Fiddlin'Foresters

The U.S. Forest Service and the conservation movement, if not born together, certainly came of age together. Like two rough and tumble siblings, at times they were the best of friends, while at other times they fought tooth and nail. Ultimately, their struggles strengthened each other, and in so doing together they strengthened the nation.

The American character is, in no small way, shaped by the richness of our national forests and grasslands. It is clear that forest conservation as a movement had a profound effect on the United States in the 20 th century. It is just as clear that, as we enter into a New Century of Service, the management of our national forests and grasslands will continue to serve as a yardstick of success in our country’s ongoing experiment in democracy.

The origins

In the 1800’s, the still young country was beginning to feel the effects of widespread exploitation of its incredible richness of natural resources. Bison were approaching extinction and fears of a timber famine were starting to take hold. Western “range wars” were being fought over water rights and grazing lands, and minerals were being mined virtually without regulation.

The conservation movement had its origins in the mid-1800’s, out of concern that we could actually run out of the very resources once thought limitless. Many credit the writings of George Perkins Marsh and his book Man and Nature for this beginning. To be sure, the reprint of this book with a new title, The Earth as Modified by Human Action, was to strongly influence Gifford Pinchot, who would go on the become the first Chief Forester of the Forest Service.

The U.S. Forest Service can trace it’s origins to an act of Congress later that same century. After many years of public debate, forest lands were first set aside in this country by the Forest Reserve Act of 1891. With the stroke of a pen, the President could now “…set apart and reserve…public lands bearing forests…as public reservations.” And set aside lands they did, to the delight of some and the consternation of others.

President Benjamin Harrison set aside the Yellowstone Park Timber Land Reserve in Wyoming and the White River Timber Land Reserve in Colorado later that same year. By 1897, 40 million acres had been set aside in the western United States. But the question remained, to what purpose?

This would be cleared up by Congress in the Organic Act of 1897, which defined the purposes of the forest reserves as “…securing favorable conditions of water flows, and to furnish a continuous supply of timber for the use and necessities of citizens of the United States.”

Now, the forest reserves were growing and had a clear purpose. But the debate over how to put this purpose into action was just beginning…

The birth of the U.S. Forest Service

The U.S. Forest Service was born in 1905, at a time of great political debate over the future of the public forest lands. The two stalwarts at the center of this debate were President Teddy Roosevelt and Gifford Pinchot.

When Theodore Roosevelt became president in 1901, following the assassination of President William McKinley, he brought with him a strong love of the outdoors. He found a kindred spirit in Gifford Pinchot, who at the time was serving as Chief of the Forestry Division within the Department of Agriculture.

The problem with the Forestry Division, as Pinchot saw it, was that while he and his trained foresters were housed in the Department of Agriculture, the actual forest reserves were managed within the General Land Office of the Department of Interior. He intended to change this, and he would not be denied.

By January 1905, Pinchot held the first American Forest Congress. This gathering of influential citizens would provide the political support that Roosevelt and Pinchot needed to secure the Transfer Act of 1905. With this act, the forest reserves were be transferred from the Department of the Interior to the Department of Agriculture, and the agency would be renamed – the U.S. Forest Service.

By 1907 the name of the forest reserves would be changed to national forests. This was very important to Pinchot, who intended that these would be the nation’s lands; lands not reserved from the people but to be used by them in a way to sustain their use for future generations. This sentiment was first articulated in the letter of instructions to Gifford Pinchot from Secretary of Agriculture James Wilson, penned by Pinchot himself and delivered on the day of transfer to the Department of Agriculture:

All the resources of forest reserves are for use…under such restrictions only as will insure (sic) the permanence of these resources.

The early rangers

With the Transfer Act, a newly minted agency with a visionary leader was put in charge of 60 forest reserves covering 56 million acres. Not a small task to be sure, but one destined to grow in short order. By 1908, President Roosevelt had added over 100 million acres to the forest reserves. The stewardship of these vast lands would fall to professionally trained foresters as well as men – and they were all men in those days – who grew up on the land and could learn on the job. They would be known as rangers. And a hardy lot they were.

To become a ranger, an applicant had to pass written and practical Civil Service exams. The physical standards for the job, as described in recruiting posters of the day, were quite blunt and would undoubtedly offend modern sensibilities.

These rangers had a difficult job to be sure, but they were by and large up to the task. Among their highest priorities were surveying borders of the new national forests starting with nothing more than a map with hand drawn boundaries and bringing rampant grazing under control.

