Abstract
Gifford Pinchot's conservation principles evolved throughout his life. Born into a lumbering and mercantile family, he was trained in traditional European methods of forest management, a perspective central to his work as first chief of the USDA Forest Service. When, as Pennsylvania's governor, he protected old-growth forests and later urged Franklin Delano Roosevelt to buy up private timberlands, he broke ranks with many foresters. Always controversial, he acted as the Forest Service's conscience until his death in 1946.