Gifford Pinchot

“ National degradation and decay have uniformly followed the excessive destruction of forests by other nations, and will inevitably become our portion if we continue to destroy our forests three times faster than they are produced, as we are doing now. The principles of forestry, therefore, must occupy a commanding place in determining the future prosperity or failure of our nation, and this commanding position in the field of ideas is naturally and properly reflected in the dignity and high standing which the profession of forestry, young as it is, has already acquired in the United States. ”

“ In no other profession, to my knowledge, is a man thrown so completely on his own responsibility. The Forester often leads an isolated life for weeks or months at a time, seeing the men under whom he works only at distant intervals. Because he is so much his own master, the responsibility which rests upon him is peculiarly his own, and must be met out of the resources within himself. ”

“ One of the most difficult things to do in any profession which involves drudgery (and I take it that no profession which does not involve drudgery is worth the attention of a man) is to look beyond the daily routine to the things which that routine is intended to assist in accomplishing. This is [Pg 70] peculiarly true of forestry, in which, perhaps more than in any other profession, the long-distance, far-sighted attitude of mind is essential to success. The trees a Forester plants he himself will seldom live to harvest. Much of his thought about his forest must be in terms of centuries. ”

“ The "practical" men with whom the Forester must do his work—lumbermen, cattlemen, sheepmen, settlers, forest users of all kinds—are often by very much his superiors in usable knowledge of the details of their work. Their opinions are entitled to the most complete hearing and respect. There is no other class of men from whose advice the Forester can so greatly profit if he chooses to do so. He is superior to them, if at all, only in his technical knowledge, and in the broader point of view he has derived from his professional training. ”

“ The right to be heard with respect by the men who were already in control of the larger part of our total forest wealth had to be won, and has been won. What is more, in the teeth of the bitterest opposition of private special interests, the right of the public to first consideration in the protection and development of the forest and of all the resources it contains had to be asserted and established. ”

“ In particular, it is the art of handling the forest so that it will render whatever service is required of it without being impoverished or destroyed. For example, a forest may be handled so as to produce saw logs, telegraph poles, barrel hoops, firewood, tan bark, or turpentine. The main purpose of its treatment may be to prevent the washing of soil, to regulate the flow of streams, to support cattle or sheep, or it may be handled so as to supply a wide range and combination of uses. Forestry is the art of producing from the forest whatever it can yield for the service of man. ”

“ The young Forester must make himself familiar with the administration of the National Forests. He must know how the business of the forest is handled, how it is protected against fire, how the timber is sold, how claims and entries are dealt with under the public land laws, how land in the [Pg 140] National Forests is used to make homes, how trespass is controlled, how the livestock industry on the National Forests is fostered and regulated, and how the extremely valuable watersheds they contain are safeguarded and improved. ”

“ The dominant place of the forest in our national economy is well illustrated by the fact that no article whatsoever, whether of use or ornament, whether it be for food, shelter, clothing, convenience, protection, or decoration, can be produced and delivered to the user, as industry is now organized, without the help of the forest in supplying wood. An examination of the history of any article, including the production of the raw material, and its manufacture, transportation, and distribution, will at once make this point clear. ”

“ But if this is the first matter to be considered in deciding upon a profession, it is by no means the last, and the practical considerations of a fair return for good work, bread and butter for a man and his family, the certainty or uncertainty of employment,—such questions as these must have their full share of attention. ”

“ To-day the National Forests are reasonably safe in the protection of public opinion, not against all attack, it is true, but against any successful attempt to dismember and turn them over to the special interests who already control the bulk and the best of our forests. The public has accepted forestry as necessary to the public welfare, both in the present and in the future ”

“ The idea of using the forest first for the greatest good of the present generation, and then for the greatest good of succeeding generations through the long future of the nation and the race—that is the Forester's point of view. ”

“ The man for whom every employer of men is searching, everywhere and always, is the man who will accept the responsibility for the work he has to do—who will not lean at every point upon his superior for additional instructions, advice, or encouragement.
There is no more valuable subordinate than the man to whom you can give a piece of work and then forget about it, in the confident expectation that the next time it is brought to your attention it will come in the form of a report that the thing has been done. ”

“ The trees in a forest are all helped by mutually protecting each other against high winds, and by producing a richer and moister soil than would be possible if the trees stood singly and apart. They compete among themselves by their roots for moisture in the soil, and for light and space by the growth of their crowns in height and breadth. Perhaps the strongest weapon which trees have against each other is growth in height. In certain species intolerant of shade, the tree which is overtopped has lost the race for good. ”

“ No man can be a good Forester without that quality of observation and understanding which the French call "the forester's eye." It is not the only quality required for success in forestry, but it is unquestionably the first. ”

