U.S. Forest Service (USFS)

• DATE: Established as Division of Forestry, 1897; renamed United States Forest Service, 1905

The United States Forest Service manages and conserves US national forest lands and grasslands with a mission of ensuring resource use by the public for recreation and by industry for logging and ranching. The US Forest Service is a recognized international leader in forest and ecosystem research and in natural resource protection and conservation and serves as a model for similar agencies in developing nations.

Background

The US Forest Service, a division of the US Department of Agriculture, is responsible for managing approximately 77 million hectares of national forest as well as 1.6 million hectares of located in forty-four states, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands. The agency’s history dates back to the early 1890s, when President Grover Cleveland proclaimed seventeen federal forest reserves, totaling 7,087,500 hectares. In the nineteenth century, the timber industry had become notorious for stripping an area of all its marketable timber and then moving on, leaving behind a barren, eroded landscape and deserted towns. At the beginning of the nineteenth century, the forest resources of the North American continent appeared so inexhaustible that the forest products industry gave little thought to conserving forests or practicing what is now known as sustainable forestry. By the 1880s, however, the fact that forest were disappearing was clear. Public concerns about excessive harvesting contributed to fears that the nation’s supply of timber would be exhausted before the turn of the century. Conservation leagues formed, and newspapers and magazines of the time published numerous articles warning of a coming timber famine.

One of President Cleveland’s final acts as president in 1897 was to sign legislation providing funding for the administration of the reserves and creating the Division of Forestry within the Department of the Interior. Not all members of the public supported the Division of Forestry’s creation: Many business interests responded to the initial creation of the federal forest reserves by urging that President Cleveland be impeached. The act stood, however, and in 1905, responsibility for the federal forest reserves was transferred from the Department of the Interior to the Department of Agriculture. At that time, the agency’s name changed from the Division of Forestry to the United States Forest Service.

President Theodore Roosevelt appointed a personal friend, renowned forester and conservation advocate Gifford Pinchot, to serve as the agency’s first director. Pinchot had studied forestry in France, where forests had been managed for hundreds of years, and had also observed forestry practices in other European countries. The initial mission of the US Forest Service was to conserve forest resources for future generations and to protect the nation’s watersheds and riverways by preventing erosion. That is, the US Forest Service attempted to manage the forest reserves in a way that would allow for both sustained-yield harvesting and the prevention of soil run-off from hillsides into waterways. One of the consequences of excessive timber harvesting was heavy silt deposits that choked formerly navigable rivers. Rain falling on forested hillsides is slowed or absorbed by vegetation; rain falling on barren hillsides tends to run off quickly, washing soil with it and contributing to both and flooding.

Impact on Resource Use

Under Pinchot, the US Forest Service practiced forest management that allowed for harvesting in a manner that attempted both to be ecologically sound and to create a solid economic base for logging towns. Sustained-yield harvesting would allow permanent communities to grow; families could flourish as lumbering and related industries provided stable, year-round employment.

In addition to managing forest reserves, the US Forest Service established regional research stations to investigate issues such as silviculture, reforestation, fire suppression, and harvesting practices. Although referred to as stations, the locations of research efforts were not actually centralized but instead took place in a variety of settings, including controlled laboratory environments and forests. The US Forest Service also supported research performed by scientists at universities by funding grants and participating in cooperative research agreements with academia and industry. Research conducted or supported by the Forest Service has led to a better understanding of forest and to subsequent changes in management by both government agencies and private industry. Research continued into the twenty-first century with activities such as the Forest Inventory and Analysis program, which conducts research on both public and private lands to assess the conditions of US forests and to detect future trends.

The US Forest Service is also responsible for overseeing twenty national grasslands. National grasslands were established during the Great Depression of the 1930s, when the Great Plains were devastated by the Dust Bowl, an ecological disaster caused by a combination of drought and farming practices unsuited for a prairie ecosystem. Farmers, especially, were affected by the country’s economic woes, resulting in thousands of farms being abandoned by farmers unable to make mortgage payments or pay property taxes. As part of national relief efforts, the federal government acquired millions of hectares of submarginal farmland that included both forest tracts and grasslands. Land more suited for forests than for farming was incorporated into national forests, such as the Oconee National Forest in Georgia, and planted with trees. Prairie lands were restored to grasslands, such as Buffalo Gap National Grassland in South Dakota. Because land for many forests was often acquired in small, noncontiguous blocks as it became available rather than through condemnation, many forests and grasslands remain a patchwork of private and public ownership with irregular boundaries. Like national forests, national grasslands are managed for multiple use, including recreation, wildlife habitat, and livestock forage.

