Gifford Pinchot

Gifford Pinchot (1909)

Gifford Pinchot (* 11. August 1865 in Simsbury , Hartford County , Connecticut , † 4. October 1946 in New York City ) was an American forest scientists , politicians of the Republican Party and environmentalists . He was the first chief of the United States Forest Service (1905-1910) and the 29th and 31st Governor of Pennsylvania (1923-1927, 1931-1935). Pinchot is best known as a reformer of forest management and development in the United States.

Early years and political advancement

Pinchot was interested in the forest even in his youth. In 1898 he graduated from the Yale University and was in the local fraternity Skull and Bones added. After attaining the first academic degree, he studied in France at a state forest school for a year. For the Phelps Dodge Company and by George W. Vanderbilt, he surveyed and measured forests. He then opened a forest advisory office in New York that worked for the State of New Jersey and the Vanderbilts, among others .

In 1896 he was appointed to the National Forest Commission by President Grover Cleveland with the task of developing a plan for the management and use of forests in the western United States. Between 1898 and 1905 he was a division manager in the US Department of Agriculture . His area of ​​responsibility there was the forest administration "Division of Forestry", which was later renamed "United States Forest Service".

During this time he led an influential debate with the nature philosopher and conservationist John Muir about the best way to use forests. Pinchot took the position that forests and other natural resources should be used sustainably , so that their value and possible uses are permanently preserved. Muir campaigned for wilderness protection and wanted to take large areas of federally owned forests out of use. The debate became known under the terms of conservation for sustainable use and preservation for non-use. Both representatives pushed through their ideas in different areas: Pinchot's thoughts led to the National Forests of the USA, while Muir was decisive for the establishment of national parks and national monuments . Both were friends with President Theodore Roosevelt , who was the first to designate large-scale land in the western United States as forest or nature reserves.

At Yale University, Pinchot started its own forestry faculty. There he held a chair for forest management between 1903 and 1936. Pinchot became a well-known American environmentalist and was considered a politically progressive figure under the patronage of US President Theodore Roosevelt. His department was given control of all federally owned forests, and its powers were significantly expanded. Pinchot worked out a plan which, under certain conditions and a corresponding fee payment, took into account private interests in the development of the forest. Pinchot also founded the National Conservation Association , of which he was president between 1910 and 1925.

Political dispute

Gifford Pinchot (right) with President Theodore Roosevelt (1907)

Due to demands from the economy, it was decided in 1907 in Congress not to place any further forest areas in the west of the country under nature protection. Shortly before, President Roosevelt put 65,000 km² under nature protection. Pinchot's authority was progressively undermined. President William Howard Taft , elected in 1908, dismissed Pinchot for opposing his policies and those of his Home Secretary Richard A. Ballinger . In what became known as the Ballinger-Pinchot controversy , Pinchot launched discrediting material against Ballinger, which promoted the separation of the Republican Party and led to the formation of the Progressive Party , which was then led by Theodore Roosevelt. In 1914, he ran unsuccessfully for a seat in the US Senate and showed interest in the presidency. He campaigned for America to join the First World War - in contrast to the original neutrality of Woodrow Wilson . Eventually the Progressive Party broke up and Pinchot returned to the Republicans.

Governor of Pennsylvania

With Wilson's re-election to the US presidency in 1916, Pichot turned to Pennsylvania. Governor William Sproul appointed him in 1920 to the forestry commissioner of the country (Commissioner of Forestry) . Governor Sproul reforested Pennsylvanian forests that had been exploited and cut down for decades. Pinchot aspired to the office of governor of Pennsylvania at this time. The 1922 campaign for this office focused on public reforms: the state budget, the enforcement of prohibition and the regulation of public utility enterprises. He won by a slim majority. In his first term of office between 1923 and 1927, the administration was reformed and the budget restructured. Care for the disabled has been improved. A pension system has been introduced for civil servants. Due to a constitutional clause, Pinchot was not allowed to run for direct re-election in 1926. Therefore, he resigned on January 18, 1927 from his office. After another unsuccessful candidacy for the US Senate, he embarked on a seven-month voyage to the South Seas .

