The Teacher and the Forest: The Pennsylvania Forest Association, George Perkins Marsh, and the Origins of Conservation Education

Abstract

Pennsylvania was  named for its vast forests, which included well-stocked hardwood and softwood stands. This abundant resource supported a large sawmill industry, provided hemlock bark for the tanning industry, and produced many rotations of small timber for charcoal for an extensive iron-smelting industry. By the 1880s, the condition of Pennsylvania's forests was indeed grim. In the 1895 report of the legislatively created Forestry Commission, Dr. Joseph T. Rothrock described a multicounty area in northeast Pennsylvania where 970 square miles had become "waste areas" or "stripped lands." Rothrock reported furthermore that similar conditions prevailed further west in north-central Pennsylvania. In a subsequent report for the newly created Division of Forestry, Rothrock reported that by 1896 nearly 180,000 acres of forest had been destroyed by fire for an estimated loss of $557,000, an immense sum in those days. Deforestation was also blamed for contributing to the number and severity of damaging floods. Rothrock reported that eight hard-hit counties paid more than $665,000 to repair bridges damaged from flooding in the preceding four years.