth National Australian Forest History www.indiana.edu/~issrm/. Conference Hobart, Tasmania. February 18–20, 2002. Australian Forest Canadian Institute of Forestry—2002 Annual History Society. Contact: Dr John Dargavel, Department of General Meeting Forestry and Centre for Resource and Environmental Studies North Bay, Ontario. September 29–October 3, 2002. Theme: Department of Forestry (Bldg 048), The Australian National Forests Sustaining Communities/Communities Sustaining University, Canberra, ACT 0200; phone +61 2 6249 3565; fax +61 Forests. Contact: CIF, 606-151 Slater Street, Ottawa, Ontario, K1P 2 6249 3565; email [email protected]. 5H3 CANADA; phone (613) 234-2242; fax (613) 234-6181; email [email protected]. American Society for Environmental History Annual Meeting National Convention, Society of American Denver, Colorado. March 20–23, 2002. Theme: Producing and Foresters Consuming Natures. The conference seeks to explore the various Winston-Salem, North Carolina, USA. October 5–9, 2002. ways humans have historically drawn nature into their lives— Theme: Forests at Work. Contact: SAF, 5400 Grosvenor Lane, through working and imagining, devouring and debating, trans- Bethesda, MD 20814-2198 ; fax (301) 897-3690; email mur- forming and transporting it. Papers will explore the human history [email protected] or [email protected]; URL www.safnet. of nature as symbol as well as substance, in popular culture and org. For program information contact Fred Cubbage, NCSU, consumption as well as production and extraction.Contact: (919) 515-7789; email fred_ [email protected]. For arrange- Christopher Sellers, Dept. of History, SUNY at Stonybrook, ments information contact Steven Anderson; phone (919) Stonybrook, NY 11794; phone (631) 632-7514; email csellers@notes. 682-9319; email [email protected]. cc.sunysb.edu; URL www2.h-net.msu.edu/~environ. Society of Environmental Journalists 12th Industrializing Organisms: Plants, Animals National Conference and Technology Baltimore, Maryland. October 10–13, 2002. Contact: Beth New Brunswick, NJ. April 4–6, 2002. Sponsored by the Rutgers Parke, P.O. Box 27280, Philadelphia, PA 19118-0280; phone Center for Historical Analysis project—Industrial Environments: (215) 884-8174; fax (215) 884-8175; email [email protected]; URL Creativity and Consequences. Conference to focus on when, www.sej.org/confer. where, and how have industrializing humans sought to “improve” plants and animals in order to better integrate them into techno- Lewis and Clark: The Unheard Voices logical systems and what were the challenges and consequences State College, Pennsylvania. November 10–12, 2002. of such modifications. Contact: Philip Scranton and Susan Sponsored by Pennsylvania State University. The conference Schrepfer, Co-directors, Rutgers Center for Historical Analysis, 88 will explore the contexts, outcomes, and multiple meanings College Avenue, New Brunswick, NJ 08901; phone (215) 843-0440; of the Lewis and Clark expedition aimed at understanding email [email protected]. the expedition from the widest variety of disciplinary per- spectives—history, art history, political science, literature, Certified Forest Products International philosophy, anthropology, education, and science. Contact: Conference and Showcase Chris Dufour, Pennsylvania State University, 225, The Penn Atlanta, Georgia. April 25–27, 2002. Hosted by the Certified State Conference Center Hotel, University Park PA 16802- Forest Products Council. Contact: phone (503) 799-1839; 7005; phone (814) 863-5100; email [email protected]; email [email protected]; URL www. URL www.lewisandclark.outreach.psu.edu. cfpconference2001.org/.

Forest History Today | s p r i n g /f a l l 2001 73 Annual Report 2001

From the Chairman

William D. Baughman

y term as chairman of the Forest among other matters, adopted a propos- History Society has come to an al that represents real progress in building Mend so I guess it’s permissible if a realistic platform to increase participa- I take a few moments for reflection. A lot tion and support from our Canadian has happened during this period and much base. During the next year we hope to progress has been made. There is not see a Canadian Chapter of FHS estab- much of it that I can take credit for person- lished. Much appreciation and thanks are ally, but the organization should take a due to the members of the Committee measure of pride in what it has accom- on Canada for the thought, effort, and plished. In the following I have attempted time they put into developing the pro- to list just a few of the highlights. posal we adopted. The relationship between FHS and We should also take a measure of pride American Society for Environmental in the fact that we have been able to main- History (ASEH) has matured and we have established a very good tain and even grow slightly our membership over the last few collaborative relationship. Environmental History is considered years. Changes brought about by consolidation in the forest prod- the journal of record in the field. It is on solid financial footing ucts industry, as well as the general worldwide economic slow- and will continue its leadership position with consistent improve- down we are experiencing, make this noteworthy. There are very ments. Additionally, the joint meeting of the two organizations, few forestry related associations or societies that would be able to held in Durham this past spring, was an outstanding success. I make the same claim. hope it will be repeated on a frequent basis. Finally, we should be thankful for, and proud of, the manage- We have made great strides in improving the base financial ment and staff that run FHS on a day-to-day basis. We are a small, support for FHS. Recent fund-raising initiatives such as the Lynn but responsive and very effective organization and that’s due to Weyerhaeuser Day Endowment for Publications in Forest the quality and dedication of those individuals. Steve deserves a History and the John Huss Endowment in support of the lot of credit for creating the kind of working environment and Archives have both received generous support. Like so many atmosphere that has resulted in almost no personnel turnover. other organizations, we are moving forward with formalizing I thank the Board and members of Forest History Society for our fund-raising efforts so that we might expand our programs giving me the opportunity to chair our Society for the last two and services. Earlier this year, Penni Graham joined the FHS staff years; it has been a very rewarding experience. My plans are to as Vice President of Development. She is working with President, continue to be involved with Society affairs and to help the Steve Anderson, to identify funding needs and to develop a Society grow in areas where it has a strategic advantage. With framework for seeking support for those priorities. continued support the FHS will help us shape a future we’ll be The Society’s Board met in October, in Victoria, B.C. and proud to leave to the next generation.

