Ground Truth: Forest Service Research · Episode 1 of 10 · 36 min
How One Arizona Hillside Built Modern Forestry
In 1908 the new U.S. Forest Service opened its first research station on a remote meadow near Flagstaff, Arizona, to answer an embarrassing question: why would ponderosa pine not grow back? The station grew from a Russian-born forester's plan for permanent laboratories across the national forests, and it began a century of place-based measurement that still underlies wildfire and climate research.
Who's who
- Raphael Zon+1 more episodeRussian-born forester who designed the decentralized experiment station plan
- Gifford Pinchot+12 more episodesFirst Chief of the U.S. Forest Service; charged Zon with the plan
- Gustaf A. PearsonFirst director of the Fort Valley station; ponderosa pine authority
- Willard M. DrakeForest assistant who helped select the Fort Valley site
- Frank C. W. PoolerCoconino National Forest supervisor who proposed his forest as the site
- Bernhard FernowGerman-American forester and Zon's teacher at Cornell
Where it happens
- Fort Valley Experimental Forest, ArizonaSite of the first Forest Service research station, opened 1908
- Flagstaff, ArizonaNearby town; the station sat on an isolated meadow
- Coconino National Forest, ArizonaNational forest that hosted the first station
Timeline
- 1898Raphael Zon emigrates to the United States
- 1905U.S. Forest Service created under Gifford Pinchot
- December 1907Pinchot asks Zon to plan permanent experiment stations
- August 1908Coconino Experiment Station opens at Fort Valley, the first of its kind
- 1923Zon leaves to direct the new Lake States station in St. Paul
- 1950Pearson publishes his capstone guide to managing southwestern ponderosa pine
Still debated
Whether Fort Valley was the first research site depends on definition, since the Santa Rita range for grazing study dates to 1903. The 'tree of research' quotation is tradition rather than a verified transcript.
Connected episodes in other series
How America Made Indigenous Fire a Crime, and Its ReturnThe Fire This Time · Episode 3Also features Gifford Pinchot
The Greatest Good? How the Forest Service Promised to Manage Public LandThe Long Run · Episode 1Also features Gifford Pinchot
Why the U.S. Forest Service Loses Money Selling Public TimberThe Uncosted West · Episode 9Also features Gifford Pinchot
The Fight Over FishFishing for a Solution · Episode 1Also features Gifford Pinchot