Peeling Back The Bark
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Reflections on Moving to North Dakota in the Winter
By Guest Contributor on March 4, 2010Recently, FHS member Joseph Jones moved from the forested land of Michigan to the treeless wonderland that is western North Dakota. We here at the Peeling Back the Bark HQ were fascinated by his description of a culture that values fireplaces where there is no apparent local supply of wood and asked him to share…
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Feb. 24, 1889: Herbert Stoddard Sr., “Father” of Wildlife Management, is Born
By James Lewis on February 24, 2010Happy birthday to Herbert Stoddard Sr.! Raised in a working-class family, he had no formal education beyond primary school. Yet he went on to become recognized as the “father” of wildlife management and a pioneer in the emerging field of fire ecology during his career. He may rightly be considered one of the first ecological…
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February 18, 1909: North American Conservation Conference is held
By James Lewis on February 18, 2010In one of his last acts as president, Theodore Roosevelt convened the North American Conservation Conference on this date 101 years ago. This event might ring a bell for faithful followers of the blog. The conference and its legacy were discussed in a previous blog entry. That entry, which originally appeared as an opinion piece…
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January 19, 1812: John Aston Warder, Founder of the American Forestry Association, is Born
By Eben Lehman on January 19, 2010Happy birthday to Dr. John Aston Warder, founder of the American Forestry Association, and influential figure in the development of American horticulture and forestry. On this date in 1812, John Aston Warder was born near Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The eldest son of Quakers Jeremiah and Ann Aston Warder, he developed a love of nature early in…
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Gifford Pinchot and the Search for "Permanent Peace"
By James Lewis on January 11, 2010The following is an op-ed piece that appeared in the Raleigh News and Observer on January 3, 2010. It was co-authored by FHS staff historian James G. Lewis and FHS member and professor of environmental history Char Miller. Getting together for the environment “In international relations, the great feature of the growth of the last…
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Remembering Harold Bell, Creator of Woodsy Owl
By James Lewis on December 15, 2009This past weekend the New York Times reported the passing of Harold Bell on December 4 at age 90. Mr. Bell was one of the creators of Woodsy Owl, the Forest Service’s anti-pollution mascot. He was working with agency employees Glenn Kovar, Betty Conrad Hite, and Charles Williams (who gave Woodsy his slogan “Give a…
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Trucks, Tractors, and Swindle Sticks
By Eben Lehman on December 2, 2009Three new photo galleries added to our website today contain more than 250 historic photos illustrating aspects of logging over the past century. The first gallery, Logging–Scaling, documents the work of scalers in the woods. A scaler was the person who measured and marked the quality of timber, and estimated the number of board feet…
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How Turkeys Changed Forest History
By James Lewis on November 25, 2009In the spirit of Thanksgiving and large-scale turkey consumption, we wish to acknowledge the impact of turkeys on forest history. How did a couple of turkeys change history? Well, a better question might be: How did a handful of angry turkey hunters in West Virginia upend U.S. Forest Service timber management policy and help usher…
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Coweeta Hydrologic Lab Celebrates 75 Years
By Eben Lehman on November 3, 2009In 1934, the Coweeta Experimental Forest was officially established on the Nantahala National Forest. Occupying nearly 4,000 acres just north of the North Carolina-Georgia border and renamed the Coweeta Hydrologic Laboratory in 1948, the site would prove to be the source of some of the most influential research on forested watersheds done in the world. …
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When Timber Engineers Brought Ski Jumping to Chicago
By Eben Lehman on October 7, 2009With Chicago’s recent failure to become host city for the 2016 Summer Olympics, we here at Peeling Back the Bark were reminded of a little-known chapter from Chicago’s sports history which can be found in the FHS Archives. Should Chicago have also submitted a bid for the Winter Olympiad? Possibly. We submit for your consideration…
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Ken Burns’s other “Best Idea” – Using FHS photos in his PBS film, “The National Parks”
By James Lewis on September 25, 2009We recently received an advanced copy of the new Ken Burns film, The National Parks – America’s Best Idea, which begins airing on PBS starting Sunday, September 27. You can see images from the FHS Archives in the first three episodes and our name in the credits. (By the way, if you can’t get to…
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It’s "Talk Like a (Log) Pirate" Day
By James Lewis on September 18, 2009In honor of International Talk Like a Pirate Day on September 19, we here at Peeling Back the Barrrrk bring you the dramatic tale “Log Pirates of Puget Sound.” Although “Log Pirates” is an article by Stewart H. Holbrook that appeared in the January 1937 issue of American Forests, it reads like a pulp thriller/film…
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New FHS Social Media Ad Campaign (poll)
By James Lewis on August 31, 2009Help us choose the brand new ad that will appear in an upcoming issue of Forest History Today magazine promoting the Forest History Society’s new social media tools. Take a look at the ads below (click on any of the ads to enlarge them) and select your favorite in the poll at the bottom of…
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Smokey's Sixty-Five Years of Vigilance
By Amanda T. Ross on August 24, 2009This month marks the birthday of Smokey Bear, who has acted as conservation messenger and protector of America’s forests since August 1944. As part of a fire prevention campaign, Smokey’s visage on posters, signs, buses, and television commercials has encouraged Americans to complete the phrase, “Only you…” In honor of our anthropomorphic advocate, we’d like…
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Recap of the First World Congress of Environmental History
By James Lewis on August 21, 2009The first World Congress of Environmental History concluded two weeks ago in Copenhagen, Denmark. There were more than 500 attendees from all over the world. In addition to sending two people to the conference, the Forest History Society was also a sponsor. I’m happy to report that forest history is alive and well and thriving…
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August 5, 1949: Mann Gulch Tragedy
By Eben Lehman on August 5, 2009On this date 60 years ago, the Mann Gulch fire in Montana’s Helena National Forest was first spotted. This devastating wildfire would eventually claim the lives of 12 U.S. Forest Service smokejumpers and one fire guard, as well as burn close to 5,000 acres of timber and grasslands. The tragic events surrounding this fire ensure…
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The Fall of Timber Sports?
By Eben Lehman on July 29, 2009This past weekend saw the Lumberjack World Championships take place in Hayward, Wisconsin. The annual event of sawing, chopping, climbing, and log rolling contests celebrated its 50th anniversary this year. While the golden anniversary is cause for celebration, signs of the sport’s decline in popularity seemed to be more evident than ever. A New York…
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July 20, 1822: "Father of American Forestry" Born
By Eben Lehman on July 20, 2009On this date in 1822, Franklin B. Hough was born on the western edge of the Adirondack Mountains in Lewis County, New York. Hough would become the first forestry agent of the U.S. government, the first chief of the Division of Forestry, and one of the most influential figures in early American forestry. Gifford Pinchot…
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Visiting Mann Gulch 60 Years Later
By James Lewis on July 10, 2009I just returned from a trip to Montana, where I conducted an oral history interview with the 15th chief of the U.S. Forest Service, Dale Bosworth. While there, I took the opportunity to visit Mann Gulch, site of the first smokejumper tragedy. There, sixty years ago next month, 13 firefighters (12 were smokejumpers, 1 a…
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Tom Tidwell Appointed New Chief of U.S. Forest Service
By James Lewis on June 18, 2009The news is not too surprising, but the timing is—and a bit fortuitous for us. The U.S. Department of Agriculture announced on June 17 that U.S. Forest Service chief Gail Kimbell has been replaced by Tom Tidwell. It’s not unusual for a new presidential administration to select someone they believe will carry out their vision…