74 Forest History Today | s p r i n g /f a l l 2001 Treasurer’s Report s any seasoned forester knows, the growth of a year for the Society, we ended the year with over Astand of timber, in any given year, cannot be easily $6,700,000 in marketable securities and $370,000 in predicted. There are many environmental and silvicul- cash and cash equivalents. We continue to believe that tural conditions that affect a timber stand’s total annual our current investment guidelines, that require approx- growth. While short-term growth cannot be easily pre- imately 75% of our endowment funds be invested in dicted, it is a bit easier to make predictions of the long- equity securities with the remainder invested in fixed term growth potential for this same stand of timber. The income securities, will serve to meet our long-term financial markets are no different. The Board of Directors financial needs. The Society’s Board performs an annu- of the Forest History Society (FHS) understands the Michael J. Morgan al review of the performance of our endowment fund dynamics of short-term investment returns versus long- and its manager, Frank Russell Company. The Board term investment growth and has instituted sound investment will, based on these reviews, make adjustments to our policies and policies to achieve above-average sustainable growth in our endow- management guidance if needed to insure that our financial goals ment funds. These investment policies are designed to account for are met. The difficult financial markets have not changed our potential changes in short-term financial markets or individual focus on meeting the needs of our contributors and the programs investment sectors that could affect our investment portfolio. The that they fund. balance sheet for the FHS as of June 30, 2001, is shown below. The financial statements for the Society, which include this The Society sustained another year of growth in its net assets, balance sheet, have been audited by an independent public however at a much smaller rate than in previous years, largely accountant, Andrew B. Curl, Certified Public Accountant, as has due to significant changes in financial market conditions. been the Board’s policy for many years. Mr. Curl issued an We ended our fiscal year with a $141,000 increase in net assets unqualified opinion on these financial statements, stating that for the period from June 30, 2000 to June 30, 2001. This net the financial statements are fairly presented in accordance with increase resulted from an increase in contributions to our endow- generally accepted accounting principles. The Society is in very ment funds, offset by negative performance in our investment good financial condition and can look forward to shaping a security portfolios. Although fiscal 2001 was a difficult investment brighter future, by understanding the past.

Forest History Society, Inc. Statement of Financial Position • June 30, 2001 (with comparative totals from 2000)

Assets June 30, 2001 June 30, 2000 Current Assets Cash & cash equivalents $ 376,338 $ 211,761 Accounts receivable 34,598 20,499 Pledges receivable 165,846 83,962 Inventories 38,686 44,943 Prepaid expense & deposits 10,374 12,692 Total current assets 625,842 373,857 Marketable securities 6,730,971 6,785,728 Deferred pledges 183,567 186,087 Building & equipment 392,012 394,688 TOTAL ASSETS $ 7,932,392 $ 7,740,360 Liabilities and Net Assets Current Liabilities Accounts payable $ 67,044 $ 19,100 Accrued expense & withholding 3,074 43 Total Current Liabilities 70,118 19,143 Net Assets Unrestricted Undesignated 153,733 148,573 Designated – operations 232,486 144,581 Designated – endowment 3,509,653 4,401,818 Building & equipment 415,394 412,820 Total Unrestricted 4,311,266 5,107,792 Temporarily restricted – operations 106,066 135,600 Permanently restricted – endowment 3,444,942 2,477,825 Total Net Assets 7,862,274 7,721,217 TOTAL LIABILITIES & NET ASSETS $ 7,932,392 $ 7,740,360

Forest History Today | s p r i n g /f a l l 2001 75 Contributions and Project Sponsors This list includes gifts from July 2000 through June 2001.