“ Next to those basic traits of personal character, without which no man is worth his salt, the Forester's most important quality is the power of observation, the power to note and understand, or seek to understand, what he sees in the forest. It is just as essential a part of the Forester's equipment to be able to see what is wrong with a piece of forest, and what is required for its improvement, as it is necessary for a physician to be able to diagnose a disease and to prescribe the remedy. ”

“ To the young man who is attracted to forestry and begins to consider it as a possible profession, certain questions present themselves. What is forestry? If he takes it up, what will his work be, and where? ”

“ Business principles are as necessary in the management of forests as in the management of mills or farms. These business principles work out in different forms of forest policy adapted to the needs of different kinds of owners, such as lumbermen and the Government. What the young Forester has learned about growth and yield, about timber estimates and forest statistics, and many other matters, all finds its application in forest management. ”

“ The usefulness of the Supervisor depends as much upon his good judgment, his ability to [Pg 49] meet men and do business with them, and his knowledge of local needs and local affairs, as it does upon his knowledge of the forest itself. As in the case of every superior officer, his attitude toward his work, his energy, his good sense, and his good will are or should be reflected in the men under him, so that his position is one of the greatest importance in determining the success or failure of each National Forest, and hence of the Forest Service as a whole. ”

“ The Forest Assistant's or Examiner's knowledge of surveying makes it natural for him to take an important part in the laying out of new roads and trails in the forest, or in correcting the lines of old ones, and there is little work more immediately useful. The forest can be safeguarded effectively just in proportion to the ease with which all parts of it can be reached. Forest protection may be less technically interesting than other parts of the Forester's work, but nothing that he does is more important or pays larger dividends in future results. ”

“ The success of the technical Forester, like that of the Ranger, and indeed of nearly every Government Forest Officer, in whatever position or line of work, will very frequently depend on his good judgment and practical sense, the chief ingredient of which will always be his knowledge of local needs and conditions, and his sympathetic understanding of the local point of view. ”

“ Progress is always in spirals, and there is always a good time coming. There is nothing so fatal to good work as that flabby spirit under which some weak men try to hide their inefficiency—the spirit of "What's the use?" ”

“ The principal objects of the conditions [Pg 55] laid down for a timber sale are always the reproduction of the forest and its safety against fire. Natural reproduction from self-sown seed is almost invariably the result desired; and so the question of the seed trees to be left, and how they are to be located or spaced, is fundamental, unless there is ample young growth already on the ground. In the latter case this young growth must not be smashed or bent by throwing the older trees on top of it, or against it, and the young saplings bent down by the felled tops must be promptly released. ”

“ The uses to which National Forest lands are put are almost unbelievably various. Barns, borrow pits, botanical gardens, cemeteries and churches, dairies and dipping vats, fox ranches and fish hatcheries, hotels, pastures, pipe lines, power sites, residences, sanitaria and school-houses, stores and tunnels, these and many others make up, with grazing and timber sales, the uses of the National Forests, for which already more than half a million permits have been issued. ”

“ His purpose is to make it serve the greatest good of the greatest number for the longest time. Before the members of any other profession dealing with natural resources, the Foresters acquired the long look ahead. This was only natural, because in forestry it is seldom that a man lives to harvest the crop which he helped to sow. The Forester must look [Pg 24] forward, because the natural resource with which he deals matures so slowly, and because, if steps are to be taken to insure for succeeding generations a supply of the things the forest yields, they must be taken long in advance. ”

“ Each year the Forest Service men extinguish not less than three thousand fires, nearly all of them while they are still small. At times, however, when the woods are very dry and the wind blows hard, in spite of all that can be done, a fire will grow large enough to be [Pg 34] dangerous not only to the forest but to human life. Thus in the summer of 1910, the driest ever known in certain parts of the West, high winds drove the forest fires clear beyond the control of the fire fighters, many of whom were compelled to fight for their own lives. ”

“ Good sense is the first condition of success. I am merely saying that in ninety-nine cases out of a hundred, when a thing ought to be done it can be done, if the effort is made with that idea in mind. ”

“ When the young Forester has completed the courses of his school training in America, the question may be raised whether he should supplement his training by study abroad. I am strongly of opinion that he should do so if he can. Study abroad is not indispensable for the American Forester, but it can do him nothing but good to see in practical operation the methods of forestry which have resulted from the long experience of other lands, and especially to become familiar with the effect of sound forestry on the forest. ”

“ This is one of the strongest reasons why the Forester, whether in public or private employment, must always look upon himself as a public servant. It is of the first importance that he should accustom himself to think of the results of his work as affecting, not primarily himself, but others, always [Pg 71] including the general public. It is essential for a Forester to form the habit of looking far ahead, out of which grows a sound perspective and persistence in body and mind. ”