The question of how forest resources should be used goes beyond the science of growing and harvesting trees; forest management must solve the problems of balancing economic, aesthetic, and biological value to entire ecosystems. The earliest forest managers in North America were native peoples, who harvested trees for building and burned forests to make room for grazing animals. But many native populations were wiped out by European diseases soon after Europeans arrived. By the mid-nineteenth century, it became apparent to many Americans that overharvesting of timber along with wasteful practices, such as uncontrolled burning of logging waste, was denuding forests and threatening future ecological and economic stability. The Forest Service (established in 1905) began studying ways to preserve forest resources for their economic as well as aesthetic, recreational, and wilderness value.

From the 1600s to 1820s, 370 million acres (150 million ha) of forests—about 34% of the United States'...