One of their most difficult jobs was fighting forest fires. With only a few men on salary, they had to reach out to local communities to find help, and often put together crews gathered from the local drinking establishments and other gathering spots. This would begin to change after the fires of 1910.

The Big Blowup

The summer of 1910 was a summer of parched drought over much of the western United States. Fires were widespread, and culminated in what later became known as the Big Blowup in late August of that year. Over 3,000,000 acres burned in two days in northern Idaho and western Montana, taking with it 85 lives.

This would be a seminal moment in the early life of agency, heralding in the long era and tradition in the Forest Service of aggressively fighting forest fires. In the early days, this meant building and staffing fire lookout towers to spot fires and riding long miles on horseback to fight them.

Not one cent for scenery!

Nearly all of the 150 million acres of national forest land that had been established by 1907 were in the western United States, carved out of the public domain lands. However, then as now, the majority of the population was in the east. Recreationists in the east clamored for the creation of more national forests in the east, but with the land in private ownership a new approach would be needed. Supporters of the proposed White Mountain reserves in Maine and New Hampshire would find a friend in Massachusetts Congressman John Weeks.

It was to be an uphill battle. After Weeks’ introduction of a bill in 1906 to authorize purchase of private lands for national forests, the powerful Speaker of the House Joseph Cannon made known his opposition succinctly when he stated “not one cent for scenery!” It would take five more years before passage of the Weeks Act of 1911, which authorized the purchase of private lands from willing sellers for establishment of national forests east of the Mississippi River.

By 1920, 2 million acres would be established, and by 1980 over 20 million acres had been added to the national forest system in the east. When acquired, much of this land was cutover forestland or abandoned farmland. Over the ensuing years, this land has been restored to productive forestland, protecting watersheds, providing wildlife habitat and outdoor recreation opportunities for millions of Americans.

Early recreation on the national forests

In these early years, the idea of national forests was beginning to take shape in the minds of Americans. Roads that were built for fire control began to open up the forests. As well-heeled citizens began to purchase motor cars and look to the forests for recreation, the national forests became a destination. As a way to encourage use and support of the national forests, permits for recreation cabins were issued to those seeking the solitude of nature.

It was while laying out sites for recreation cabins in 1919 alongside Trapper’s Lake in the White River National Forest in Colorado that Arthur Carhart, the agency’s first landscape architect, would make a recommendation that would have a lasting effect on the concept of forest conservation.

Observing the majesty of the mountains, he sent a recommendation back to his superiors that the area not be set aside for cabins but rather for its wild, untamed beauty. His recommendation would be well received, and he would find a kindred spirit in Aldo Leopold. Leopold would make a recommendation in 1922 that would lead to the creation of the first wilderness ever established in 1924, the Gila Wilderness Area in New Mexico. His desire at the time was to protect a hunting ground “large enough to absorb a 2-week pack trip without encountering any roads.”

The CCC boys

The Great Depression would usher the Forest Service into an era of social responsibility earlier envisioned by Gifford Pinchot. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, in response to the depression, created many social programs as part of the New Deal. One of those, the Civilian Conservation Corps, would find a home in the Forest Service and leave a lasting legacy. Known by most as the CCC and by some as the Tree Army, the vast majority of the 2,600 CCC camps established during the life of the program from 1933 to 1942 were located on national forests.

The CCC program put young, unemployed men to work for a cash allowance of $30 a month and a minimum stay of 6 months. Of their $30 monthly allowance, $25 was to be set aside to assist their dependents. Much of the work they did can still be seen in campgrounds, fire towers, rustic offices and trails throughout the national forests. During their time, more than three million men served in the program, planting over 2 billion trees, building more than 48,000 bridges, 13,000 cabins, 10,000 fire lookout houses and towers, 142,000 miles of foot and horse trails, providing 6.4 million man-days of fighting forest fires, and stocking nearly 1 billion fish.

Prowlin’ and a growlin’ and a sniffin’ the air…

With economic conditions improving in the late 1930’s, the number of CCC enrollees began to dwindle. World War II would bring about the end of the CCC program as men went off to war. The end of one era would usher in another, bearing an icon of the Forest Service that lives on to this day.

Forest fires became a growing concern for the Forest Service during the war years, as many of its firefighters joined the military. With the shelling of an oilfield near the Los Padres National Forest by a Japanese submarine, authorities became concerned that intentional efforts to start wildfires in the west would divert resources from the front. Efforts began to enlist the public’s help in preventing and detecting forest fires.

