A Revival of the Best Kind
“Mr. Vanderbilt was the first of the large forest owners in America to adopt the practice of forestry. He has conserved Pisgah Forest from the time he bought it up to his death, a period of nearly twenty five years, under the firm conviction that every forest owner owes it to those who follow him, to hand down his forest property to them unimpaired by wasteful use.”
Edith Vanderbilt
https://www.biltmore.com/blog/biltmore-the-birthplace-of-american-forestry/
George Vanderbilt hired forester Gifford Pinchot, who became the first chief of the United States Forest Service to develop a forest management plan for his estate, which grew to about 125,000 acres. The land was over logged and overused. The plan, started by Pinchot and expanded by Dr. Carl Schenck grew to a national model and the first school of forestry in the United States.
If you were to visit Pisgah National Forest today (four times the size it started with), you’d have a hard time imagining it as the depleted area that was there at the start.
https://www.fs.usda.gov/recarea/nfsnc/recarea/?recid=48114
The idea of sustainable forests is not new. Forests have been managed since before any history was recorded. You can be part of a better way to manage and sustain our forests.
While much of the destruction we deal with now is caused by wildfires, revival is possible. County Resource Conservation Districts (RCDs) take action and can help landowners with this kind of effort. Many have seedlings to offer. Some are bringing back indigenous forest management practices to avoid the worst. Check out RCDs here: https://www.conservation.ca.gov/dlrp/RCD
We’ve done it before and we can do it again! Regenerate!