Also in the 1930s, the US Forest Service began to provide more recreational opportunities in national forests. Civilian Conservation Corps members developed campgrounds, picnic areas, and hiking trails. The agency also instituted leasing programs that allowed the public to lease lots within national forests on which they could build recreational cabins for seasonal use. The US Forest Service provided guidelines that set size limits and specified the materials, such as types of exterior siding, that could be used. Although these recreational opportunities were viewed originally as secondary to the agency’s primary mission of ensuring a sustainable timber supply, over time recreation assumed a more important role. As the threat of a timber famine faded, the public’s understanding of forest conservation and the appropriate role of the US Forest Service changed.

This change has been reflected in significant pieces of twentieth-century federal legislation, such as the Wilderness Act (1964), the National Environmental Policy Act (1970), and the National Forest Management Act (1976). Congress originally created the Forest Service for conservation, that is, to promote the wise use of forest resources. Subsequent legislation has resulted in the Forest Service becoming a diverse agency with multiple missions relating to natural and cultural resources in the United States. The Forest Service is also charged with protecting critical wildlife habitat, providing outdoor recreational opportunities for the public, and protecting cultural resources, such as historic buildings or archaeological sites, that fall within national forest boundaries.

After taking office in 2021, President Joe Biden issued an executive order to initiate a governmental approach to address climate change. Part of this order included a national goal to conserve 30 percent of US waters and land by 2030. Called the "America the Beautiful" initiative, the order tasked federal agencies with taking ambitious conservation action to reverse biodiversity loss. This would grow the country's natural carbon sink.

For administrative purposes, the US Forest Service is divided into ten geographic regions. The boundaries for these regions have changed over time to reflect changes in administration policies and goals. Similarly, improvements in office automation, communications, and transportation technology have led to the management of individual forests becoming more centralized. In Wisconsin, for example, the formerly separate Nicolet National Forest and Chequamegon National Forest are now managed as the Chequamegon-Nicolet National Forest, while in Texas four national forests (the Angelina, Davy Crockett, Sabine, and Sam Houston) and two grasslands (Caddo and LBJ) are supervised from a central office.

In 2023, the Forest Service announced a partnership with American Forests. This $20 million initiative focused on helping the Forest Service develop a climate-informed reforestation plan for roughly 4 million acres of burned and damaged forests. It also provided funding for American Forests to help grow its forestry workforce and expand its nursery production, with the goal of further enabling the Forest Service to better rehabilitate the nation's woodlands. The funding for this partnership was provided by the REPLANT Act (2021), a bipartisan bill that removed the annual monetary cap on Forest Service reforestation funding.

Bibliography

"American Forests Partners with USDA Forest Service to Expand Reforestation Across National Forests." American Forests, 6 Dec. 2023, www.americanforests.org/article/american-forests-partners-with-usda-forest-service-to-expand-reforestation-across-national-forests/. Accessed 5 Jan. 2025.

Arnold, R. Keith, et al. View from the Top: Forest Service Research. Durham, N.C.: Forest History Society, 1994.

Clary, David A. Timber and the Forest Service. Lawrence: University of Kansas Press, 1986.

Lewis, James G. The Forest Service and the Greatest Good: A Centennial History. Durham, N.C.: Forest History Society, 2005.

Richards, Ryan. "A Plan for the US Forest Service to Lead on the America the Beautiful Initiative." Center for American Progress, 15 Mar. 2022, www.americanprogress.org/article/a-plan-for-the-U-S-forest-service-to-lead-on-the-America-the-beautiful-initiative/. Accessed 5 Jan. 2025.

Steen, Harold K. Origins of the National Forests: A Centennial Symposium. Durham, N.C.: Forest History Society, 1992.