Gifford Pinchot
In 1896, Grover Cleveland appointed Pinchot to the National Forest Commission and charged him with developing a plan for managing the nationÕs Western
forest reserves. In 1898, he became head of the Division of Forestry,
later renamed the United States Forest Service.With fellow Yale alumnus Henry S. Graves, Pinchot founded the Yale University School of Forestry (now the School of Forestry and Environmental
Studies) in 1900 and was a
professor there from 1903 until 1936.Pinchot
sought to turn public land policy from one that dispersed
resources to private holdings to one that maintained federal ownership and
management of public land. He was a progressive who
strongly believed in the efficiency movement. The most economically
efficient use of natural resources was his goal; waste was his great
enemy. His successes, in part, were grounded in the personal networks
that he started developing as a student at Yale and continued
developing throughout his career. His personal involvement in the
recruitment process led to high esprit de corps in the Forest Service and
allowed him to avoid partisan political patronage. Pinchot
capitalized on his professional expertise to gain adherents in an age
when professionalism and science were greatly valued. He made it a
high priority to professionalize the Forest Service; to that end he
helped found the Yale School of Forestry as a source of highly
trained men.