Lecture: We Had to Learn What We Might Practice: The Yale Forest School at Grey Towers, 1901–1926
Join forest historian Dr. James Lewis for a fun and fascinating talk about the Yale Forest School’s summer field camp at Grey Towers.
Gifford Pinchot knew that if he was to succeed in introducing forestry to the United States, foresters “had to learn what we might practice.” The best place to do so, he believed, was at his alma mater, Yale University. And so, in 1900, he and his family agreed to establish the Yale Forest School, the first such graduate program in the country. In addition to the large financial gift, James Pinchot provided land and built facilities at Grey Towers for its summer field camp.
Over the next quarter century, nearly 400 students—some of them women—came to Milford to learn what it would take to be a working forester, and about the emerging forest conservation movement. But since most graduates would be sent by the Forest Service to the western backcountry, they also learned basic camping and survival skills, such as what to do if attacked by a bear. The camp experience not only provided a solid educational foundation, but it proved critical to the success of the new U.S. Forest Service and American forestry in general.
Drawing from his latest book, The Yale School of the Environment: The First 125 Years, and three decades of work on the U.S. Forest Service, Dr. Lewis will discuss the role of the Yale Forest School, the Pinchot family, and Grey Towers in the early conservation movement and their legacies.
Whether your interest is the early Forest Service, the remarkable role of Grey Towers in conservation history, or of Yale’s contribution to forestry education, this program offers the opportunity to learn how one family and one school influenced the protection of natural resources around the world.
There will be a tour of this season’s exhibit “Where Forest Teach” with the curator, Forest Service Staff Katelynn Ulmer.
Please RSVP below so that we have an accurate count of participation.