THE USDA FOREST SERVICE— The First Century

President Theodore Roosevelt (Library of Congress)

The founding of the National Forest System and the Forest Service, an agency of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, has its roots in the last quarter of the 19th century and was directly related to three visionary men: Franklin B. Hough, Bernhard F. Fernow, and Gifford Pinchot. These three contributed countless hours, strong leadership, and assistance to the new field of forestry and especially Federal forestry. Their expertise helped to create millions of acres of forest reserves (now called national forests) in the West. They also laid the foundation for the development of the new Forest Service in the Department of Agriculture. These visionaries, along with willing presidents (especially Teddy Roosevelt), scientific and conservation organizations, and newly trained forestry professionals, led the successful effort in retaining millions of acres of Federal forest land for future generations.

The pride and professionalism shared by these early leaders continue in the Forest Service today. These forestry crusaders were so successful in their battle for protection of public forest domain land that today the United States has a system of 155 national forests, 20 national grasslands, and 20 research and experimental forests, as well as other special areas covering 191 million acres of public land. The Forest Service has evolved into a 35,000-employee agency that manages the national forests and grasslands for a number of multiple uses, including timber, wilderness, recreation, minerals, water, grazing, and wildlife. The people who work "on the ground" in the national forests include specialists such as ecologists, foresters, silviculturists, engineers, range conservationists, firefighters, surveyors, hydrologists, landscape architects, archeologists, soil scientists, fisheries biologists, wildlife biologists, and geologists. Supporting these specialists are an assortment of planners, economists, public affairs specialists, social scientists, budget and financial administrators, human resource specialists, civil rights specialists, computer programmers, accountants, technicians, clerks, writers, editors, carpenters, mechanics, heavy equipment operators, and others.