Gifford Pinchot was an influential conservationist, and he brought a new awareness of the value of forests and wild lands to the American public. In spite of this, he was despised by some of the 20th century's most ardent proponents of wilderness preservation. What made Pinchot such a figure of revulsion among the very people who loved the land he worked to conserve?
Gifford Pinchot: Early Years
Gifford Pinchot was born on August 11, 1865, in the town of Simsbury, Connecticut. Far from working class, his family had made their fortune, ironically, in the timber industry. His grandfather was a 19th-century timber baron, and legend has it that Gifford's father James had a profound regret over the empty, deforested landscape that was his family legacy.
As a young man, Pinchot was trained in some of the best schools in the East, like Phillips Exeter Academy. He was also able to travel extensively, and largely as a result of his father's urging, Pinchot studied forestry in Europe following his years at Yale University, where he also studied the subject.
In those days, forestry was virtually unknown as a profession: "I had no more conception of what it meant to be a forester than the man in the moon," said Pinchot. "But at least a forester worked in the woods and with the woods -- and I loved the woods and everything about them ... My father's suggestion settled the question in favor of forestry."
Gifford Pinchot and the Forest Service
After his return to the United States, Pinchot worked as a forester at the Biltmore Forest School on the renowned Vanderbilt family's Biltmore estate in North Carolina. In 1896, he was appointed to the National Forest Commission, and shortly thereafter President Grover Cleveland asked Pinchot to lead the national effort to develop the timber reserves of the American West.
Pinchot earned a reputation for advocating the long-term conservation of forest lands, a stark contrast to the clear-cutting for short-term profit that was the order of the day among timber interests. Partly as a result of this -- and partly the result of his family's wealth and influence -- in 1898 Pinchot was appointed to head the agency that eventually became the U.S. Forest Service.
Two years later, Pinchot was instrumental in founding the Society of American Foresters. The organization's first duty was to raise the profile of forestry as a profession, and to attract people to the only three schools of forestry in the United States: Cornell, Biltmore and Yale.
Gifford Pinchot in Washington
In 1901, President William McKinley was assassinated, and his vice-president -- Theodore Roosevelt -- assumed the office of president. This was a momentous occasion for Pinchot, since both he and Roosevelt were well-connected East Coast aristocrats. Shortly after taking office, Roosevelt expanded the authority of Pinchot's Forest Service, giving it control over much of America's timber reserves.
Roosevelt was, like Pinchot and many conservationists of the era, an avid believer in the importance of forest preservation. In addition to setting aside some 16 million acres of national forest, Roosevelt preserved some 230 million acres as national parks, game preserves and other wilderness.
But Pinchot's time in office was controversial, despite his many conservation successes. Torn between the competing demands of wilderness preservation and timber interests, he advocated for a balanced approach of long-term timber management. To ardent preservationists like John Muir, however, Pinchot was selling out America's wilderness areas to monied timber barons. Muir and Pinchot, once friends, eventually became bitter enemies over their differing perspectives on wilderness preservation.
Gifford Pinchot's Later Years
Pinchot was fired by Roosevelt's successor, William Howard Taft, after speaking out against many of Taft's policies. He remained active in politics, however, and served two terms as governor of Pennsylvania.
Late in life, Pinchot saw the devastation wrought by timber companies' interests on Forest Service lands: On a 1937 trip out west, he witnessed clear-cutting of vast tracts of western forests, which he described as "absolute devastation." "The Forest Service should absolutely declare against clear-cutting in Washington and Oregon as a defensive measure," he wrote.
Pinchot died of leukemia on October 4, 1946, at the age of 81. His legacy -- beyond the millions of acres of preserved wilderness throughout America -- includes the Gifford Pinchot National Forest in Washington, Gifford Pinchot State Park in Pennsylvania, and the Pinchot Institute for Conservation.
