Gifford Pinchot was an American forester at the turn of the 20th century. He studied at Yale University and the French National School of Forestry. When he returned home from his studies of European forests, Pinchot became intent on shaping a national forest policy for America. Pinchot served as the first Chief of the United States Forest Service from 1905 to 1910.

Pinchot is known for reforming the management and development of forests in the United States and for advocating the conservation of the nation’s reserves by planned use and renewal. He called it, “the art of producing from the forest whatever it can yield for the service of man.” Pinchot coined the term conservation ethic as applied to natural resources.