Student Questions of the Day: Books About the Forest Service and Resources for Graduate Programs

One of the original reasons for The Smokey Wire was to help students.  So a student asked these questions, and I’ll put them out to the The Smokey Wire community.

– Do you have any book recommendations that relate to FS culture, planning, or policy? I am currently reading The Bitterroot and Mr. Brandborg.
– Do you know of any good resources for looking into graduate programs, specifically in forestry/ land use planning fields?
Of course, I have to put in a plug here for Steve Wilent’s 193 Million Acres, with chapters by yours truly and other TSW contributors. Steve, maybe you have a list of chapters and authors for that book, as well as thoughts on other books?
Also, I think that professional societies such as SAF might play some kind of role with resources for graduate programs, but don’t know for sure.

17 thoughts on “Student Questions of the Day: Books About the Forest Service and Resources for Graduate Programs”

  1. I’ll suggest some older but still useful titles:

    The U.S. Forest Service: A Centennial History, Revised Edition
    by Harold K. Steen | Mar 1, 2004 – ISBN-13: 978-0295983738

    Jack Ward Thomas: The Journals of a Forest Service Chief
    by Harold Steen | Apr 1, 2004 – ISBN-10: 0295983981

    Charles F. Wilkinson and H. Michael Anderson, Land and Resource Planning in the National Forests, 64 Or. L. Rev. 1 (1985), available at https://scholar.law.colorado.edu/articles/1038.

    This last title is the single best resource I’ve found on the legal history and operation of land management planning. Because it was published before the Forest Service completed most of the first generation of LRMPs, some of the information is severely outdated. But this is no better resource (that I’m aware of) for understanding forest planning theory and how the legislation underpinning it (NFMA) came about.

    Reply
    • I liked JWT’s journal, and I am a big fan of JWT- but as I recall the only woman that showed up in it was Katie McGinty. If someone reads it and they find any FS women mentioned, let me know.

      Reply
  2. Here’s the table of contents for 193 Million Acres:

    Contents
    Foreword. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xiii
    Contributors. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .xvii
    Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xxxi

    SECTION 1: Proud Legacy, Uncertain Future
    The Future of the National Forests: Who Will Answer an Uncertain Trumpet?
    Jack Ward Thomas (posthumous) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

    193 Million Acres: In Search of a Political Base
    Keith A. Argow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33

    The US Forest Service: Headed for Extinction or Revitalization?
    Bruce Courtright . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51

    Crafting a New Forest Service and Unwinding the Forest Health Crisis in
    the Western United States
    Jim Petersen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59

    A Tale of Two Forest Services and Hope for a Third
    Tom L. Thompson. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77

    SECTION 2: Fire and Fire Management
    A Failure of Imagination: Why We Need a Commission to Take Action on
    Wildfire
    Dale N. Bosworth and Jerry T. Williams . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101

    Forestry and US Forest Service Fire Management: Moving beyond
    Conventional Practices
    Philip N. Omi, Brandon M. Collins, and Scott L. Stephens. . . . . . . . 105

    Restoring Fire as a Landscape Conservation Tool: Nontraditional
    Thoughts for a Traditional Organization
    Michael T. Rains and Tom Harbour . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129

    From Timber Service to Fire Service: The Evolution of a Land
    Management Agency
    Andy Stahl . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 167

    SECTION 3: Leadership and Management Challenges
    Cooperative Federalism, Serving the Public Interest: A Policy Analysis of
    How the States Can Engage Local Stakeholders and Federal Land
    Managers to Improve the Management of the National Forests
    Tom Schultz, Holly Fretwell, Dennis Becker, and Kelly Williams . . . . 177

    The Forest Service Ranger: Beloved Icon or Pathway to Compliance?
    Cindy C. Chojnacky . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 269

    Changing Gospels: Defining Efficiency and Effectiveness for the National
    Forests
    Lloyd C. Irland . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 293

    Changing the National Forests: Three Proposals—Timber Program Self-
    Financing, Featured-Use Management, and Community-Support Forests
    W.V. (Mac) McConnell . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 319

    Integrated Renewable Energy from National Forests
    W.V. (Mac) McConnell . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 333

    Economics and Forest Restoration
    Dennis L. Murphy. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 341

    Reinventing US Forest Service Research & Development
    Carlton Owen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 353

    An Agency to Match the Mountains: A Proposal for a US Forest Service
    Academy to Prepare Entering Professional and Technical Personnel
    to Serve Effectively as Forest Officers in a Structurally and Culturally
    Transformed Forest Service
    Lyle Laverty, Rich Stem, Roger Deaver, and Les Joslin . . . . . . . . . . 363

    Implementing Sustainable Recreation on the National Forest System:
    Aligning the Reality and Promise
    Steven Selin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 373

