"A fascinating study of animating ideas and the collective behavior of a single agency. . . . Clary’s insights and analysis owe much much to his former position as chief historian of the U.S. Forest Service. His impeccable research is based on volumes of primary materials from agency files, National Archives, and private sources. His views of his former employer are incisive, even critical, but tempered with compassion for the individual foresters."—Western Historical Quarterly
"A superb book that deserves to be read by everyone interested in national forest history."—Journal of Forest History
"Clary has performed prodigious labors of archival research."—Journal of American History
"Anyone working either with or against this government agency should read this provocative study."—Montana The Magazine of Western History
"Clary’s important book provides historical perspective for all concerned with regulation of forest use, and urges the public to stay involved."—Library Journal
"A necessary book for those who claim a serious interest in the national forests."—Journal of Forestry
"An important contribution to the history of American forestry."—Pacific Northwest Quarterly
A hard-hitting and provocative critique of Forest Service timber management policy. This sprightly work captures well the relationship between forestry technology, political reality, and economic constraints."—Harold K. Steen, Executive Director, Forest History Society
"An outstanding contribution both to the history of forestry and to the understanding of the secular behavior of a public agency. It is a very important book for serious students of environmental quality, focusing as it does on one of the major issues of public land management.—Richard W. Behan, author of Wilderness: the Edge of Knowledge
"A major addition to the historical literature on conservation. It places the Forest Service securely in the context of evolving forest science and shows the evolution of the agency to have been a product of internal debates reflecting this evolution, on the one hand, and of continuing allegiance to old doctrines and outmoded assumptions, on the other. It goes beyond the level of national leaders to demonstrate the contributions and vitality that marked the Forest Service at the regional and local levels. In so doing, it provides a rare picture of how a federal agency as a whole actually worked. It is thus a significant contribution to administrative as well as environmental history."—Thomas R. Cox, author of Mills and Markets and This Well-Wooded Land: Americans and Their Forests from Colonial Times to the Present
This is the revealing story of a U.S. Government agency long applauded as protector of a vital natural resource, until it began to alarm its once admiring and trusting public by expanding large-scale clearcutting in our national forests during the 1950s. Lawsuits and legislation led to the National Forest Management Act of 1976, which outlined forest policies and encouraged public involvement. Clary's meticulously documented account demonstrates that from its birth in 1905, the Forest Service, ever fearful of a timber famine, perceived, and still perceives, its mission to be the conversion of our virgin national forest to young sustained yield. Clary's important book provides historical perspective for all concerned with regulation of forest use, and urges the public to stay involved.Annette Aiello, Smithsonian Tropical Research Inst., Panama