The national forest system in the United States must be considered one of the great success stories of the conservation movement. This remains true despite the continual controversies that seem to accompany administration of national forest lands by the United States Forest Service.

The roots of the Forest Service began with the appointment in 1876 of Franklin B. Hough as a "forestry agent" in the U.S. Department of Agriculture to gather information about the nation's forests. Ten years later, Bernhard E. Fernow was appointed chief of a fledgling Division of Forestry. Part way through Fernow's tenure, Congress passed the Forest Reserve Act of 1891, which authorized the president to withdraw lands from the public domain to establish federal forest reserves. The public lands were to be administered, however, by the General Land Office in the U.S. Department of the Interior.

Gifford Pinchot succeeded Fernow in 1899 and...