The US Forest Service
The US Forest Service was founded in 1905 by Theodore Roosevelt and first headed by Gifford Pinchot, a man with whom Theodore Roosevelt had connections with due to the Boone and Crockett club. The Forest Reserves became the Forest Service when they were transferred from the Department of the Interior to the Department of Agriculture, turning the forestry division Pinchot was serving as the head of into the US Forest Service.
Prior to the US Forest Service, "the common word for our forests was 'inexhaustible' " (Pinchot).
Pinchot and Roosevelt, when the Forest Service was just founded, had, “60 forest reserves covering 56 million acres; in 1910, there were 150 national forests covering 172 million acres” (Williams). That is over a third of today's preserved lands.
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"Without natural resources life itself is impossible. From birth to death, natural resources, transformed for human use, feed, clothe, shelter, and transport us. Upon them we depend for every material necessity, comfort, convenience, and protection in our lives. Without abundant resources, prosperity is our of reach." (Pinchot).
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