The Lure of the Forest

The Lure of the Forest Oral Histories from the National Forests in California Context and compilation by Victor Geraci, Ph.D. July 2005 R5-FR-005 USDA Forest Service Pacific Southwest Region Copyright: When a “source” is indicated beside photographs or graphics in this book, a copyright exists, and therefore, that item may not be used or reproduced in any manner apart from this book unless a separate approval is acquired. Any photographs or graphics that do not show a source are from the USDA Forest Service archives and are part of the public domain. Cover photo-illustration was created from a Forest Service image of the Sierra Buttes Lookout Station, Tahoe National Forest First published by the USDA Forest Service, Pacific Southwest Region on July 1, 2005 ISBN 1-59351-430-1 The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) prohibits discrimination in all its programs and activities on the basis of race, color, national origin, gender, religion, age, disability, political beliefs, sexual orientation, and marital or family status. (Not all prohibited bases apply to all programs.) Persons with disabilities who require alternative means for communication of program information (Braille, large print, audiotape, etc.) should contact USDA’s TARGET Center at 202-720-2600 (voice and TDD). To file a complaint of discrimination, write USDA, Director, Office of Civil Rights, Room 326-W, Whitten Building, 14th and Independence Avenue, SW, Washington, DC 20250-9410 or call (202) 720-5964 (voice or TDD). USDA is an equal opportunity provider and employer. The Lure of the Forest: Oral Histories of the Forest Service ii Acknowledgements This Region Five oral history project brought together a complex working group that encompassed the diverse talents of numerous Forest Service professionals, retirees, volunteers, and University of California at Berkeley Regional Oral History Office staff and researchers. The resulting rich product of this history by committee evolved through the hard work and talents of an army of passionate believers in the Forest Service and its role in managing and preserving America’s vast forests. First and foremost is a special thank you to Regional Forester Jack Blackwell and the Forest Service Regional Office for its financial and logistical support. Forest Service staff and volunteers, as if mustering for a fire call, assembled a sizable cohort of both past and present workers that orchestrated and executed the project. They deserve a special thanks. Regional Office Program Leadership came from Linda Lux and Steve Dunsky with help from the Retiree Program Leadership of Bob Cermak and Doug Leisz. Bob Smart and Bob Harris served as the Retiree Program Coordinators and oversaw the sub-area work completed by Janet Buzzini (Northern California), Max Younkin (Southern Sierra/Fresno), Jerry Gause (Southern California), John Fiske (Bay Area), Dick Pfilf (Washington DC), Bob Smart (Central Sierra/ Sacramento), Larry Schmidt (Eastern Sierra), and Al West (Los Padres and Southern California). Interviewers for the project included Bob Cermak, Doug Leisz, John Fiske, Jerry Gause, John Grosvenor, Bob Smart, Bob Harris, Gene Murphy, Nord Whited, Janet Buzzini, Susana Luzier, Brian Payne, Steve Kirby, Del Pengilly, Glenn Gottschall, Max Younkin, Robert Van Aken, Irl Everst, Larry Hornberger, David Schreiner, Fred Kaiser and Bill Pliler, and Steve Fitch. Many thanks to Donna Dell’Ario, Mario Chocooj and Linda Nunes for pulling it all together. At the University of California Berkeley’s Regional Oral History Office (ROHO) director Richard Cándida Smith and Editor Shannon Page helped establish the formal cooperative working agreement. ROHO Editor Gerald Stone carefully read and grammatically corrected final drafts. I would like to give a personal thanks to ROHO Specialist Martin Meeker and Post Doctoral Fellow Eric Vettel for serving as a sounding board for much of the work I completed. Thank You to All; Victor W. Geraci, PhD – Project Editor University of California, Berkeley Regional Oral History Office iii Introduction The Lure of the Forest: Oral Histories of the Forest Service iv v Introduction Contents Acknowledgements iii Introduction vii Into the Woods 1 “Called to Service” 45 Battling “Multi-Headed Dragons” 99 The Forest Community 123 Memorable People and Events 155 Bibliography 179 Biographical Sketches: Who’s Who 183 The Lure of the Forest: Oral Histories of the Forest Service vi Introduction In preparation for the Forest Service’s one-hundredth anniversary, Region Five retirees, with financial and logistical support from the Regional Forester, established an oral history committee. Committee members then conducted over fifty oral interviews from selected members of the region’s past workforce. In order to publish the interviews, the committee entered into a collaborative agreement with the University of California at Berkeley’s Unknown observer stops on a CCC-built truck road to admire the beauty of California’s national forests. 