Chiefs

Though the U.S. Forest Service was established in 1905, in 1876 the Department of Agriculture hired Franklin Hough to investigate and report on forest conditions in the United States. In 1881, Congress created the U.S. Division of Forestry. Twenty years later, it became the Bureau of Forestry, and four years after that, following the transfer of the federal forest reserves from the Department of the Interior to Agriculture, it was reconstituted as the U.S. Forest Service. The head administrator was called “Chief” until 1898, when Gifford Pinchot changed the title to “Forester.” In 1935, it was changed back to "Chief."