Individuals Edgar B. Brannon, Jr. John R. McGuire The Driscoll Foundation Gene C. Brewer John P. McMahon Eastman Kodak Charitable Trust $2,500 and up Terry Collins Ed Leigh McMillan II Fiduciary Counselling, Inc. Essie L. Calhoun Don Dierks, Jr. J. T. McShan Forest Foundation Elizabeth A. Crossman Charles H. Geale Joseph S. Micallef Huss Foundation Mrs. Frederick W. Davis Yvan Hardy Anthony P. Mollish International Paper Company Stanley R. Day and family Dwight Harrigan Michael D. Moore George F. Jewett Jr. 1965 Trust Mei H. Dickerman Mr. & Mrs. Norman E. Johnson Harry E. Morgan, Jr.* E. M. Lynn Foundation Elise R. Donohue Michael J. Morgan Cathy & Spence Morley Meadowdale Foundation Rudolph W. Driscoll, Sr. Richard L. Porterfield B. A. Mullican, Sr. The Musser Fund The W. John Driscoll Family Ted Smith Arthur W. Nelson, Jr. National Endowment for the Mr. & Mrs. William H. Greer, Jr. Mr. & Mrs. Daniel C. Titcomb Mr. & Mrs. Ted W. Nelson Humanities Sharon G. Haines George H. Weyerhaeuser, Jr. & Kenwood C. Nichols National Health and Environmental Judith K. Healey Kathleen McGoldrick Patrick Noonan Effects Research Laboratory, USEPA Mr. & Mrs. A. J. Huss, Jr. Tom O’Melia National Institute of Environmental Lucy R. Jones Elise H. Phares Heath Sciences, NIH Christine E. Lynn $100 to $499 Robert M. Allen Dr. & Mrs. Harold T. Pinkett The Rodman Foundation Harry E. Murphy William D. Rowley USDA Forest Service, Office of David New Mr. & Mrs. Steven Anderson Daina Apple Heinrich Rubner Communications Nicole Piasecki & Peter Heymann Malcolm G. Sears USDA Forest Service, State & Private Walter S. Rosenberry III Richard L. Atkins W. J. Barton Richard W. Sellars Forestry The E. R. Titcomb Family Ronald J. Slinn Weyerhaeuser Company Foundation Hubert D. Travaille Mrs. Alfred D. Bell, Jr. Peter G. Belluschi David M. Smith Weyerhaeuser Family Foundation, Inc. Mr. & Mrs. F. T. Weyerhaeuser Mary Minor Smith The Frederick & Margaret L. Mr. & Mrs. George H. Weyerhaeuser Michael Bentinck-Smith Wade Boyd Arthur V. Smyth Weyerhaeuser Foundation Henry G. Weyerhaeuser William H. Stimpson 1989 Irrevocable Trust of Frederick T. Dr. & Mrs. William T. Weyerhaeuser Robert F. Brake Richard T. Brewster Jeffrey K. Stine Weyerhaeuser Conley Brooks Randall Stratton $1,500 to $2,499 Marvin D. Brown J. B. Swift $2,500 to $4,999 William D. Baughman Robert E. Buckman Don R. Taylor Arthur Andersen Greg W. Hawley Margaret W. G. Carr Jack Ward Thomas Boise Cascade Corporation William R. Sizemore* Patrick Clawson Mr. & Mrs. E. R. Titcomb Conservation Study Institute Bond Starker Mrs. Truman W. Collins Mr. & Mrs. Stephen T. Titcomb IBM Corporation L. L. Stewart Emmett A. Conway Hester Turner Mason Charitable Trust Mary J. Coulombe James T. Tweedie Potlatch Corporation $1,000 to $1,499 Alton G. Cronk Roy Edgerton Underhill Triangle United Way Keith A. Argow Vivian W. Day & John W. Stroh III R. G. Verney USDA Forest Service, Forest Service Alice S. Barkley Thomas R. Dunlap Barry Volkers Research Patricia M. Bedient Dennis P. Dykstra Douglas R. Weiner USDA Forest Service, Southern Global Starling W. Childs II Susan Flader Samuel C. Wheeler Change Program Lynn P. Cunningham L. R. Grosenbaugh Dale L. Wierman Harry L. Demorest Perry R. Hagenstein Mark Wilde $1,500 to $2,499 Frederick M. Dierks W. G. Hallstrom James E. Wilkinson Bradley/Murphy Forestry & Natural Curley M. Dossman Dudley R. Hartel Robert B. Wilson Resources Extension Trust Rudolph W. Driscoll, Jr. Edmund Hayes, Jr. Herbert I. Winer Starker Forests, Inc. Michael Flannery Frederick W. Hayes Laurence Wiseman Westvaco Corporation Charles Gagnon Julia & Tim Heidmann Robert Wolf Willamette Industries Charles E. Klumb F. B. Hubachek, Jr. Peter H. Wood Bette D. Moorman Joseph H. Hughes Kay Harrigan Woods Peter J. Murphy Edgar P. Wyman $1,000 to $1,499 Lloyd C. Irland The Bayport Foundation Keith D. Olson Eliot H. Jenkins Edward Phares Clark Foundation Philip H. Jones Columbia Forest Products, Inc. John W. Piasecki Thomas C. Jorling William G. Reed, Jr. Association, Duke University Department of History Clyde R. Kalahan Duke University, Nicholas School Carol Riggs Corporation Robert C. Kellison of the Environment Mr. & Mrs. Robert J. Sivertsen Mr. & Mrs. Lawrence H. King and Foundation Mr. & Mrs. Harold K. Steen National Woodland Owners Association John W. Langdale, Jr. North Carolina Humanities Council Charles A. Weyerhaeuser Morten J. Lauridsen, Jr. Supporters F. J. Weyerhaeuser North Carolina State University College Henry W. Lawrence $5,000 and up of Natural Resources Robert O. Lehrman American Society for Environmental Pope & Talbot, Inc. $500 to $999 Joseph L. Leitzinger History The Reed-Henry Fund of the Seattle Mauro Agnoletti Bill Liscinski Cherbec Advancement Foundation Foundation T. Michael Apsey Norman B. Livermore, Jr. Community Foundation for Simpson Fund Kirby F. Beam George V. Lonngren Southeast Michigan 1969 Irrevocable Trust #1 of Sarah- Charles W. Bingham Norman R. McDonell Edwin W. & Catherine M. Davis Maud Sivertsen Luther E. Birdzell Norman F. McGowin, Jr. Foundation L. L. Stewart Pass-Through Fund of

