YALE FOREST SCHOOL REUNION 



'"PHE Yale Forest School celebrated its second decennial 

 ^ reunion and the twentieth anniversary of its found- 

 ing in December. Over one hundred alumni and stu- 

 dents, or approximately 20 per cent of those who have 

 received professional instruction at the school, attended 

 the reunion. Old friendships were renewed, new friend- 

 ships formed, the progress and present position of the 

 school thoroughly discussed, and plans laid for the co- 

 operation of the alumni in assuring it of a still more 

 successful future. Perhaps the most important concrete 

 step taken by the alumni at the reunion was the reorgani- 

 zation of the Yale Forest School Alumni Association on 

 a more substantial and aggressive basis. It is anticipated 

 that in its new form the Association will prove most 

 effective in affording a medium of expression for the 

 alumni and in bringing them into more intimate and help- 

 ful relations with the school. 



The Yale Forest School first opened its doors for the 

 training of professional foresters in September, 1900, 

 and is the oldest forest school in continuous operation in 

 this country. It is difficult now to realize that up to the 

 beginning of the twentieth century the profession of for- 

 estry, centuries old in Europe, was unknown in the 

 New World. Our forests, instead of receiving the care- 

 ful treatment accorded a growing crop had, during the 

 previous century, been cut, burned and abused on an un- 

 precedented scale so that millions of acres were rendered 

 barren for years to come. Valiant efforts had been made 

 by a small group of far-sighted men, acting largely 

 through the American Forestry Association, to stem the 

 tide of destruction and ruin. They wasted no time on 

 idle theories but struck hard for the one measure which 

 seemed to promise immediate results, the reservation 

 and retention under public ownership of the National 

 Forests so that the timber on these lands could be pro- 

 tected and managed as an object lesson to the public 

 and as a permanent source of lumber after private hold- 

 ings were gone. This object was attained in 1891, but 

 for many years these lands were administered under the 

 old political system then in force. There were no fores- 

 ters in this country to furnish the trained executives 

 needed if this new and promising innovation in Gov- 

 ernment activities was to succeed. 



Under these conditions the Yale Forest School was 

 founded by the Pinchot family primarily to provide 

 trained foresters for the public service. At that time and 

 for five years thereafter these forests were in the hands 

 of the Interior Department. In 1905 however, they 

 were transferred to the Department of Agriculture and 

 their administration was taken over by the Forest Ser- 

 vice, which at that time was under the leadership of 

 Gifford Pinchot and was recruited in large part from the 

 men trained at Yale. On Mr. Pinchot's retirement in 

 1910 he was succeeded by Henry S. Graves, under whom 

 the Yale School had been built up. When Mr. Graves 

 resigned in 1919 his successor was William B. Greeley, 

 one of the older graduates of the Yale School. From 



the very beginning, therefore, men connected with Yale 

 have had an important part in shaping and administering 

 Forest Service policies and activities. 



Today, out of the five hundred and eighteen men who 

 have received professional training at the Yale School, 

 ninety-seven are employed by the Forest Service. Of 

 these, twelve are engaged in research and eighty-five in 

 administration. Thirty-eight, or nearly half of these 

 men, are now in the office at Washington or in the eight 

 district offices into which the National Forest Adminis- 

 tration is divided, and have direct charge of the general 

 policies of the Service in those districts. Twenty-six are 

 supervisors, each in charge of a National Forest whose 

 area averages over a million acres. In addition, there 

 are thirteen men in other branches of the Government 

 service. 



Largely through the initiative, clear understanding, 

 and devotion possessed by these trained men from Yale 

 and other schools, a task was performed which would 

 have been declared impossible in 1890. The hostile, 

 independent, virile elements comprising the miners, stock- 

 men, and farmers of the West learned within the short 

 period of ten years between 1905 and 191 5 that Govern- 

 ment service could be made efficient, that regulation of 

 timber cutting and of grazing for the common good was 

 better than a mad destructive scramble to see who could 

 get the most while it lasted, and that forest fires were 

 not necessary but could be controlled and extinguished. 



While the establishment and management of the 

 National Forests came first in importance it was by no 

 means the whole of forestry in America. The States 

 were also developing an interest in forestry which was 

 just as much in need of trained guidance. Today, for- 

 esters trained at Yale are in charge of the State Depart- 

 ments of Forestry in New Hampshire, Connecticut, 

 Illinois, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee, 

 Louisiana, and Colorado, while nineteen others are em- 

 ployed as assistant foresters in these States and in Penn- 

 sylvania, New Jersey, California, Minnesota, New York, 

 Texas, and Vermont. Only ten other States have practi- 

 cal forestry departments, and of these but four have 

 employed trained foresters. These foresters have in 

 every instance been active in building up efficient State 

 systems of fire protection, and in developing public senti- 

 ment and knowledge of forestry, which in some States 

 has led to considerable progress in the acquisition of 

 forest lands by the States. 



But perhaps the greatest service of the Yale Forest 

 School is as the parent school from which forest educa- 

 tion has spread throughout the country. Of the twelve 

 leading forest schools ten are under the direction of 

 Yale men, and eleven have Yale graduates in their 

 faculties. In addition, forestry is taught as a subject at 

 four other institutions by Yale graduates. In all, forty- 

 three men from this institution are engaged in training 

 professional foresters in America. 



The number of graduates engaged in forestry on pri- 



106 



