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Show 564 HISTORY OF PUBLIC LAND LAW DEVELOPMENT Winema National Forest, Oregon U.S. Forest Service boards of forestry were created (New York's was the leader); and a spate of books and articles on forestry, condemning the wasteful and destructive depredations of lumbermen on the public lands, was poured forth. The efforts of Carl Schurz, John A. Williamson, and William A. J. Sparks to eliminate or at least reduce illegal cutting of timber on the public lands and the political controversies revolving around their activities alerted many people to the depredations of those who considered the public lands wide open to their use without regard to the public interest or the future needs of the government for revenue. The courageous but not always well directed efforts of these three officials of Interior were paralleled by activities of a distinguished group of scientists, including bot- anists, arboriculturists, geologists, and chemists who were becoming concerned about the rapid depletion of the forests of the United States and who were familiar with forestry practices abroad. Among these scientists were Wolcott Gibbs, chemist, director of the Lawrence Scientific School and president of the National Academy of Science; Franklin B. Hough, an Army surgeon who became deeply interested in forestry; Joseph T. Rothrock, physician and botanist who, like Hough, was drawn into forestry, and played a major role in state forest policy in Pennsylvania; Charles S. Sargent; and Bernard E. Fernow. These men, with Gifford Pin-chot, who was of a younger generation, all emphasized the necessity of utilizing less wastefully the timber resources of the country. |