The pivotal decade - American forestry in the 1870s

In the late 19th century timber companies were cutting their way west, fueling the Industrial Revolution with America's forests and leaving behind vast tracts of cutover land in the Northeast, Mid-Atlantic, and Midwest. In Prussia and France, forest advocates found national forestry schools and examples of legislation to regulate resource exploitation. Although Marsh, Hough, and Baker lamented their inability to effect large-scale change, their efforts did lead to federal recognition of the problems associated with uncontrolled timber harvests and thus paved the way for the second generation of forestry leaders.