Hey guys! Well, I really didn’t know as to how to approach my website, and how I could write the posts that would explain Pinchot’s life, so I decided it to write it like this. I wrote it as if I had asked Pinchot to give me a summary of his life in the form of a letter or some such thing. I hope you guys enjoy it! I know that I had fun creating it.

I was born August 11, 1865, in Simsbury, Connecticut to James and Mary Pinchot (Formerly “Mary Eno,” the daughter of a wealthy merchant from New York.). I was the first of two in my family, my brother Amos was born about seven years after me. My brother and I grew up into a very wealthy family, for my father had made a great deal of money off lumbering and land speculation, but to his death he would regret the damage he did. My father basically pushed me into being a forester, though I will admit that I did have a very strong interest for it even before I started. Of course, I was sent to one of the best colleges you could afford to get into, Yale College. An odd occurrence at the time was the fact that nobody had attempted to make forestry a profession. Being so, Neither Yale or any other College or University in America offered a Major in Forestry. So after my graduation in 1889, I went to Nancy, France, to the French National Forestry School to pursue my dreams of forestry.   

I only spent a year in France, and returned to America to get started by putting what I knew to work. I was appointed to the National Forest Commission in 1896 by Grover Cleveland, and was given the large task of developing the Nation’s Western Forest Reserves. Only two years later, I was then promoted to the head of the Division of Forestry. A few years later, in 1900, Henry S. Graves and I help to found Yale University School of Forestry. I was a professor there for thirty-three years, from 1903 until 1936.

Being a forester, I of course promoted the Efficiency Movement. Waste at the time was my greatest enemy. People just didn’t seem to grasp the fact that you could still timber some land, but still have enough trees leftover to allow the forest to still flourish. I had people fighting to timber forests as much as possible on one side, and had people wanting the forests not publicized and just left alone period. “Back to nature” people like John Muir didn’t help me any more than a broken fishing rod, but, I did get a lot of help from my good friend Theodore Roosevelt; who, being the President at the time, held quite enough power to aid my cause. I would use massive publicity campaigns and get many supporters to come to my side, with Roosevelt also backing me, up there appeared to be no stopping me. But, sadly, when his second term ended, and William Taft came into the Presidency, I was fired from my position on February 7, 1910. But, they didn’t foil all of our plans, no. On March 2, 1907, just minutes before Roosevelt was stripped of his powers that allowed him to make more Western Land Reserves, we devised a plan that would designate sixteen million acres of new National Forests for free of logging. Later, they were dubbed the “Midnight Forests.”   

To this day, I still am boggled as to why I was forced to step down from my position. Everything was going well, for two years in fact, but then Richard Ballinger, Secretary of Interior at the time, had some policies that I didn’t agree with, and I spoke my mind. The incident was reported in papers and billboards everywhere, and eventually called the “Pinchot-Ballinger Controversy.” It did eventually split the Republican Party as well too, leaving us with the Progressive party, which my brother Amos and I were top leaders. Even though it seemed good at the time, it did eventually hurt me. To this day I still believe that it turned away a fair amount of my supporters, which led to my loosing the 1914 race for Senate. And, after my unsuccessful race for a place in the Senate, I also pushed forward America’s involvement in World War II; which went against President Woodrow Wilson’s neutral beliefs. We, meaning the Progressive Party at large, realized that we were getting nowhere on our own, and returned to our old parties, where I rejoined my Republican “comrades.”

After being denied for Senate once, I decided to turn to just State Politics, Pennsylvania’s State Politics to be exact. Governor William Sproul appointed me state Commissioner of Forestry in 1920. But, I wanted to be more than just a Commissioner of Forestry again. I wanted to have more power than just the right to campaign to save the forests of America, so I ran for Pennsylvania Governor in 1922. I was blessed with a good bit of fortune and won by quite considerable amount of votes over my opponent. I retired by the end of my term in 1926, and tried again for the US Senate. Once again however, I lost the race and decided that I needed a break from politics, and went with my wife Mary on a seven-month long cruise in the South Seas. After returning, I ran again for Pennsylvania Governor and succeeded in winning once again. Now, I will tell you this, and many will agree, but I’m a stubborn old dog. I still wanted a seat in the Senate House, and was determined as ever to get there. But, even after my third attempt in 1934, I was once again turned away. So, I went back to my old reliable place and ran again for Governor of Pennsylvania in 1938. But, I guess they had enough of me and I lost that political race as well.

So, I took the hint and retired. I wrote a few books, and still helped out future political leaders along as well. I helped invent a portable fishing kit for lifeboats during World War II, and even discovered and taught the U.S. Navy on how to extract fresh water from all species of fish. Well, I must be off now. My son Gifford Bryce II has arrived for supper, and my wife is calling for me.

Gifford Pinchot would later die on October 4, 1946 of leukemia. He was outlived by his wife and son, Gifford Bryce Pinchot II.

(So guys, I would like you to comment I would like to hear what you have to say. Now, I realize that a lot of you probably don't have Xanga's, and I apologize for that, but please leave comments on the AP Website. Make any you would like, be it as you are now, or somebody that might have known Pinchot or been around during his time.)