Gifford Pinchot: Leader of the Progressives

The progressive era was marked by feats of conservation, sanitation, and justice. The progressive influence was felt in politics, through various programs and institutions, and still endures today. The single most important force behind this movement was Gifford Pinchot, a conservationist, politician, and idealist who carefully wove his progressive inclinations through the politics, press, and even president of his time. Because of his powerful political influence, his potent progressive sentiments, and his enduring legacy, it can be safely said that Gifford Pinchot was the premier "Theodore Roosevelt Progressive" (Pinchot, 3).

As Chief Forester of the U.S. Forest Service under Roosevelt and an avid environmentalist at heart, Pinchot made great strides for environmentalism and progressivism. Starting at a young age, Pinchot set out to change America's view of environmentalism and forest management. Though he was born into money, attended Yale, and offered a lucrative business opportunity by his grandfather, Pinchot rejected this path to wealth and renown, and spent several years in other countries researching foreign forestry practices.

Pinchot's first opportunity to put his skills into practice came in 1892, when George Vanderbilt invited Pinchot to create an arboretum on his Biltmore Estate. Pinchot saw the opportunity as a chance to build "the first example in the United States of practical forest management on a large scale... Proving that conservation practices could be both beneficial for forests and still profitable, the Biltmore arboretum became a model for forest management around the world."

Six years later, Pinchot began to change the American government's organization and division of forest work when he was hired into the U.S. Division of Forestry. Pinchot worked to consolidate the many disorganized facets of the American forestry industry into one regulated system. Pinchot was later appointed to the United States Forest Service, and in 1903 began shaping the environmentalists of the future when he took a job as professor of Forestry at his alma mater, Yale University.