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Dr. Char Miller on
Calvin Price and Gifford Pinchot

The Conservation Movement

"The fascinating thing about these two men's relationship," Miller observes, "is that it reminds us just how crucial grass-roots organizers like Price were to the larger conservation movement. Without the West Virginian's commitment and energy, without that of thousands of men and women throughout the nation, there would have been no movement. Pinchot was well aware of his need for the support of people like Price, one reason why he kept in such close contact with him over the years."

 

Gifford Pinchot

Cal Price

Gifford Pinchot was one of America's leading advocates of environment conservation at the turn of the twentieth century.   “…at the end of 1890 . . . the nation was obsessed by a fury of development. The American Colossus was fiercely intent on appropriating and exploiting the richesof the richest of all continents.”   With equal fervor Pinchot set to work. In the next two decades he raised forestry and conservation of all our natural resources from an unknown experiment to a nationwide movement. He became head of the Division of Forestry in 1898 and under President Theodore Roosevelt was named Chief Forester of the redefined U.S. Forest Service. National forest management was guided by Pinchot’s principle, “the greatest good of the greatest number in the long run.” His magnetic personal leadership inspired and ignited the new organization.

During his government service, the number of national forests increased from 32 in 1898 to 149 in 1910 for a total of 193 million acres. Pinchot and Roosevelt together made conservation public issue and national policy.  Roosevelt considered the enactment of a conservation program his greatest contribution to American domestic policy. In speaking of Gifford Pinchot’s role:

          ". . . among the many, many public officials who under my administration rendered literally invaluable service to the people of the United States, Gifford Pinchot on the whole, stood first."

                     Theodore Roosevelt
  Dr. Char Miller is Senior Research Fellow for the Pinchot Institute of Conservation in Washington, DC.  He is author of the critically-acclaimed biography, “Gifford Pinchot and the Making of Modern Environmentalism,” which was named the Biography of 2002 by the Independent Publishers Association.
 

Char Miller