76 Forest History Today | s p r i n g /f a l l 2001 Donor List (continued from page 76)

The Forest History Society The Oregon Community Foundation Southern Forest Products Association Tembec, Inc. T & S Hardwoods, Inc. University of North Carolina Tumac Lumber Company, Inc. is a nonprofit educational institution. Founded in 1946, it is dedicated Environmental Program to advancing historical understanding of human interactions USDA Forest Service, Southern with forested environments. The Society is a membership Research Station Institutional Members organization; dues range upward from $45 annually. American Forests Officers $500 to $999 Appalachian Society of American Richard L. Porterfield, chairman American Forest & Paper Association Foresters Yvan Hardy, vice-chairman Amoore Art Studios Association of Consulting Foresters Theodore M. Smith, vice-chairman The Collins Companies Auburn University School of Forestry Michael J. Morgan, treasurer Duke University Center for North Colorado State Forest Service American Studies Connecticut Forest & Park Association Steven Anderson, secretary and president Eagles View Management Company, Conservation Study Institute Board of Directors Inc. Cradle of Forestry in America T. Michael Apsey, retired, Victoria, BC Forest Investment Associates Interpretive Association Kirby F. Beam, Guerry Lumber Company, Savannah, GA Georgia-Pacific Foundation Danish Hunting and Forestry Museum Georgia-PacificS hared Services Environmental Training Center, Alberta, Marvin D. Brown, Willamette Industries, Forth Mill, SC* Corporation Canada Starling W. Childs II, EECOS, Inc., Norfolk, CT* Green Bay Packaging, Inc. Forest Engineering Research Institute of Norman L. Christensen, Duke University, Durham, NC Harrigan Lumber Company, Inc. Canada Don Dierks, Jr., retired, Hot Springs, AR Murray Pacific Corporation Forest Heritage Center, Broken Bow, Charles H. Geale, Tree Canada Foundation, Ottawa, ON NCASI Oklahoma W. D. Hagenstein, W. D. Hagenstein and Assoc., Inc., Portland, OR North Carolina Division of Forest Forest Resources Association Sharon G. Haines, International Paper, Savannah, GA Resources Kentucky Division of Forestry Yvan Hardy, Canadian Forest Service, Ottawa, ON* The Pacific Lumber Company Marsh-Billings-Rockefeller National Nancy Langston, University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI Random Lengths Publications Historic Park Catherine M. Mater, Mater Engineering, Ltd., Corvallis, OR Margaret Rivers Fund Menominee Tribal Enterprises Nora J. Mitchell, National Park Service, Woodstock, VT Stora Enso North America Ministry of Forests, British Columbia, Michael J. Morgan, Arthur Andersen, Seattle, WA* Titcomb Foundation Canada Peter J. Murphy, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB USDA Forest Service, Office of Minnesota Department of Natural Richard L. Porterfield, retired, Williamsburg, VA* International Programs Resources, Division of Forestry David Oxley, retired, Rothesay, NB Virginia Tech Foundation Mississippi State University Forestry Stephen J. Pyne, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ Weyerhaeuser Company Department Carol Riggs, Texas Forestry Museum, Lufkin, TX Morrison County Historical Society Walter S. Rosenberry, retired, Denver, CO $250 to $499 New Jersey Institute of Technology William C. Siegel, Consultant, River Ridge, LA American Forest Foundation New York State Society of American Theodore M. Smith, Henry P. Kendall Foundation, Boston, MA W. M. Beaty & Associates Foresters Larry W. Tombaugh, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC Buchanan Hardwoods, Inc. North Carolina Division of Forest Frederick J. Weyerhaeuser, ConserVentures, Inc., Dedham, MA Resources California Redwood Association George H. Weyerhaeuser, retired, Tacoma, WA Canfor Corporation North Carolina Museum of Forestry R. Connor Logging Northern Arizona University School of *member, executive committee Forestry Corbett Timber Company USDA Forest Service Liaison W. M. Cramer Lumber Company Oklahoma State University Forest Forestry Suppliers, Inc. Resources Center Edgar B. Brannon, Jr., USDA Forest Service, Milford, PA Ouachita Society of American Foresters Giustina Land & Timber Company Emeritus Members of the Board Hardwood Market Report Pinchot Institute for Conservation Purdue University School of Forestry/ John M. McClelland, Jr., Seattle, WA Larson & McGowin, Inc. Charles S. Peterson, St. George, UT Mater Engineering Natural Resources Mead Publishing Paper Division Rocky Mountain Research Station Herbert I. Winer, New Haven, CT The Royal Swedish Academy of Nicholson Manufacturing Company Staff Price Services, Inc. Agriculture and Forestry University of Arkansas School of Forest Steven Anderson, president Wesley Rickard, Inc. Chaille H. Ahumada, bibliographer Setzer Foundation Resources Seven Islands Land Company University of Florida School of Forest Andrea H. Anderson, administrative assistant Sizemore & Sizemore, Inc. Resources & Conservation Katherine M. Cox, assistant director for administration Snavely Forest Products, Inc. USDA Forest Service, New Bern, North Pennington Graham, vice president for development and public relations Thermo Fibertek, Inc. Carolina David Havlik, library associate Wilson Lumber Company, Inc. Utah State University College of Natural Michele A. Justice, assistant archivist/librarian Resources Lucy B. Laffite, environmental education consultant $100 to $249 Virginia Tech College of Natural Barbara LaPointe, bibliographer Broadview Lumber Company Resources Carol A. Marochak, editorial assistant California Forestry Association Cheryl P. Oakes, librarian Comprehensive Forestry Services, Inc. Carol C. Severance, historian Forest Resource Consultants * deceased Lorraine S. Swain, library volunteer Forest Resources Association Senior Research Fellow Hamilton Roddis Foundation, Inc. Professional Forestry Services, Inc. Gil Latz, Portland State University Seaman Timber Company 2001 F. K. Weyerhaeuser Forest History Fellow Shaw, McLeod, Belser & Hurlbutt Scott M. Bodien

Forest History Today | s p r i n g /f a l l 2001 77 Gifts to the Forest History Society Library July 1, 2000 to June 30, 2001

