G. Frederick (George Frederick) Schwarz

Born in Baltimore on April 13, 1868, George Frederick Schwarz was an American forester and writer. He was the son of Frederick August Otto Schwarz, founder of the FAO Schwarz toy business, but he built a very different career for himself in forestry and conservation.

Schwarz was part of the early U.S. forestry movement and worked with the United States Department of Agriculture around the turn of the twentieth century. A notice published after his death in 1931 described him as one of the small group of American foresters connected with the old Division of Forestry in the years soon after Gifford Pinchot took charge.

He is best remembered as the author of Forest Trees and Forest Scenery, first published in 1902, a book that looked at forests not only as resources but as living landscapes with visual and cultural value. That mix of practical knowledge and appreciation for nature gives his writing an appeal that still feels fresh today.