Peeling Back The Bark
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President bans Christmas tree from White House!
By James Lewis on December 1, 2019(First published in 2008, this blog posted was updated in 2012 and, after finding the letters to his sisters on the Theodore Roosevelt Center’s website, again in 2016 and 2019.)
Around the internet, there are innumerable articles about how Theodore …
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Honoring America’s First Forester on His 150th Birthday
By James Lewis on August 11, 2015The following is an op-ed piece by FHS staff historian James G. Lewis that appeared in the Asheville Citizen-Times on August 9, 2015, in honor of Gifford Pinchot’s 150th birthday on August 11.
Born just after the guns of the …
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Teddy Roosevelt, “Uncle Remus,” and Supporting the Weeks Act
By James Lewis on October 8, 2010One hundred years ago today, on October 8, 1910, former president Theodore Roosevelt addressed the Southern Conservation Congress in Atlanta, Georgia. Roosevelt was just one of many speakers during the two-day meeting called to "discuss the problems of utilizing to …
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Tongass National Forest Celebrates Another Anniversary
By James Lewis on September 10, 2010On September 10, 1907, President Theodore Roosevelt established the Tongass National Forest in southeastern Alaska. This month, the Forest History Society is publishing a history of the region, Tongass Timber: A History of Logging and Timber Utilization in Southeast Alaska…
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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 …
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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… -
February 22, 1897: Cleveland Celebrates Washington by Foreshadowing Roosevelt
By James Lewis on February 22, 2009On this day in 1897, President Grover Cleveland signed an executive order creating the Washington Birthday Reserves. He proclaimed 13 new or expanded forest reserves in the western United States, totaling some 21 million acres; it brought the total acreage …
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Who should the president appoint to his cabinet?
By James Lewis on January 16, 2009As President-elect Barack Obama’s cabinet nominees are being finalized with little controversy, we here at Peeling Back the Bark can’t help but think back one hundred years ago and wonder what might have happened if, as newspapers speculated, Gifford Pinchot …
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Historian Char Miller Ruminates on SAF Birthday
By Guest Contributor on November 30, 2008What do you give a professional organization on its 108th birthday? Warm wishes, I suppose. But in the case of the Society of American Foresters, formally founded on November 30, 1900, in the cramped office of its first president, Gifford …
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Hot off the Press: Forest History Today fire issue
By James Lewis on November 20, 2008With the forest fires still burning in southern California and some suggesting that fire season there is now a year-round event, the publication of the Fall 2008 issue of Forest History Today is rather timely, to say the least. The …
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October 27, 1858: Happy Birthday, Teddy Roosevelt!
By James Lewis on October 27, 2008Today marks the 150th birthday of Theodore Roosevelt. Considered one of our greatest presidents, it’s not for nothing that he’s on Mount Rushmore and still widely admired around the world. He packed a lot of living into his sixty years. …