Sven-Eric Appelroth Appelroth, Sven-Eric. “Nine Thousand Years Commission. An analysis of forest policy creation and imple- of Forests in Finland.” A paper presented at the IUFRO mentation in the Pacific Northwest. “Maine Timberland Symposium “Northern Forest Silviculture and Management” in Ownership—The Wildlands, 1906.” Lapland, Finland, August 16–22, 1987. 7 p. David Jurney Jurney, David, Rob Evans, John Ippolito, and Velicia T.M. “Mike” Apsey Smith, J. Harry G. UBC Forestry 1921–1990: An Bergstrom. “The Historical Role of Fire in East Texas Forests.” Informal History. National Forest Strategy 1998–2003: Sustainable preprint of article to be published in Proceedings of the Tall Timbers Forests—A Canadian Commitment. “Canada Forest Accord” Fire Ecology Conference, 2001. [45] p. CD-Rom—2 sets of tables of Canadian Accomplishments: Our Evolving Journey Toward Sustainable wildfire statistics for 1990 [in Excel spreadsheets]. Forests. Apsey, Mike, Don Laishley, Vidar Nordin, and Gilbert John W. Larner Larner, John William. The Papers of Joseph Trimble Paille. The Perpetual Forest: Using Lessons from the Past to Sustain Rothrock, M.D.: Guide and Index to the Scholarly Resources Microfilm Canada’s Forests in the Future. [Vancouver, B.C.: The Authors, Edition. Wilmington, Del.: Scholarly Resources Inc., 2001. 2000] Gil Latz Victor, David G., and Jesse H. Ausubel. “Restoring the Kate Christen World Wildlife Fund Annual Reports: 1994, 1998, Forests.” Foreign Affairs 79:6 (November/December 2000): 1999. 127–44. Conevery Bolton Valencius Valencius, Conevery Bolton. “The Jamie Lewis Lewis, James G. “Trained by Americans in American Geography of Health and the Making of the American West: Ways”: The Establishment of Forest Education in the United Arkansas and Missouri, 1800–1860.” Chapter 7 in Medical States, 1885–911. Ph.D. Dissertation. Florida State University, Geography in Historical Perspective, edited by Nicolaas A. 2001. History. Rupke. Medical History, Supplement No. 20. London [England]: Alan MacEachern MacEachern, Alan. “The Great Fire of The Wellcome Trust Centre for the History of Medicine at Miramichi.” National Post (October 31, 2000). UCL, 2000. 121–145 pp. Valencius, Conevery Bolton. Wynne M. Maule Maule, Wynne “William Maule of Minden—A “Histories of Medical Geography.” Chapter 1 in Medical Pioneer Forester: A Biography.” [Minden, Nev.]: The Author, Geography in Historical Perspective edited by Nicolaas A. Rupke. 2000. 50 p. Medical History, Supplement No. 20. London [England]: The Louis G. May Krinbill, Howard R. “Southern White Cedar—The Wellcome Trust Centre for the History of Medicine at UCL, Forgotten Tree.” The Southern Lumber Journal (November 2000. 3–28 pp. 1956):26–27, 36, 45. Barbara DiSalvo “Polish State Forests” map with poster on Floyd McGowin, (for himself and his brother Greeley) Appleyard, reverse. John. The W.T. Smith Lumber Co. : A Chronicle. Pensacola, Fla.: William A. Dobak Partial subject index for case papers of the U.S. Pace Printer, 2000. 349 p. Circuit Court for the District of Columbia, first half of 19th Rebecca J. McLain McLain, Rebecca J. “Controlling the Forest century (regarding lumber). Understory: Wild Mushroom Politics in Central Oregon.” Ph.D. Finis Dunaway Dunaway, Finis. “Hunting with the Camera: Dissertation. University of Washington, 2000. College of Forest Nature Photography, Manliness, and Modern Memory, 1890– Resources. 1930.” Journal of American Studies 34 (No. 2, 2000): 207–230. Rob Messick Messick, Rob. “Old-Growth Forest Communities in Jennifer Elsner Elsner, Jennifer M. “Wilhelmina Diefenthaeler La the Nantahala-Pisgah National Forest.” [Union Mills, N.C.]: The Budde and Wisconsin Women’s Involvement in Forest Author, 2000. 122 p. Conservation 1925–1955.” Master’s thesis, History, University of Herman L. Miller 2 letters from William B. Mershon to Herman Wisconsin-Milwaukee, 2000. Lunden proposing a monument for Michigan lumbermen plus Edward Gryczan 44 black and white photographs of Troy Ranger two lists of prominent Michigan lumbermen and a list of sug- Station (Troy, Montana and surroundings) ca. 1949. gested readings for the history of lumbering in Michigan Lorne Hammond Mackie, Richard Somerset. Island Timber. Nora Mitchell 1 VHS videotape “A Place in the Land.” Victoria: Sono Nis Press, c2000. Documentary by Charles Guggenheim about the Billings Farm Robert D. Hostetter Hostetter, Robert Dale. Rememberings. & Museum and the Marsh-Billings National Historical Park. Beaverton, Ore.: The Author, [1996?] James M. Montgomery 1901 membership roster of the Lloyd Irland National Water Commission: A Summary Digest of the Concatenated Order of Hoo Hoo. Federal Water Laws and Programs. 1973 Redirecting the RPA. New José Augusto Pádua: Pádua, José Augusto. “Biosfera, história e Haven, Conn.: Yale School of Forestry & Environmental conjuntura na análise de questão amazônica.” História, Ciências, Studies, 1988. Smith, David C. An Annotated Bibliography of The Saúde—Manguinhos VI (suplemento), 793–811, setembro 2000. Maine Agricultural Experiment Station. Orono, Me.: University Biosphere, history, and conjuncture in an analysis of the main of Maine at Orono, Maine Agricultural Experiment Station, Amazon issues. 1985. Forest Policy Project. Washington State University. 1980. 5 Bruce Palmer 35 black & white photographs (taken in 2001 and vols. Sponsored by the Pacific Northwest Regional accompanying biographical data sheets from 35 Missouri forest-

