“Pinchot’s Principles” are said to have been developed during a series of lectures in the early 1900s at Yale Forestry School. They essentially constitute “his advice to guide the behavior of foresters in public office.” They were printed in the February 1994 issue of the Journal of Forestry, and The list and most recently of the Forest History Society blog: http://fhsarchives.wordpress.com/2013/07/16/gifford-pinchots-ten-commandments/?utm_source=Forest+Timeline+newsletter+-+July+2013&utm_campaign=July+issue&utm_medium=email
Pinchot Principles
- A public official is there to serve the public and not to run them.
- Public support of acts affecting public rights is absolutely required.
- It is more trouble to consult the public than to ignore them, but that is what you are hired for.
- Find out in advance what the public will stand for; if it is right and they won’t stand for it, postpone action and educate them.
- Use the press first, last and all the time if you want to reach the public.
- Get rid of the attitude of personal arrogance or pride of attainment of superior knowledge.
- Don’t try any sly or foxy politics because a forester is not a politician.
- Learn tact simply by being honest and sincere, and by learning to recognize the point of view of the other man and meet him with arguments he will understand.
- Don’t be afraid to give credit to someone else even when it belongs to you; not to do so is the sure mark of a weak man, but to do so is the hardest lesson to learn; encourage others to do things; you may accomplish many things through others that you can’t get done on your single initiative.
- Don’t be a knocker; use persuasion rather than force, when possible; plenty of knockers are to be had; your job is to promote unity.
- Don’t make enemies unnecessarily and for trivial reasons; if you are any good you will make plenty of them on matters of straight honesty and public policy, and you need all the support you can get.
This list was assembled as telephones and automobiles were first becoming established in larger US cities, and photography was becoming available to everyone. Before radio, television, airplane travel, and Internet communications.
Are they worth considering in today’s USFS?