TO: All Olympia FSL Staff the PNW HISTORY COMMITTEE Has Sent
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United States Forest PNW - Olympia Department of ServiceService Agriculture Reply to 1680—1 Date November 1 6 , 1988 TO: All Olympia FSL Staff The PNW HISTORY COMMITTEE has sent the Lab. a copy of Robert Cowlin’s history of research at PNW. This book will be kept in the library and available for all to read. Eventually, the committee expects to have a summary for public distribution and also a supplement to bring the historic record to the present. DEAN DeBELL Director’s Rep. About This File: This file was created by scanning the printed publication. Misscans identified by the software have been corrected; however, some mistakes may remain. FS-6200-11b (7/81) United States Forest PNW Department of Service Agriculture Reply to: 1680-1 Date: October 27, 1988 Subject: Historical Report To: Director’s Representatives Here for use as a reference is a copy of Robert Cowlin’s history of research at PNW. Copies have been sent to all PNW FSLs and several copies are available in the Director’s Offi ce and RIS. Please let colleagues at your FSL know where the book will be kept. Eventually, we expect to have a summary for public distribution and also a supplement to bring the historic record to the present. PNW HISTORY COMMITTEE Federal Forest Research in the Pacifi c Northwest The Pacifi c Northwest Research Station Robert W. Cowlin October 1988 Preface The primary purpose of this history is to record the scientifi c research of the Pacifi c Northwest Forest and Range Experiment Station and analyze its signifi cance in the management and utilization of the total forest resources of this region1 in the context of the national economy. In essence, the scope of Federal forest research in the Pacifi c Northwest during the period covered by this history includes activities of several other agencies of the Federal Departments of the Interior and Agriculture. As time passed, organizational changes consolidated the Pacifi c Northwest Forest and Range Experiment Station. In order to preserve historical integrity, the work of antecedent agencies will be reported under the contemporary organization name. Furthermore, to outline the basis of knowledge for initiating and conducting Federal forest research programs in the region, earlier scientifi c investigations relating to the broad fi eld of forestry will be described briefl y. By way of background, early explorations of the North Pacifi c Coast and hinterland will be described. A list of references examined will be given in the appendix of this document. No attempt will be made to present a bibliography of Station research or that of its antecedents. Such information is available in the Station library and in many other public libraries. Neither will a complete list of Station professional personnel be included. Many will be named. Many more people not named contributed to the fi nal products of research, the Station’s publications as well as the authors. This group includes collaborators, junior professional assistants, technicians, computers, editors, clerks, stenographers, and business management people. In addition, many of the Station’s major publications have been improved through technical review by other public and private professional people. Station advisory committees have also contributed to the success of the Station’s programs. Public acknowledgment of the contributions of these people have been made currently in other media. Some of this group will be named in this document in connection with specifi c events of historical note. The author’s acknowledgment of personal sources of information and assistance in compiling and writing this history is shown in a separate section. The author considers it appropriate to make a statement in this preface based upon historical fact tempered with personal observation and personal observation and opinion. The author joined the Station staff on November 5, 1929, and served continuously on it from that date until his retirement March 1, 1963. He has known intimately the three directors who preceded him, Thornton T. Munger, Stephen N. Wyckoff, and Dr. J. Alfred Hall, and his immediate successor, Philip A. Briegleb, who joined the Station staff in July 1929. Each of these men left his mark upon the character, growth, and success of the Station and its program. Their scientifi c contributions are well known to professional foresters and to many others who are members of various groups having occasion to use the Station’s scientifi c forestry contributions. Since this history is intended to cover Federal forest research in the Pacifi c Northwest, the reader should know that universities, colleges, State agencies, forest industries, and scientifi c groups and individuals have also contributed to the growing body of scientifi c forest knowledge relevant to this region. This is particularly true of later years. 