78 Forest History Today | s p r i n g /f a l l 2001 ers). For inclusion in the Centennial Foresters documentation Club of Rome’s Project on the Predicament of Mankind. Smith, V. project. Kerry, ed. Scarcity and Growth Reconsidered. Western, David and John Perry Reed, John. “A Century of Forestry at Berea College.” Mary Pearl, eds. Conservation for the Twenty-first Century. Lipper, Elmo Richardson Flippen, J. Brooks. Nixon and the Environment. Mark. People, Progress: The Story of the P.H. Glatfelter Company of Richardson, Elmo R. The Politics of Conservation: Crusades and Spring Grove, Pennsylvania. Blodgett, Richard. Federal Paper Board Controversies 1897–1913. Thomas, John L. A Country in the Mind. at Seventy-Five: The Intimate History of an American Enterprise. Cox, Thomas R. The Park Builders: A History of State Parks in the Thoren, Anders, ed. Paper in the Ecocycle: The Versatile Material. Pacific Northwest. Hays, Samuel P. A History of Environmental Milestones of Excellence in the Pulp and Paper Industry. James River Politics Since 1945. Judd, Richard W. Common Lands, Common Corporation 1969–1979. People: The Origins of Conservation in Northern New England. Jeffrey Stine Cheney, O.H. “The New Competition in the Lumber Newspaper clipping from the Lewiston Morning Tribune regarding Industry.” Compton, Wilson. “Is the “Future” of Lumber Ahead possible new chief of U.S. Forest Service (after Mike or Behind?” Brant, Irving. “Protect the South Calaveras Sequoia Dombeck). Grove.” Compton, Wilson “Looking Ahead from Behind.” Eduardo Rico Boquete Rico Boquete, Eduardo. “Politica Forestal Seaman, L.N. “Interim Report on Work under Project No. 2, Y Conflictividad Social en el Noroeste de Espana Durante el Strength Tests of Timbers in Structural Sizes, with Test Results Primer Franquismo, 1939–1959.” Historia Social No. 38 (2000): up to l932.” The Indian Forest Records Vol. 17, part 7. Train, Russell 117–140. E. A Memoir. Washington, D.C.: The Author, 2000. Robert Andrew Lambert Lambert, Robert A. “The Institute for Pieter W. Uptegrove Transcriptions of American Lumberman articles Environmental History.” Alumnus Chronicle (of the University of from Dec. 7, 14, and 21,1901 regarding a fire at the Uptegrove St. Andrews), 1999, p. 52; Lambert, Robert A. “Strathspey and Lumber Co. American Lumberman article of May 23, 1903 regard- Reel: Photography and the Cairngorms.” Inferno: The St. Andrews ing the company. Updated timeline of company history. New Journal of Art History 3 (1996): 68–81; Lambert, R. A. “Preserving York Times articles of November 29 and 30, 1901 regarding the a Remnant of the Old Natural Forest: The Joint Venture of the fire. NTS and RSFS in the mid-1930s.” Scottish Forestry 51:1 (Spring Rafael Uriarte Ayo Uriarte Ayo, Rafael. “Explotacion Forestal e 1997): 31–33; Lambert, Robert A. “Conservation, Recreation and Industria Resinera en España 1900–1936.” Estudios Geograficos 61 Tourism: Craigellachie National Nature Reserve, Aviemore, (October–December 2000):655–682. 1950–1980.” Northern Scotland 20 (2000): 113–124; Lambert, Ted Van Arsdol “GP Forest History” Vol. 1, No. 2 (October 1999). Robert A. “Proposals to Extend the Range of the Crested Tit in Newsletter of the Gifford Pinchot National Forest. Scotland, 1945–1955.” Scottish Birds 19:5 (December 1998): 304– Robert C. Van Camp VHS video “Timber to Tourism: The Cass 305; Calvert, David, and Robert A. Lambert. “A Highland Hotel Scenic Railroad Story.” Venture: The Case of the Doune of Rothiemurchus, 1935– Patricia J. Weltsch Hall, Anthony L. Developing Amazonia: 1942.” Northern Scotland 17 (1997): 153–172. Deforestation and Social Conflict in Brazil’s Caraja’s Programme. The William Rollins Rollins, William. “Imperial Shades of Green: Battle for Natural Resources. Skurka, Norma and Jon Naar. Design Conservation and Environmental Chauvinism in the German for a Limited Planet: Living with Natural Energy. Jacobs, Lynn. Waste Colonial Project.” German Studies Review 22:2 (May 1999): of the West: Public Lands Ranching. 187–213. James E. Wilkinson, Jr. National Parks for the Future. Washington: Adam Rome Rome, Adam. The Bulldozer in the Countryside: The Conservation Foundation, 1972. Soil: The 1957 Yearbook Suburban Sprawl and the Rise of American Environmentalism. New of Agriculture. Washington: USDA, 1957. Food and Life: York: Cambridge University Press, 2001. Yearbook of Agriculture 1939. Washington: USDA, 1939. R. Neil Sampson Sampson, R. Neil and Lester A. DeCoster. Public Atkinson, George Francis. Mushrooms Edible Poisonous Etc. Programs for Private Forestry: A Reader on Programs and Options. Ithaca: Andrus & Church, 1900. Sampson, R. Neil & Dwight Washington, D.C. : American Forests, 1997. Hair, eds. Natural Resources for the 21st Century. Washington: Steve Sandfort News clippings regarding discontinuation of two American Forestry Assoc., 1990. Nisbet, John. The Forester: A large floating logging camps operated by Gildersleeve Logging Practical Treatise on British Forestry and Arboriculture for Inc. on the Tongass National Forest. Color photocopy of picture Landowners, Land Agents, and Foresters. Edinburgh: William of one of the floating logging camps. Blackwood and Sons, 1905. 2 vols. Copies of 31 photographs Chuck Sheley 1 VHS videotape “Smokejumpers: Firefighters from taken by Mr. Wilkinson during his employment in 1940 at the Sky.” Chico, Calif.: National Smokejumper Assoc., 2000. the lumber company town of Barrett, West Virginia, owned Ronald J. Slinn Roth, Dennis M. The Wilderness Movement and the by the W.M. Ritter Lumber Company. National Forests 1980–1984. “On Paper: The History of an Art” Herbert I. Winer Sargent, Charles S. Manual of the Trees of North (brochure from exhibition at New York Public Library 1991) America. Mathias, Philip. Takeover Fisher, W.R. Dr. Scholich’s “Papermaking: Art and Craft” (exhibition catalog from Library Manual of Forestry. Harlow, William M. and Ellwood S. Harrar. of Congress 1968) Poster—“How Paper Came to America” Textbook of Dendrology. Bryant, Ralph C. Lumber. McGovern, J.N. “Changes in American Papermaking Fibers: Robert Wolf Copies of 54 interviews conducted by various inter- 1690–1985.” Tappi Journal (June 1986): 30–34. Partial copy of viewers with Bob Wolf, a forester by training who worked on article “Organization of American Paper and Pulp Association” the professional staff of the Interior Committee and later for p. 356 (no journal info) Barnett, Harold J. and Chandler Morse. the Congressional Research Service, retiring in 1984. The inter- Scarcity and Growth: The Economics of Natural Resource Availability. views cover a wide range of topics including most major natu- Meadows, Donella H., et al. The Limits to Growth: A Report for the ral resource legislation passed between 1960 and 1984.

