Pinchot-Muir
conflict
Pinchot used the rhetoric of the
market economy to disarm critics of efforts to expand the role of
government: scientific management of forests was profitable. While most of his battles were
with timber companies that he thought had too narrow a time horizon, he also battled the
"back to nature" spokesmen like John Muir, who were
deeply opposed to commercializing nature.[3] Pinchot with Theodore Roosevelt,
1907 Pinchot rose to national prominence under the patronage of President Theodore Roosevelt. In 1905,
his department also gained control of the national forest reserves, thereby
dramatically increasing the authority of the Forest Service. Pinchot developed a
plan by which the forests could be developed by private interests, under set terms, in
exchange for a fee. Pinchot embarked on many publicity campaigns to direct national
discussions of natural resource management issues.Central
to his publicity work was his creation of news for magazines and newspapers, as well as
debates with opponents such as John Muir. His
effectiveness in manipulating information hostile to his boss President Taft led
to his firing in January 1910. But his successes became a model for other bureaucrats on
how to influence public opinion. [4]PinchotÕs policies encountered some opposition. Preservationists opposed commercialization of the land; Congress was increasingly hostile to
conservation of the forests, owing to local commercial
pressures for quicker exploitation. In 1907, Congress forbade the creation of more forest reserves in the Western states.
Roosevelt designated 16 million acres (65,000 km2) of new
National Forests just minutes before his power to do so was stripped by a congressionally mandated amendment to the Agriculture
Bill. These were called the Midnight Forests.