1 For convenience, the Pacifi c Northwest is defi ned as comprising the States of Oregon and Washington. At times during its history, the offi cial territory of the Pacifi c Northwest Station did not include the three northeastern counties of Washington; Spokane, Pend Oreille, and Stevens. Recently, these counties were offi cially added to the Station’s territory as were the States of Idaho and Alaska. One central fact is not always as well known and understood. The Federal Government’s responsibility for scientifi c forest and forest range research was recognized before the Federal forest lands were set aside from the public domain in 1891 by Presidential proclamation as forest reserves. When the Division of Forestry was established in 1881 under the U.S. Department of Agriculture, research was considered one of its functions and this function was given statutory rank in 1886. Its activities were expanded in the late 1890’s and in 1905, when the forest reserves were transferred from the U.S. Department of the Interior to the Department of Agriculture and renamed as National Forests, research was an established policy. June 1, 1915, the independent status of research was formally recognized by the creation of the Branch of Research, coequal in the Forest Service with National Forest administration in autonomy of action with direct responsibility to the Chief Forester. Under the aegis of Gifford Pinchot and Henry Graves, Dr. Earle Clapp was mainly responsible for this far-seeing action in establishing the principle of integrity and independence of forest research in the Forest Service. In brief, Forest Service policy in administering the National Forests and in its role of developing and enunciating broad programs and measures dealing with the total forest resources of the Nation places no constraints on the conduct of forest research and dissemination of research results. This does not imply that the Branch of Research does not consider the problems of managing public and private forest lands in developing and conduction its programs including the establishment of priorities. In fact, the advice of public and private forest-land managers and other concerned citizens has been consistently sought and used and research programs have been almost entirely problem solving in objective.2 In the author’s opinion, the directors of this Station have adhered to the above criteria and have preserved the independence of forest research in administering the legislatively approved research programs in the Pacifi c Northwest. 2 This does not mean that some basic research has not been done by research scientists in the Forest Service, particularly in the period following World War II. Congress appropriates public funds for forest research by specifi c functions directed to problems of national and regional concern. Fiscal accountability limits the direction of research programs in requiring that they be purposive. CHAPTER I. THE EXPLORATORY AND PIONEER PERIOD, 1792-1891 Archibald Menzies, a Scottish surgeon and naturalist, who came to the Pacifi c Northwest with Captain Colnett in 1786 and with Commander Vancouver in 1792, took cuttings and plant specimens back to England with him. On the Vancouver voyage, Menzies entered the Columbia River in a ship commanded by Lieutenant Broughton. In a longboat manned by some of the ship’s crew, he went up the river 100 miles and collected twigs, needles, and cones of a conifer he called Pinus taxifolia, later classifi ed as Pseudotsuga taxifolia. This nomenclature stirred a controversy many years later when the scientifi c name of Douglas-fi r was changed in 1950 from Pseudotsuga taxifolia to Pseudotsuga menziesii, based upon historical research by Franco. Other specimens collected by Menzies were what are now known as Sitka spruce, Picea sitchensis; Western hemlock, Tsuga heterophylla; and western redcedar, Thuja plicata. Cuttings and seeds of many other tree species and other plants were taken back to England for propagation as well as the specimens which were placed in the Banks Herbarium in London for systematic classifi cation and study. Unfortunately, the Menzies notes and descriptive material were evidently published in a number of places and not in a single work, thus probably accounting for some of the later confusion in nomenclature. Lewis and Clark, in their overland exploratory journey to the mouth of the Columbia River in Oregon during 1805-06, collected plant specimens which were classifi ed upon their return by Frederick Pursh, an Austrian botanist, and published in his “Flora Americae Septentrionalis” in 1814. Meriwether Lewis, although no botanist, was a careful collector, and when no specimens were collected he made precise descriptions and faithful drawings of the plant subject, and Pursh used these as well as the specimens in his classifi cation and publication. Sir William J. Hooker used Pursh’s work as well as the Menziies collection in his “Flora Borealis Ameri- cana;” published in 1829-40. David Douglas, another Scot, did much to enlarge the knowledge of forest plant life of the Pacifi c North- west through his extensive overland trips through the Pacifi c Northwest in 1825.