100 years at the branch office

When the U.S. Forest Service was inaugurated in 1905, managing the nation’s wildlands was a collegial affair. The first chief of the forest, Gifford Pinchot, at right, was a Yale classmate of President Theodore Roosevelt. Foresters would meet in Pinchot’s D.C.-area home, choose new areas to become national forests and then retire for drinks. But the camaraderie was gone five years later, when Pinchot was dumped by then-President Taft. Ever since, controversy has tinged the agency’s reputation. From Jan. 3 to 6, the Forest Service re-creates the gathering that established the agency 100 years ago with a Centennial Congress in Washington, D.C. Besides musical licks from the Fiddlin’ Foresters, the most interesting action may occur Jan. 5 when a collection of officials and lawmakers offer their views on the nation’s forests to 500 members of the agency and public land advocacy groups but not members of the public. Panelists on the open-topic forum include Rep. Norman D. Dicks (D-Wash.), who recently supported extending the recreation fee program (known locally as the Adventure Pass) that charges for certain uses of national forests; Rep. Mark Udall (D-Colo.) and Sen. Pete V. Domenici (R-N.M.), who tried to block the legislation; Sen. Larry E. Craig (R-Idaho), Rep. Greg Walden (R-Ore.) and Undersecretary of Agriculture Mark E. Rey. To lend a historical air to the event, actors portraying Pinchot and Roosevelt will welcome guests on the first day of the congress. Taft, however, isn’t invited. Go to www.natlforests.org/centennial/.

-- Charles Duhigg