Gifford Pinchot

Grey Towers

In 1989 I don't think I had any idea about Gifford Pinchot when we decided to bike to investigate a local monument...The family estate of the Pinchot family and Gifford Pinchot.

Gifford Pinchot is considered among the fathers of modern American forestry and was the Secretary of the Interior during the Teddy Roosevelt administration. In 1908 he convened the first White House Conference on Conservation. Andrew Carnegie gave a keynote speech at the conference, which may explain why Mr. Pinchot's approach to forestry is biased toward management of resources. This approach led to battles with John Muir and others during the early formative years of the National Park System.

Years after my visit I learned and appreciated a more personal connection to the work of Gifford Pinchot. Namely that my great grandfather was a forester and a professor at the School of Forestry at Syracuse University. In the late twenties he wrote a paper titled, "Making Best USe of Idle Lands in New York." Another example of the utilitarian approach to the forests.

Giffor dPinchot was also a progressive Republican of the sort you no longer see much. He was twice elected Governor of Pennsylvania. In addition to his support of conservation his platform called for greater regulation of utilities to protect the working class consumer.

Twenty years after visiting GRey Towers I am pleased I had the opportunity to stumble upon the landmark to this important man and vow to return an dlearn more about him and his work. For now, a couple quotes from Mr. Pinchot:

When I got home at the end of 1890...the nation was obsessed by a fury of development. The American Colossus was fiercely intent on appropriating and exploiting the riches of the richest of all continents.

-- Upon returning from studies at the L'Ecole Nationale Forestiere in Nancy, France

The central thing for which conservation stands is to make this country the best possible place to live in, both for us and for our descendants. It stands against the waste of the natural resources which cannot be renewed, such as coal and iron; it stands for the perpetuation of the resources which can be renewed, such as the food-producing soils and the forests; and most of all it stands for an equal opportunity for every American citizen to get his fair share of benefit from these resources, both now and hereafter.

-- From The Fight for Conservation, 1910