History - John R. McGuire, Tenth Chief, 1972-1979
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![A picture of former Forest Service Chief McGuire](https://webarchive.library.unt.edu/eot2008/20090118204831im_/http://www.fs.fed.us/aboutus/history/chiefs/images/mcquire.jpg)
John Richard McGuire was born on April 20, 1916, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
He graduated with a degree in forestry from the University of Minnesota.
He briefly went to work for the Forest Service, then decided to go
back to school to be a research forester. He earned his M.F. degree
from Yale University in 1941 and worked at the Forest Service research
facility on campus. When World War II broke out, he entered the Army,
moving up to the rank of major with the Corps of Engineers in the
Pacific Theater. After the war, he returned to the Forest Service
in a research position at the Northeastern Forest Experiment Station
in New Haven, Connecticut. He moved in 1950 to a research station
at Upper Darby, Pennsylvania, while completing his M.A. in economics
at the University of Pennsylvania. In 1962, McGuire became director
of the Pacific Southwest Forest and Range Experiment Station in Berkeley,
California. He moved to the Washington D.C. office in 1967, then was
chosen chief in 1972, during a time of increasing environmental awareness
by the public. He served as chief until 1979. While serving as
chief, McGuire made changes to strengthen the roles of the branches
of state and private forestry and that of research to help implement
the Forest and Rangeland Renewable Resources Planning Act (RPA)
of 1974 and the National Forest Management Act of 1976. McGuire
faced increasing opposition to forestry practices being carried
out on the national forests. Most notable was the Congressional
hearings over clearcutting on the national forests. The hearings
came about after a report of a committee headed by University of
Montana School of Forestry Dean Arnold Bolle on clearcutting on
the Bitterroot National Forest in Montana and a lawsuit over clearcutting
on the Monongahela National Forest in West Virginia. McGuire was
instrumental in having the Forest Service review, then change forest
management practices, modify and integrate its methods of land management.
Major issues facing the chief were the roadless area review and
evaluation (RARE) and RARE II decisions, mounting controversy over
the management of national forests, and new direction from Congress
which mandated planning at the national forest, region, and national
levels through the Resources Planning Act of 1974 and the National
Forest Management Act of 1976. The 1973 Endangered Species Act was
passed not long after he became chief–and the controversy
about implementation of this act reverberates to the present. The
1975 Eastern Wilderness Act was signed into law that established
several million acres of new wilderness, many in the eastern states.
Additional legislation passed late during McGuire’s tenure
as chief included the Cooperative Forestry Assistance Act of 1978,
the Renewable Resources Extension Act of 1978, and the Forest and
Rangeland Renewable Resources Research Act of 1978. These three
laws provided an updated authority for forestry research and forestry
programs not related to public lands.
John R. McGuire wrote: Perhaps the greatest
challenge facing forestry today is the calender namely the arrival
of the 21st century. My question is, will American forestry be ready
to meet the 21st century?
A major determinant of how well American forestry prepares
for the 21st century will be cooperation in resources management.
This means cooperation among federal, state, and private ownerships;
cooperation across long standing professional barriers; and cooperation
with new and different arrangements of people and organizations,
a trend which is becoming more evident with each passing year. The
interested general public is surprisingly knowledgeable about natural
resources. Yet people still need to hear forestry's message that
sound forestry practices can provide both protection and use.
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