In 1930 he was re-elected governor. His second four-year term began on January 20, 1931 and was initially overshadowed by the great economic crisis of those years. The number of unemployed also rose in Pennsylvania. The governor put in place employment programs and laws to control the banks were passed. For example, other roads were built that were paved for the first time. He also stood up for the suffering farmers. Together with the New Deal policy of the new President Franklin D. Roosevelt , the crisis was gradually overcome.

Another résumé

Gray Towers National Historic Site

After the end of his governorship, he made a third and final attempt to be elected to Congress. The third attempt was not crowned with success either. In 1938 he failed in the Republican Party primary election when he sought a third nomination for governor of Pennsylvania. In his remaining years, the ex-governor was an adviser to the president and wrote a book about his life in the forest management and invented what was known as fishing equipment, which was used on lifeboats to fish castaways on lifeboats during World War II . He also instructed the US Navy on how to get fresh water from fish. In 1946 he died of leukemia at the age of 81 . He left behind his wife, Cornelia Bryce, and son Gifford Bryce Pinchot (Gifford Pinchot II). Gifford Pinchot found his final resting place in the family mausoleum in Milford City Cemetery .

The Forest History Society (FHS) made him a posthumous Fellow in 1961 .

The architecturally outstanding house of the Pinchot family called Gray Towers in Milford was designed by architect Richard Morris Hunt . It has been federally owned since 1963, designated a National Historic Landmark that same year , and was upgraded to a National Historic Site in 2005 . It is operated by the US Forest Service as a museum for the agency's founding director and is the seat and venue for meetings of the Pinchot Institute , a conservation think tank founded by John F. Kennedy in 1963 .

Fonts (selection)

• Government Forestry Abroad . Baltimore 1891.
• Biltmore Forest, the Property of Mr. George W. Vanderbilt. An Account of Its Treatment, and the Results of the First Year's Work . Chicago 1893.
• The Adirondack Spruce. A Study of the Forest in Ne-Ha-Sa-Ne Park . 1898 (New York 1970 edition, ISBN 0-40502682-X ).
• together with others: Report of the Public Lands Commission . Washington 1905.
• The Fight for Conservation . New York 1910 (later reprint: Seattle 1967).
• The Training of a Forester . Philadelphia and London 1914.
• The Power Monopoly: Its Make-up and Its Menace . Milford 1928.
• To the South Seas. The Cruise of the Schooner Mary Pinchot to the Galapagos, the Marquesas, and the Tuamotu Islands, and Tahiti . Philadelphia, Chicago, etc. a. 1930.
• Breaking New Ground , New York 1947, ISBN 0-29595181-8 (later editions including Washington 1998, ISBN 1-55963669-6 and ISBN 1-55963670-X ).
• Fishing Talk . Harrisburg 1993, ISBN 0-81172512-X .
• The Conservation Diaries of Gifford Pinchot . Edited by Harold K. Steen, Durham 2001, ISBN 0-89030059-3 and ISBN 0-89030060-7 .

literature

• Peter Anderson: Gifford Pinchot. American forester . Watts, New York 1995, ISBN 0-53120205-4 .
• John Clayton: Natural rivals: John Muir, Gifford Pinchot, and the creation of America's public lands , New York; : London: Pegasus Books, 2019, ISBN 978-1-64313-080-4
• Char Miller: Gifford Pinchot and the Making of Modern Environmentalism . Island Press / Shearwater Books, Washington 2001, ISBN 1-55963822-2 and ISBN 1-55963823-0 .
• Martin Nelson McGeary: Gifford Pinchot, Forester-Politician . Garland, New York 1979, ISBN 0-82409700-9 .
• Robert Sobel and John Raimo (Eds.): Biographical Directory of the Governors of the United States, 1789–1978. Volume 4, Meckler Books, Westport, 1978. 4 volumes.

Web links

• Gifford Pinchot in the database of the National Governors Association (English)
• The governors of Pennsylvania (English)
• Detailed biography (with photos) on the website of the US Forest Service (English)
• Gifford Pinchot in the database of Find a Grave (English)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Honors of the Forest Society (FHS) ( Memento of the original from November 20, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (English)