The Cooperative Forest Fire Campaign was launched, and the Forest Service teamed with the Wartime Advertising Council to develop a public education campaign. Smokey Bear was born on August 9, 1944, and he began his work in earnest in 1945. His efforts that year centered on fire prevention and included messages on wartime fire safety.

Smokey would go on to teach forest fire prevention to several generations of Americans, enlisting many in their youth as Junior Forest Rangers. Now over 60, Smokey Bear is the most successful public education campaign of the Advertising Council and is the second most recognizable figure in American culture, behind only Santa Claus.

The Post War Boom

The end of World War II brought our troops home to find their American dream, and with it came the baby boom and a great need for new housing. The national forests were there to provide inexpensive timber to replace private timberlands heavily cutover during the war to this expanding market, and the “hard hat” era was off and running.

Management of timber on the national forests would change from a custodial approach to one of active management to fulfill the needs of a growing nation. Large timber sales, particularly in the Pacific Northwest, became the norm as annual timber volume harvested from the national forests tripled from 1950 to 1959.

During this same time, a system of multifunctional research centers supporting forest and range management needs was developed. As the nation became more affluent, increasing demands to provide recreation opportunities were being felt. As more and more Americans ventured out to play in their national forests, many were concerned that too much timber cutting was occurring in areas also used for recreation. Others felt that the Forest Service was not living up to its earlier legacy of wilderness protection.

The Forest Service began to find itself at odds with many of its former allies in the conservation community over its focus on timber commodity production. As these uses and users began to conflict, a new era of environmentalism was dawning, and with it would come considerable Congressional involvement.

Multiple Use and multiple laws

In 1956, Minnesota Senator Hubert H. Humphrey introduced a study bill to designate wilderness areas on the national forests. The bill was promoted by the Wilderness Society, founded by former Forest Service employees Bob Marshall and Aldo Leopold, out of a concern that the Forest Service was tilting away from a balanced approach and towards a timber harvesting bias. The Forest Service responded by promoting legislation to prevent a single use focus of resource management.

The Multiple Use-Sustained Yield Act of 1960 resulted, the first of a series of environmental protection laws. The multiple uses included outdoor recreation, timber, range, watershed, and wildlife and fish, and the idea was that all uses would be treated equally. This did nothing to assuage the concerns of wilderness activists, who fought for eight years to secure passage of the Wilderness Act in 1964.

The 1960s was a time of increased social unrest over government actions, and the Forest Service found itself squarely in the middle of this unrest. Clearcutting became agency policy during that decade. The fight over the use of this practice would lead to the National Environmental Policy Act of 1970. This legislation would have a profound effect on the Forest Service, as it mandated that the public would be involved in resource decisions and that specialists from all disciplines would be involved in those decisions.

Other significant environmental legislation that would follow would be the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act of 1968, the Clean Water Act of 1972, the Endangered Species Act of 1973, Resources Planning Act of 1974, the Eastern Wilderness Act of 1975 and the National Forest Management Act of 1976. These acts would have a major impact on the way the national forests are managed to this day.

Getting Out the Cut

In 1980, Ronald Reagan was elected president. His administration, including controversial Secretary of Interior James Watts, placed greater emphasis on commodity production. As a result, the Forest Service began to increase timber production, reaching a crest of 12 billion board feet of timber harvested annually by the late 1980’s. The environmental community was adamantly opposed to this increased emphasis on commodity production and began to fight it strenuously.

At the same time, the agency was changing internally in ways that would mark a sea change. A move to diversify the workforce was changing the face of the agency. Once almost the sole purview of white male foresters and engineers, the agency was diversifying it’s workforce by both by gender and race. In addition, more and more employees were hired in other resource areas such as wildlife biology, fire ecology, archeology, recreation, wilderness management, hydrology, soil science, botany, and forest health.

As these internal and external forces were brought to bear, the Forest Service began to realize that a broader approach to resource stewardship might be needed. A new critter was about to enter the public stage that would move this idea forward…

The Spotted Owl and Old Growth Forests

The decade of the 1990’s would be dominated by debate over old growth forests and ecosystem management. This debate actually began through Forest Service research work on the remnants of native forests of the Pacific Northwest. It became apparent that continued intensive timber harvesting of these remnants, which would become known as old growth forests, would result in a conflict with the Endangered Species Act. This pushed the species that would be most directly affected, the northern spotted owl, front and center in the debate over the best way to manage these national forests.

