Peeling Back The Bark
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A Giant in Forestry is Gone: Bill Hagenstein, 1915-2014
By James Lewis on September 9, 2014Last Friday we received word that Bill Hagenstein, a giant in the forest industry and the history of American forestry, had died. The following biography is adapted from the files of the World Forestry Center, which he helped to establish in Portland, Oregon. While it does a fine job of summarizing his life and career, it…
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Schenck Documentary Now In Production!
By James Lewis on August 14, 2014What began as a millionaire’s dream, a genius’s vision, and a forester’s labor is now being captured in a Forest History Society documentary film. This spring the Forest History Society joined forces with Bonesteel Films to produce First in Forestry, a documentary film about Carl Alwin Schenck and the Biltmore Forest School. Principal photography for the interviews and…
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Forgotten Characters from Forest History: Joe Beaver
By Eben Lehman on August 12, 2014Everyone knows Smokey Bear, Woodsy Owl, and maybe even Ranger Rick Raccoon, but there are many other forest and forestry-related fictional characters that long ago fell by the wayside. Peeling Back the Bark’s series on “Forgotten Characters from Forest History” continues with Part 15, in which we examine Joe Beaver. Before there was a Smokey…
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A review of "Arming Mother Nature"
By James Lewis on June 19, 2014The following book review by FHS staff historian James G. Lewis appears in the Scientists’ Nightstand section of the July-August 2014 issue of American Scientist. ARMING MOTHER NATURE: The Birth of Catastrophic Environmentalism. Jacob Darwin Hamblin. 320 pp. Oxford University Press, 2013. $29.95. In May 1960 scientists and military officers at NATO headquarters came to a conclusion about…
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A River Runs Through Me: Experiencing Thoreau’s Maine Woods
By James Lewis on June 13, 2014Before I left to join the Thoreau-Wabanaki Journey on May 26, I had planned to write a blog post that would tie together the 150th anniversary of the publication of Henry David Thoreau’s The Maine Woods with George Perkins Marsh’s Man and Nature and the 50th anniversary of the passage of the Wilderness Act. The…
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"The snow leopard and the dawn of wildlife management in India"
By Guest Contributor on April 3, 2014Roger Underwood has kindly shared with us some research he’s recently done on the history of colonial forestry. It comes from his recent book Foresters of the Raj–Stories from Indian and Australian Forests, an anthology of stories dealing with the evolution of forestry in India during the latter half of the 19th century, and the development…
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Forgotten Characters from Forest History: Abel Woodman
By Eben Lehman on March 10, 2014Everyone knows Smokey Bear, Woodsy Owl, and maybe even Ranger Rick Raccoon, but there are many other forest and forestry-related fictional characters that long ago fell by the wayside. Peeling Back the Bark’s series on “Forgotten Characters from Forest History” continues with Part 14, in which we examine Abel Woodman. “A Character is Coming to…
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"Bartram’s Boxes Remix" Art Show Opening in May 2014
By Guest Contributor on February 11, 2014We’ve asked Karen Schoenewaldt, Registrar at The Center for Art in Wood, to share with us the exciting work going between the Center and Bartram’s Gardens following a storm that took down many trees at the Gardens. The resulting art exhibition will be touring for the next two years and the Center is soliciting ideas…
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The Mattoons and McLeans: Deep Forestry Roots
By Guest Contributor on December 3, 2013We asked Andy Mason of the National Capital chapter of the Society of American Foresters to share with us what he recently learned about a family with deep forestry roots. Shirley Ann Mattoon was there on September 24, 1963, joining the large crowd that welcomed President John F. Kennedy to Milford, Pennsylvania, and Grey Towers…
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Growing a Tree Army: Historic Photos of Michigan’s USFS Nurseries
By Eben Lehman on November 6, 2013A significant amount of Michigan’s public forests today owe their existence to the work of the Civilian Conservation Corps during the 1930s. Known as “Roosevelt’s Tree Army,” CCC enrollees played a crucial role in reforestation efforts throughout the country during the Great Depression, and nowhere was the impact of their work more significant than in…
