author
Gifford Pinchot
1865–1946
A pioneering force in American conservation, this forester-turned-politician helped shape how the United States thinks about public lands. He brought scientific forestry into national life and later carried those reform ideas into Pennsylvania politics.
3 Audiobooks
The Training of a Forester
by Gifford Pinchot
The Fight for Conservation
by Gifford Pinchot
Six Thousand Country Churches
by Charles Otis Gill, Gifford Pinchot
About the author
Born in Simsbury, Connecticut, in 1865, Gifford Pinchot became one of the best-known figures in the early conservation movement. After graduating from Yale, he studied forestry in Europe and returned determined to build a profession that barely existed in the United States. He went on to become the first chief of the U.S. Forest Service and worked closely with Theodore Roosevelt to expand and protect the nation's forest reserves.
Pinchot argued that natural resources should be managed wisely for long-term public benefit, an idea that made him a central voice in Progressive Era reform. His career was not limited to forestry: he also served two terms as governor of Pennsylvania, where he developed a reputation for activism and public service.
Today he is remembered as a founder of American conservation as well as a skilled public advocate who brought big environmental questions into everyday politics. His life links wilderness policy, government reform, and the belief that public resources should serve the common good.