Forest History Today | s p r i n g /f a l l 2001 79 Publications of the Forest History Society

These are books resulting from Society programs. To purchase a copy, Denny Rodgers III, $21.95 contact the publisher listed below or your local bookseller. Sustained-Yield Forestry, Harold K. Steen, $21.95 Origins of the National Forests: A Centennial Symposium, Harold K. Steen, From Forest History Society 919/682-9319 cloth $31.95; paper $16.95 701 William Vickers Avenue, Durham, NC 27701 Changing Tropical Forests: Historical Perspectives on Today’s Challenges in Central and South America, Harold K. Steen and Richard P. Tucker, Issues Series cloth $31.95; paper $16.95 Forest Pharmacy: Medicinal Plants in American Forests, Steven Foster, $7.95 plus $3.00 for postage and handling on a single copy From University of Georgia Press 800/266-5842 American Forests: A History of Resiliency and Recovery, Douglas W. 330 Research Drive, Athens, GA 30602-4901 MacCleery, $7.95 plus $3.00 for postage and handling on a single Crusading for Chemistry: The Professional Career of Charles Holmes Herty, copy Germaine M. Reed, $36.00 Newsprint: Canadian Supply and American Demand, Thomas R. Roach, From University of Washington Press 800/441-4115 $7.95 plus $3.00 for postage and handling on a single copy P.O. Box 50096, Seattle, WA 98145-5096 America’s Fires: Management on Wildlands and Forests, Stephen J. The Forested Land: A History of Lumbering in Western Washington, Robert Pyne, $7.95 plus $3.00 for postage and handling on a single copy E. Ficken, $25.00 George S. Long, Timber Statesman, Charles E. Twining, $30.00 Books and Oral Histories Phil Weyerhaeuser: Lumberman, Charles E. Twining, $25.00 The Conservation Diaries of Gifford Pinchot, Harold K. Steen (ed.), $29.00 hardcover, $19.00 soft cover From University of Nebraska Press 800/755-1105 Millicoma: Biography of a Pacific Northwestern Forest, Arthur V. Smyth, 312 North 14th Street, P.O. Box 880484, Lincoln, NE 68588-0520 $12.95 This Well-Wooded Land: Americans and Their Forests from Colonial Times to Bringing in the Wood: The way it was at Chesapeake Corporation, Mary the Present, Thomas R. Cox et al., $27.95 Wakefield Buxton, $29.95 hardcover, $19.95 soft cover From Greenwood Publishing Group, Inc. 203/226-3571 Forest and Wildlife Science in America: A History, edited by Harold K. 88 Post Road West, Box 5007, Westport, CT 06881 Steen, $14.95 Beyond the Adirondacks: The Story of St. Regis Paper Company, Eleanor From Sagebrush to Sage: The Making of a Natural Resource Economist, Amigo and Mark Neuffer, $35.00 Marion Clawson, $9.95 Lost Initiatives: Canada’s Forest Industries, Forest Policy and Forest Plantation Forestry in the Amazon: The Jari Experience, Clayton E. Posey, Conservation, R. Peter Gillis and Thomas R. Roach, $40.95 Robert J. Gilvary, John C. Welker, L. N. Thompson, $16.95 From Carolina Academic Press 919/489-7486 Cradle of Forestry in America: The Biltmore Forest School, 1898–1913, Carl 700 Kent Street, Durham, NC 27701 Alwin Schenck, $10.95 A Forestry Revolution: The History of Tree Improvement in the Southern Evolution of Tropical Forestry: Puerto Rico and Beyond, Frank H. United States, Bruce J. Zobel and Jerry R. Sprague, $14.95 Wadsworth, $5.50 postage and handling From University of Maine Press 207/866-0573 Forest Service Research: Finding Answers to Conservation’s Questions, Room 444, 5717 Corbett Hall, Orono, ME 04469-5717 Harold K. Steen, $10.95 Aroostock: A Century of Logging in Northern Maine, Richard W. Judd, View From The Top: Forest Service Research, R. Keith Arnold, M. B. cloth $27.50; paper $17.95 Dickerman, Robert E. Buckman, $13.00 From Simon & Schuster 800/223-2336 Forest Service Research, Carl E. Ostrom, $18.00 1230 Avenue of the Americas EPA during the Bush Administration, William K. Reilly, $18.00 New York, NY 10020 CEQ and EPA under Nixon and Ford, Russell E. Train, $19.00 Encyclopedia of American Forest & Conservation History, $250.00/set From Duke University Press 919/687-3600 FROM ISLAND PRESS 800/828-1302 Box 90660, Durham, NC 27708-0660 58440 Main Street, P.O. Box 7, Covelo, CA 95428 Changing Pacific Forests: Historical Perspectives on the ForestE conomy of the email: [email protected] Pacific Basin, John Dargavel and Richard Tucker, cloth $39.95; paper The Conservation Diaries of Gifford Pinchot, Harold K. Steen (ed.), $29.00 $14.95 hardcover, $19.00 soft cover Forest History Museums of the World, Kathryn A. Fahl, $12.00 Available Videos North American Forest and Conservation History: A Bibliography, Ronald J. Fahl, $31.95 From Forest History Society 919/682-9319 First National Colloquium on the History of the Forest Products Industries, 701 William Vickers Avenue, Durham, NC 27701 Elwood R. Maunder and Margaret G. Davidson, Proceedings, Timber on the Move: A History of Log-Moving Technology, Vester Dick Boston, Massachusetts, May 17–18, 1966, $16.00 (1981) ($25.00 plus S/H). David T. Mason: Forestry Advocate, Elmo Richardson, $8.00 Up in Flames: A History of Fire Fighting in the Forest, Vester Dick (1984) Bernhard Eduard Fernow: A Story of North American Forestry, Andrew ($25.00 plus S/H).