    Wild and Free: Diverse Dispersed Recreation as the Forest Service’s Main
    Mission
    Sharon Friedman . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 387

    Millennial Employees and Rural Places: A Millennial Forester’s Thoughts
    about Increasing Young Employee Recruitment and Retention in the
    National Forest System
    Don Radcliffe . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 409

    SECTION 4: The Legal and Regulatory Framework
    How Collaboration Can Help Resolve Process Predicament on National
    Forests: Examples from Idaho
    Rick Tholen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 441

    Collaboration: A Work in Progress
    Duane Vaagen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 463

    Lessons from Groups that Litigate Logging
    Douglas Bevington . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 471

    The 2012 Planning Rule and Ecological Integrity: Maintaining and
    Restoring the National Forests of the Douglas-fir Region
    Jerry F. Franklin and K. Norman Johnson . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 487

    Improving Implementation of the Endangered Species Act: A Case Study
    of the Northwest Forest Plan and Spotted Owl Conservation
    Stephen P. Mealey, Jack Ward Thomas (posthumous),
    Gary J. Roloff, and Jay O’Laughlin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 523

    SECTION 5: Dealing with Discrimination and Sexual Harassment
    The Forest Service Faces a Familiar Call for Reform
    James G. Lewis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 573

    The Highest Standard of Conduct
    Steve Wilent . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 579

    Honor and Integrity: Diversity through Leadership
    Andrea Watts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 583

    Moving beyond Forestry as a Monoculture
    Steve Wilent . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 587

    Women of Wildfire: Revolution, Superheroes, and the Case for Diversity
    in Fire Management
    Allie Weill . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 591

    SECTION 6: Eyes on the Future
    Future Imperfect: The Forest Service and Federal Land Management in a
    Climate-Charged Environment
    Char Miller . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 601

    Anatomy of an Enduring yet Evolving Mission
    Al Sample . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 621

    Acknowledgments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 633
    About the Editor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 635
    Index. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .637

    Reply
        • I took a class in “writing and selling a book” and they said basically “nowadays expect to do your own marketing.” This sounded like a lot of work, so I gave up. I think there are some career benefits to publishing scholarly books if you’re in certain academic fields, and no one really cares if they don’t sell. Well maybe university presses do, but.. And some of these are really good, but too expensive for the people interested to buy, so if they don’t have access to a university library, aren’t really accessible to the public.

          But I agree with you that many people don’t know about the book and it wasn’t marketed.

          Reply
  3. “Forests and Men: A Veteran Forest Leader Tells the Story of the Last Fifty Years of American Forestry,” William B. Greeley, 1951. Greeley was “one of Gifford Pinchot’s young men” putting the Forest Service together. He became Chief in 1920. https://foresthistory.org/research-explore/us-forest-service-history/people/chiefs/william-b-greeley-1879-1955/

    “The Big Burn: Teddy Roosevelt & the Fire That Saved America,” Timothy Egan, 2009. Covers much of the same ground as Forests and Men.

    Both are very well written (and/or edited!).

    Reply
  4. Gifford Pinchot and the Making of Modern Environmentalism, by Char Miller
    https://islandpress.org/books/gifford-pinchot-and-making-modern-environmentalism

    America’s Great National Forests, Wildernesses, and Grasslands, also by Char Miller
    https://www.amazon.com/Americas-National-Forests-Wildernesses-Grasslands/dp/0847849155

    Black Woman in Green: Gloria Brown and the Unmarked Trail to Forest Service Leadership, by Gloria Brown and Donna Sinclair
    https://osupress.oregonstate.edu/book/black-woman-in-green

    Reply
    • Thanks Kelly: Sadly, Gloria Brown just died last September, something I just learned yesterday. There is a live presentation of her life and career this evening at 6:30 on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RwHNDtnWd4M

      I was an OTA (“older than average”) forestry student at Oregon State University in the 1990s and got to know her fairly well — in large part due to her partnership with Portland bookstore owner, Phil Wikelund, who was a Reed College student that I knew in the 1960s — he maintained a small communal household that I shared as a student at Portland State University. Lots of interesting history involving Alan Ginsburg, San Francisco hippies, horse meat, Reedies, and recreational experimentation at that time.

      I also met with Gloria and testified at at least one public hearing she chaired as Supervisor of the Siuslaw NF after she took that job. I just learned of her book about a week ago and ordered a copy through Amazon that should be here any day. The promo said she lived in Lake Oswego and I saw she had a Facebook page, so I made a Friend request. Yesterday, the Request was accepted and then I learned that she had died last September and that Phil was still maintaining their page. Very sad and unexpected, and looking forward to reading her story and reconnecting with Phil.

      Reply

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