The Forest History Society

Born at his family’s summer home in Simsbury, Connecticut. Pinchot traveled abroad regularly with his parents and was educated at Phillips Exeter Academy and at Yale. He declined an opportunity to enter the family business and instead journeyed to France to pursue his passion — forestry. While studying in Europe, he became a convert to the practice of selective harvesting of forest resources. Pinchot returned to the United States in 1891, anxious to put his knowledge to practical use.

The Roosevelt Museum of Natural History opened its doors in 1867. Among its first specimens was the skull of a seal that had washed up in New York Harbor, begged from its owner by the museum’s founder, eight year old Theodore Roosevelt, Jr.

As a boy, Theodore Roosevelt wanted to be a naturalist, a scientist who revels in and examines nature. As an adult, the president never forgot his childhood dream, and preserved vast regions of the U.S. for future generations of Americans.

The mission of the Pinchot Institute is to advance conservation and sustainable natural resource management by developing innovative, practical, and broadly-supported solutions to conservation challenges and opportunities.

The National Parks: America’s Best Idea is a six-episode PBS documentary produced by Ken Burns and Dayton Duncan. It was filmed over the course of more than six years at some of nature’s most spectacular locales – from Acadia to Yosemite, Yellowstone to the Grand Canyon, the Everglades of Florida to the Gates of the Arctic in Alaska.

Starting in 1876, Gifford Pinchot, along with President Theodore Roosevelt and conservation organizations, led the effort to manage forest for the public good.

Over the course of the Forest Service’s first century, there has never been one central repository where artifacts could be stored, preserved and displayed. There has not been one central exhibition hall where the stories and lessons could be shared with the public. And there has not been one central monument where the leaders, partners, and people whose stories are our history could be recognized and honored. Until now.

Do you know about The National Forest Foundation? Created in 1993, The National Forest Foundation is the nonprofit partner of the U.S. Forest Service. And they do great things.

Gifford Pinchot carried on a close personal relationship with his wife, Laura, well after her untimely death.

From the Almanac of Theodore Roosevelt, here’s a quick compilation of TR’s achievements in natural resource conservation.