80 Forest History Today | s p r i n g /f a l l 2001 Join the Forest History Society A Must-Have Resource in or Become a Joint Member of the American Society for Forest and Conservation History Environmental History and the Forest History Society Forest and Wildlife Science in America: A History Name ______Title ______Company/Institution ______Address ______Announcing Forest City ______State ______Zip______Work phone ( )______Home phone ( )______and Wildlife Science in E-mail ______America: A History— Employer ______A must-have Date of Birth ______resource for land Please enroll me as a member in the following category: FHS Individual fhs Student Institution managers, research- ■ $45.00 ■ $20.00 ■ $90.00 ers, and students that ■ $60.00 Joint ASEH/ Outside U.S. ■ $100.00 FHS Memberships ■ $8.00 for traces the history of ■ $500.00 ■ $27.50 student additional science in forestry ■ $1000 and up ■ $65.00 individual postage and wildlife manage- Statistical Data Which of the following best describes your employment setting? ment. Published by ■ A. College or university ■ G. Association or foundation ■ B. Federal government ■ H. Museum or library the Forest History Society, this resource ■ C. State/local government ■ I. Other nonprofit shows the role science has played in the for- ■ D. Private industry ■ J. K–12 school ■ E. Forestry or other consultant ■ K. Retired mation of natural resource policy during the ■ F. Historical Society ■ L. Unemployed last 100 years. Which of the following best describes your current position? ■ Research/educator ■ Private landowner ■ Field forester/technician ■ Journalist Sixteen chapters cover both organizational programs ■ Staff specialist ■ Student and ­disciplinary fields including: ■ Mid-level management ■ Other: ______■ Upper-level management Programs: Industrial Research, University Research, U.S. Which of the following best describes your field of expertise? Forest Service, Fish and Wildlife Service, Soil Conservation ■ A. Anthropology ■ G. Economics Service, National Park Service ■ B. History ■ H.Journalism ■ C. Sociology ■ I.Education Disciplinary Fields: Forest Ecology and Silviculture, ■ D. Forestry ■ K.Archeology Genetic Manipulation, Forest Economics, Statistical ■ E. Wildlife ■ L. Other: ______■ F. Ecology Methods Which of the following best describes your level of education? Technology of Wood and­ Fiber, Forest Soils, Social Science ■ Less than high school ■ Master’s degree Range Science, Naval Stores, Wildlife Science ■ High school ■ Doctoral degree ■ Forest and Wildlife Science in America: A History College (BA/BS) Harold K. Steen, editor Please pay in U.S. funds ❑ Enclosed is my check or money order. 455 pages, 39 illustrations, ❑ Charge $______to my credit card. ❑ Visa ❑ MasterCard published May 1999 Card #______Expiration Date ______Signature ______$14.95 plus $4 shipping and handling Please mail your check and this form to: Mail order and payment to: Forest History Society, 701 Vickers Avenue Durham, NC 27701, (919) 682-9381 Forest History Society www.foresthistory.org 701 Vickers Avenue, Durham, NC 27701–3162. ✂ Phone order with credit card information to (919) 682-9319. Financial information about this organization and a copy of its license are available from the State Solicitation Licensing Branch at (919) 807-2214. The license is not an endorsement by the state. “A Forest Talks... If You Listen.” Millicoma Millicoma: Biography of a Pacific Northwestern Forest Biography of a pacific northwestern forest by Arthur V. Smyth

This is a story of the life of a forest—how it began and how the forces of nature and the human hand changed it. You'll be enchanted with this biography of a pacific northwestern forest.

Praise for Smyth’s Millicoma: “Smyth provides a fascinating saga of one of Oregon’s most productive and intensively harvested forests…[W]hat Smyth’s book suggests is that to solve our environmental problems about forests, we should under- stand and learn from the details of history...that we need to see the use of forests against the panorama of changes in human values and changing scientific knowledge.” —Daniel Botkin, Professor of Ecology, University of California, Santa Barbara

Individual copies are $15.95 (includes S&H). Make checks payable to the Forest History Society and mail to FHS, 701 Vickers Ave., Durham, NC 27701 or call with credit card orders at (919) 682-9319. Call for discounts F o r e s t Hi s t o ry S o c i e t y Arthur V. Smyth on orders of 10 or more.

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