Trained by Americans in American ways: The establishment of forestry education in the United States, 1885--1911 (Gifford Pinchot, Bernhard Fernow, Carl Schenck)

This is a study of the establishment of professional forestry in the United States. In the late 1800s, self-educated post-Civil War conservationists such as Charles Sargent and William Brewer gave way to professionally trained Progressive conservationists led by the forester Gifford Pinchot. Pinchot, the first American-born forester and organizer of the United States Forest Service, determined early in his forestry career to establish a distinctly American style of forestry. His efforts led to a dramatic struggle that divided and disrupted the profession in its early years. He founded the Society of American Foresters, forestry's largest professional organization, and the Yale Forest School, the first graduate-level program of its kind and intended for those two organizations to be pivotal players in the emerging conservation movement and of professional scientific forestry in the United States.; Pinchot's successful campaign to take over forestry came at the expense of other eminent scientists and foresters, most notably Bernhard Fernow and Carl Schenck, two German-born pioneers in American forestry and forest education. After twelve years of federal government service, Fernow established the New York State College of Forestry at Cornell University in 1898, the first four-year college forestry program in the United States. Schenck, the forester for George Vanderbilt's Biltmore Estate, founded the Biltmore Forest School, also in 1898, the first professional forestry school of any kind in the country.; Pinchot saw professional forestry education as his primary battleground, and Schenck and Fernow and their respective schools as his primary opponents. Pinchot fought to control the education of foresters while trying to establish his version of scientific forestry. Pinchot believed that he who controlled education, controlled the future of the profession. Pinchot overwhelmed Schenck and Fernow by outspending, outwitting, and outmaneuvering them. They were both ultimately driven out of the United States due to Pinchot's machinations. He then pushed for educational standards that helped institutionalize American forestry. These endeavors launched a scientific revolution in American forestry in the 1890s that he eventually led towards a holistic approach to forestry. Over fifty years after Pinchot's death, his influence is still felt in forestry education and professional forestry.