This debate highlighted many aspects of national forest management and its effects on communities surrounded by and dependent upon those forests. Ultimately, while the spotted owl took much of the blame or much of the credit, depending on one’s perspective, for the end result of greatly reducing national forest timber harvesting in the Pacific Northwest, management of these resources was destined to change as we as a society learned more about the functioning of forested ecosystems.

The Forest Service of today

As Chief Dale Bosworth commented on the Forest Service Centennial Film The Greatest Good, “I really believe that the future of the national forests is going to be, at least over the next ten, twenty, thirty years, one of recreation and restoration. When I say restoration, I’m talking about watershed restoration – restoration of fire adapted ecosystems. It is time to reinvest in the national forests for the next generation, and that’s what the restoration is all about.”

Fire and fuels, invasive species, loss of open space, and unmanaged recreation are the four threats identified by Chief Bosworth as having the greatest impact on the health of our nation’s forests and grasslands as we move to restore these lands.

Fire and Fuels

Decades of fuel buildup have led to growing numbers of catastrophic fires, especially in the West. Catastrophic fires burn out of control, damage forest stands, and compromise human safety and ecosystem integrity. Many forests have become far denser than they ought to be, making them more vulnerable to catastrophic fire. Vulnerable forests are concentrated at lower elevations, where most Americans live, work, and play.

Catastrophic fires and related evacuations disrupt communities and are very expensive. Firefighting alone cost $1.4 billion in 2002, the second largest fire season in US history. Sensitive species cannot find suitable habitat in overcrowded forests, and catastrophic fires often destroy the few remaining refuges available to wildlife.

Rehabilitation and restoration treatment priorities are highest where risks are greatest. Estimates are that high priority treatment areas cover 397 million acres across all ownerships, public and private, an area three times the size of France. Treatments aimed to restore overcrowded forests and reduce the risk of catastrophic fires include prescribed burning and thinning.

Invasive Species

Invasive species are spreading at alarming rates, adversely affecting people and the ecosystem and costing us part of our national heritage. For example, invasives have led to disappearance of the American elm (Dutch elm disease), once a feature of the urban landscape, and two major forest trees—American chestnut (chestnut blight) and western white pine (white pine blister rust).

Invasive species can be introduced on purpose (such as kudzu vine in the 1930s to control erosion) or by accident (such as Asian longhorned beetle in the 1990s on packing crates from China). With the globalization of commerce and foreign travel to and from the US, the number of new invasive species from abroad is growing. Invasive plants now cover about 133 million acres in all ownerships nationwide and are spreading at the rate of about 1.7 million acres per year. The U.S. spends $13 billion per year to prevent and contain the spread of invasives.

Ecologically, invasives threaten the survival of native species. Scientists estimate that invasives contribute to the decline of up to half of all endangered species. Invasives are the single greatest cause of loss of biodiversity in the US, second only to loss of habitat.

The Forest Service is focused on early detection, prevention, control and management, and rehabilitation and restoration strategies to combat invasive species.

Loss of Open Space

Almost 22 million acres of open space was lost to development between 1982 and 1997, about 6,000 acres a day, 3 acres a minute. Of this loss, close to 10.3 million acres was in forested lands.

Across the nation, forests and rangelands are being broken up into smaller parcels, leading to the loss of habitat, affecting air and water quality, and reducing economic viability of farming, ranching, and forest management enterprises.

In the scenic West, appreciating land values motivate ranchers to subdivide or sell their land to developers. Taking advantage of loopholes in zoning ordinances, “ranchettes” are offered in 35-acre blocks — often inadequate for commercial livestock operations. We need to conserve the nation’s forests and rangelands most at risk by working with partners, communities and landowners to balance development with the landscape.

Unmanaged recreation

It is every American’s birthright to use the national forests and grasslands in multiple ways, including outdoor recreation in all its forms. The phenomenal increase in the use of the national forests for recreational activities raises the need to manage most forms of recreation, particularly the use of off-highway vehicles such as all-terrain vehicles (ATVs), snowmobiles, sport utility vehicles, and off-highway motorcycles.

Managing recreation opportunities on the national forest protects the land for the benefit of all users. Depending on the site, unmanaged OHV use in the national forest can have serious impact on the land, including damage to wetlands, severe soil erosion, and the spread of invasive species.

The Forest Service will work with partners to develop travel management plans that regulate use of motorized vehicles on designated roads and trails.