Midnight Forests: A Story of Gifford Pinchot and Our National Forests

by Gary Hines, Robert Casilla (Illustrator)

Our national forests are among the great natural treasures of the United States. In the national forests, wildlife can roam free. People may enjoy outdoor activities. The national forests are also a resource for timber. Today, we may take these forests for granted. But without Gifford Pinchot and other conservationists in the early twentieth century, the national forests would not exist today. Pinchot put a stop to the destruction of the nation's forests by introducing methods that would ensure healthy forests for years to come. He was helped by another man who loved the President Theodore Roosevelt. Late one night in the White House, they set aside large areas and designated them public lands. They made many people happy. But they made others furious. Gary Hines's inspiring story, beautifully illustrated by Robert Casilla, shows how two remarkable individuals changed the landscape of the nation.

32 pages, Hardcover

First published April 1, 2005

Reviews

[Charles]

Working for the forest service this summer. Nice little kids book that held some great information about Gifford Pinchot and the beginnings of the US forest service and how Pinchot and teddy Roosevelt made a crazy last minute plan to save and protect millions of acres that are still federal land today.

[Abigail]

Author Gary Hines and illustrator Robert Casilla tell the story of pioneering conservationist Gifford Pinchot, who in 1905 became the first head of the U.S. Forest Service, in this engaging picture book biography. Encouraged to study forestry by his father, Pinchot had to travel to Europe to pursue the idea, as no forestry programs existed in the United States at that time. After his studies at the L'Ecole Nationale Forestiere in France, he returned to the states—the first American to be trained in this field. Slowly gaining recognition, Pinchot found a friend and ally in Theodore Roosevelt, who was also interested in preserving America's forests, and when Roosevelt became President, the two men worked together to get the U.S. Forest Service established as an independent agency. Despite the pressure from powerful business interests, the pair worked to set aside large swathes of land, preventing lumber companies from clear-cutting them. The book closes with a brief afterword and a list of sources...

Published in 2005, Midnight Forests: A Story of Gifford Pinchot and Our National Forests is the second book I have read from Gary Hines, after his A Christmas Tree in the White House (1998). As it happens, that earlier title, which tells a story from the Theodore Roosevelt White House, is what introduced me to the figure of Pinchot, who appeared as a character there. I had never heard of him prior to this, which is a shame, as he seems a very interesting figure. In any case, having discovered this subsequent book from Hines, who worked for the United States Forest Service himself, and whose work often explores issues of forestry, I immediately requested it from the library. Informative and engaging, it is an excellent biography of a figure who deserves to be better known. I particularly liked that the narrative here emphasized that the Forest Service was meant to be an intermediary between, and to balance the interests of industry and environmentalism. It was not meant to prevent all use of the forest, all harvesting of timber, but sought and seeks to limit such use to practices which conserve and protect the forests long-term. Perhaps it is this very balanced approach, one which does not completely satisfy either interest, which explains why Pinchot himself is not as lionized today as some other early conservationists are. Balance, I find, is not very much in favor at the moment. However that may be, this is one I would recommend to young forest lovers, and to picture book readers looking for biographies of early conservationists, or for histories of our Forest Service.