Sale ends with both sides satisfied

If the early history of Seeley Lake is intertwined with the lumber industry, the rise of the United States Forest Service is incontrovertibly intertwined with Seeley Lake and in particular with the Big Blackfoot Timber Sale of 1907-1910. Historian and member of the Camp Paxson Preservation Board Gary Williams has been researching that sale. The Seeley Swan Pathfinder will be bringing some of the interesting bits of information he has discovered about logging in the Seeley Lake area and also about the fledgling U.S. Forest Service.

SEELEY LAKE – This series has detailed the progress of the 1907 Seeley Lake Timber Sale from the early years, when the precursors of the Big Blackfoot Milling Company logged land in the area governed by few controls on where and how they sourced their timber, to the official successful closing of the 50 million board feet sale in 1911.

This series has also told the story of the beginnings of the United States Forestry Service as it separated itself from the Department of Interior and began shaping its own course. If the majority of these articles dealt with disputes between the Forest Service and Big Blackfoot, that is largely because the newly formed Service was in the process of learning how to understand the problems lumbermen and sawmills encountered with different wood types, how to better estimate the amount of yield from different types of trees, how to deal with businesses, and how and what to teach a new generation of accredited foresters.

The series documented the seminal part Gifford Pinchot, first Chief Forester, played in establishing the direction the Forest Service should take. Pinchot's operating philosophy was that federal lands should be managed "to provide the greatest amount of good for the greatest amount of people in the long run." The first part of that phrase is a tenet of Utilitarianism, a thing or action is useful in so far as it promotes happiness. "In the long run" is Pinchot's addition. In particular, he advocated for responsible logging not only for the monetary and recreational value it offered to the people to whom the forests belong but also for the long-term health of the forests so they would continue to be sources of revenue and enjoyment.

As an unnamed forest ranger rephrased it, "The National forests are the world's biggest ranch. The people own it and we run it for 'em."

Pinchot only served as Chief Forester for four years, from 1905 to 1910. He and President Theodore Roosevelt were like-minded in their attitudes toward forest conservation. Pinchot's relationship with Roosevelt's successor William Howard Taft was not as strong. In the early days of Taft's presidency, a dispute about conservation issues arose between Pinchot and President Taft's Secretary of the Interior Richard Ballinger. Taft sided with Ballinger and fired Pinchot.

Pinchot's career then evolved in different directions, but he continued to be actively interested in the Forest Service and to advocate for forest conservation and management. In a series of lectures given at the Yale School of Forestry from 1910 to 1920, Pinchot expounded on how foresters, in their roles as public servants, should conduct themselves. The United States Forest Service distilled those lectures into 11 maxims. They are as relevant today as they were then and thus a good way to end this series.

Pinchot's Guide to the Behavior of Foresters in Public Office

• A public official is there to serve the public, not run them.

• Public support of acts affecting public rights is absolutely required.

• It is more trouble to consult the public than to ignore them, but that is what you were hired for.

• Find out in advance what the public will stand for. If it is right and they won't stand for it, postpone action and educate them.

• Use the press first, last and all the time if you want to reach the public.

• Get rid of the attitude of personal arrogance or pride of attainment or superior knowledge.

• Don't try any sly or foxy politics because a forester is not a politician.

• Learn tact simply by being absolutely honest and sincere, and by learning to recognize the point of view of the other man and meet him with arguments he will understand.

• Don't be afraid to give credit to someone else even when it belongs to you. Not to do so is the sure mark of a weak man, but to do so is the hardest lesson to learn. Encourage others to do things; you may accomplish many things through others that you cannot get done on your single initiative.

• Don't be a knocker. Use persuasion rather than force, when possible. Plenty of knockers are to be had. Your job is to promote unity.

• Don't make enemies unnecessarily and for trivial reasons. If you are any good you will make plenty of them on matters of straight honesty and public policy and will need all the support you can get.