There are some important parallels between the efforts of early foresters in North America to protect and conserve their forests from exploitation and clearing, and the experiences here in Victoria. There are also some striking differences.
The US Forest Service began in 1905 around the same time as the Victorian State Forest Department and the relationships have always been strong. Policies were also forged by catastrophic bushfires… theirs in 1910 and ours in 1939.
The organisations also held similar views about the protection and wise use of forests.
America’s first professional forester, Gifford Pinchot, came from a wealthy and politically well-connected timber family.
He was largely responsible for the national awakening of land management and conservation. Importantly, he enjoyed the strong support of the US President Theodore Roosevelt who set aside vast tracts of national forest.
Pinchot said –
“conservation is the foresighted utilisation, preservation and/or renewal of forest, waters, lands and minerals”.
And…
“where conflicting interests must be reconciled, the question shall always be answered from the standpoint of the greatest good of the greatest number for the longest time”.
Pinchot thought of the greatest good in terms of the balance of multiple uses, including land, wilderness, forage, wildlife, timber, water and outdoor recreation.
Pinchot’s views were similar, but differed, from another great American forest conservationist, John Muir. His activism helped to preserve the Yosemite Valley and Sequoia National Park. Muir also co-founded The Sierra Club.
Pinchot saw conservation as a means of managing the nation’s natural resources for long-term sustainable commercial use without destroying the viability of the forests.
Muir acknowledged the need for timber and the forests to provide it, but valued nature and wilderness for its intrinsic and spiritual qualities.
From the mid-1960s, with increasing public criticism, environmental activism and legal challenges to traditional uses such as timber production, the US Forest Service found it more difficult to determine the greatest good.
Meanwhile is Australia, the same principles of balance and multiple use, which had been originally described in Wilhelm Schlich’s “Manual of Forestry” in 1898, were strongly advocated as the core policies of the Forests Commission.
This 2006 documentary was made to celebrate the centenary of US Forest Service. A similar film was suggested a while ago to tell the story of Victoria’s forest heritage but stumbled at the barrier.
http://forestryvideos.net/videos/greatestgood/
Victoria’s Forests & Bushfire Heritage 