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FHS's 19th Annual Halloween Horror Film Festival
By James Lewis on October 31, 2013As faithful readers know, we love movies here at Peeling Back the Bark HQ. And there are numerous forest history-related horror films worth checking out for Halloween. We love the B-movies from yesteryear the best. So without further ado, here are our favorites. Be sure to check out these flicks where a Forest Service chief…
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"The Day JFK Was Here": Pinchot Institute Dedicated 9/24/1963
By James Lewis on September 13, 2013By Dan Dwyer, Port Jervis Union-Gazette¹ MILFORD, Penn., Sept. 24— The helicopter landed exactly on time. It was 1 p.m. The door opened and became a ramp and this man came out. It was the start of a hectic 70-minute visit by Pres. John F. Kennedy to Grey Towers in Milford yesterday afternoon. President Kennedy…
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Camp Cajon: California’s Original Welcome Station
By Eben Lehman on August 14, 2013Over 300 historic U.S. Forest Service photographs from California were recently added to our image database, thanks to a collaboration with USFS Region 5 (Pacific Southwest). Matthew Stever, a Region 5 Heritage Photo Project intern, organized and scanned a large number of previously uncataloged photographs from the region, and digital copies were added to the…
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Gifford Pinchot’s "Ten Commandments"
By James Lewis on July 16, 2013A short time ago, my co-blogger Eben received a query from someone asking for “GP’s 10 commandments.” He had not heard of this and passed the query along to me. “GP” is Gifford Pinchot, and as you probably know, he was the first chief of the U.S. Forest Service and helped develop many of the agency’s policies that…
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Stephen J. Pyne: "After The Fire" (op-ed)
By Guest Contributor on July 9, 2013The following post comes to us courtesy of Stephen J. Pyne, an environmental historian who has written extensively about the history of fire and fire policy and is the author of the FHS Issues Series book America’s Fires. This posting originally appeared on the website AZCentral.com on July 5. It was written after the Yarnell Fire…
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Dash for the ‘Stache Recap
By James Lewis on June 13, 2013A flash of light woke me around 3 am. I thought someone had flicked a light in the bedroom and left the water running in the bathroom. But then I remembered. I was in a tent. The running water was from the nearby stream, the flash was lightning. In that foggy no-man’s land where my…
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Mason County Forest Festival Rolls On
By Eben Lehman on May 31, 2013A parade, a pageant, and Paul Bunyan. These may not be the first three things that come to mind when you think about fire prevention, but residents of Mason County, Washington, back in 1945 had their own unique ideas. To help combat the destructive wildfires in the region — while also promoting the importance of…
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May 29, 1903: Bob "Forest History" Hope was Born
By James Lewis on May 29, 2013On this date in 1903, Bob “Forest History” Hope was born in London, England. His career in comedy spanned 60 years and moved from the Vaudeville stage to radio and film and eventually television. He appeared in more than 70 movies, most famously in the “Road” series with his pal Bing Crosby, a fellow tree…
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Forgotten (Safety) Characters from Forest History: Herman I. Cautious and Paula Bunyan
By Eben Lehman on May 6, 2013Everyone knows Smokey Bear, Woodsy Owl, and maybe even Ranger Rick Raccoon, but there are many other forest and forestry-related fictional characters that long ago fell by the wayside. Peeling Back the Bark‘s series on “Forgotten Characters from Forest History” continues with Part 13, in which we examine Herman I. Cautious and Paula Bunyan. The first week…
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34th Biennial Forest History Film Festival
By James Lewis on April 1, 2013This evening at 7 p.m. begins the 34th biennial Forest History Film Festival, brought to you by Axe Pine-scented Body Spray: “When you spend the day sitting in an office but want to be outdoors, why not smell like the outdoors?” Axe Pine-scented Body Spray is the official pine-scented body spray of the Forest History…
