Starting in 1876, and undergoing a series of name changes, the United States Forest Service of the Department of Agriculture grew to protect and use millions of acres of forest on public land. Gifford Pinchot, an early advocate of scientific forestry, along with President Theodore Roosevelt and conservation organizations, led the effort to manage forest for the public good.[1][2][3]
From the 1890s to the present, there has been a fierce rivalry over control of forests between the Department of Agriculture and the Department of the Interior. Numerous proposals have failed and the Forest Service remains a part of the Department of Agriculture.[4]
- ^ "U.S. Forest Service History Collection". Forest History Society. Retrieved October 19, 2011.
- ^ "History". U.S. Forest Service. Retrieved October 19, 2011.
- ^ "The Big Burn-Transcript". American Experience. PBS. February 3, 2015. Retrieved January 23, 2019.
- ^ Polenberg, Richard (1967). "The Great Conservation Contest". Forest History Newsletter. 10 (4): 13–23.