forestry school in the United States. - ScholarsArchive at Oregon ...

The Beginnings 5
EFFORTS IN NORTHERN CALIFORNIA
Meanwhile, efforts to establish forestry schools began on both the
Berkeley and Stanford campuses. The February, 1899, issue of The Forester
reported that the California State Board of Trade had appointed a committee
(John P. Irish, Craigle Sharp, and W. H. Mills) to promote chairs of forestry
at both universities, and that the recently organized Society for Conserving
Water and Forests had adopted a resolution "petitioning the present legislature
to create a school of forestry in connection with the State University."
W. H. Mills of San Francisco and Kinney were vice-presidents of this society.
Elliott McAllister, in the June, 1899, Sierra Club Bulletin, said this about
the society's efforts: ". . . the committee on legislation. . . went to Sacramento
in hope . . . that an unsalaried commission be created to report upon
the forests of the State and that a department of forestry be organized at
once at the University of California to supply men to carry out the suggestions
of the Commission. .. . The bill. . . relating to forestry did not reach
final passage in the Legislature. The organization of a forestry department
in the University was not included. . . owing to objections raised by the
Governor. - . . Let us hope that the authorities of our Universities will not
overlook the ranking importance of the subject. . .
In July, 1899, the State Board of Trade sought federal financing. The
January, 1900, Sierra Club Bulletin reported that "Congressman Kahn...
agreed to advocate in Congress a bill appropriating a certain amount for the
establishment of several schools of forestry. . . ; the hope being to secure
in this way an amount sufficient to establish one of these schools at the Uni.
versity of California. In anticipation of this, Senator Perkins has recently
introduced a resolution in Congress asking the Government to assign the
use of the Lake Tahoe Reserve (over 135,000 acres) to the University of
California. . ." And the Daily Californian of February 14, 1900, reported
that Kahn had introduced a bill in Congress providing "that the Lake Tahoe
Reservation be granted in trust to the Regents."
On August 21, 1899, the Pacific Rural Press, through its editor Professor
Edward J. Wickson of the University of California College of Agriculture,
commented: "The subject of forestry instruction was advanced at all confer.
ences we attended. Desire was expressed that the State University be provided
with expert instruction so there might be trained a good supply of men to
undertake forest management. . . . Pinchot.. . says that if the Government
forest survey is undertaken, he can furnish opportunity for field work for
many forestry students."
Of great significance was the appointment of Benjamin Ide Wheeler as
president of the University of California in the fall of 1899. Fresh from
Cornell, where the first forest school in the United States had been established
just one year earlier, he was conditioned to give leadership. In his inaugural
address on October 25th, he said, "Not only the naked hills of California,
but the whole western slope of the continent call for a special study of the
forest problem. A school of forestry is an earnest and instant need."°
These remarks prompted the Pacific Rural Press to carry, in its Novem-
10University Chronicle. 1899, p. 25.