Gifford PinchotBorn 11 Aug 1865; died 4 Oct 1946 at age 81. American forester who as the first chief of the U.S. Forest Service popularized the conservation of natural resources. He became chief of the new Forest Service in 1905 when the management of the forest reserves was transferred to the Dept. of Agriculture from the Dept. of the Interior. At that time, the nation had 60 forest reserves covering 56 million acres. In his five years in office, by 1910 those numbers increased to 150 national forests covering 172 million acres. He is regarded as a father of American conservation because of his great and unrelenting concern for the protection of the American forests. His efforts were supported by President Theodore Roosevelt, but not by his successor, President Taft, who replaced Pinchot in Jan 1910.« |