1935 Regional Oral History Office (ROHO). University employees then selected interview segments and lightly edited them for publication. In the following pages, the stories of these interviewees are synthesized into sections based on common recurring themes that reflect how these past employees remembered their service to the forests. From their stories and established historiographic sources, the following brief history emerged. As America entered the twentieth century, its Progressive-era presidents, legislators, and a wealthy class - burgeoned by an expanding middle class - reacted to past centuries of blind faith that America’s resources were infinite. Lessons learned from the exploitation of Eastern forests created a fear that the nation’s resources just might be finite, and many Americans began to perceive that their Western forests needed protection and management. As America leapt onto the world stage, most citizens accepted the view that the nation’s forests should be treated as a renewable resource for future generations. In response, politicians set aside millions of acres of Western forests as a safeguard for the future. Those given the management responsibility quickly realized that the nation did not have the trained vii Introduction personnel necessary to oversee this vast undertaking. Thus began the era of attracting people to serve the forest and the decades-long process of creating a professional workforce. In an initial response to the problem, Gifford Pinchot’s family, with a maxim of “wise use,” funded the creation of a professional school of forestry at Yale University. In a short time, colleges and universities across the nation created forestry programs that struggled with what and how to teach future Forest Service employees. Subsequently, the Forest Service and the forest industry worked in a collaborative manner to assist the forestry schools in teaching students. As a result, the early Service evolved as a mix of professionals (college-educated on European forestry school models) and self-trained technicians. Both groups were generalists and learned how to perform multiple tasks while on the job and in essence created a “boot- strap” operation for the early U.S. forestry profession. Despite the rough beginnings, the ranks of trained foresters grew as private and public sector foresters worked as a team with forestry schools. The struggle to fill the ranks with more professional Forest Service employees accelerated after World War II. These first forest employees dedicated their lives to the service in a true jack-of-all-trades story. They were generalists in a new decentralized federal bureaucracy and accepted conditions foreign to modern workers. Most learned their multitasked jobs on the ground, faced seasonal layoffs, endured numerous transfers, withstood isolation from people, received substandard housing and low pay, and most importantly, they lived on the forest where they worked. By and large, they grew accustomed to a military style (in the sense of line officers and staff) of operation with promotions from within the ranks that rewarded hard work. As the Forest Service workforce grew in the middle of the twentieth century, the agency paralleled the social and economic philosophies found in the rest of the nation. America’s and the agency’s employment and management policies accommodated, to great extent, white males. In the case of the Forest Service, new employees were also chosen by their ability to personify the manly demeanor of rugged individualism, a love of nature, physical strength, and common sense. Trained on the forest, in a trial and error manner, they fought fires and floods, built roads, supervised logging, oversaw grazing permits, regulated mining, and enforced recreational permits, along with numerous other tasks. Most importantly, they viewed The Lure of the Forest: Oral Histories of the Forest Service viii themselves as the front line for the protection and conservation of one of the nation’s greatest natural resources. Remarkably, in the process of doing their job, they fostered a sense of a forest community, whereby employees and their families lived on the land they protected. Foresters and their families shared the forest and accepted the hardships of life in lookout towers, camp-style workplaces, on-call hours, make-as-make-do operations, and family compound living. Over the course of the Forest Service’s first century, the agency evolved through the turmoil of World War I, the Great Depression, a Second World War, and a new “American Century” ushered in by the Cold War. The size of the force increased as the nation commandeered its forest resources into the war effort and post-war expansion. Many newly discharged veterans Soldiers from Camp Beale having breakfast before fighting fire. with skills learned in the military or forestry degrees funded by the GI Bill of Rights found employment in Forest Service. Despite the hiatus of depression and war, the nation as a whole continued to modernize, and urbanization brought new resource challenges to forestry. Further changes occurred as new immigrants, people of color, women, and college-educated professionals shifted the energy of the entire American workforce.

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