ABSTRACT
Words change their meaning over time. Nowhere is this clearer than in the environmental field. Gifford Pinchot is sometimes referred to as ‘the father of conservation’, yet, as the quotation shows, he used the term in a way which is quite different from that of today. Pinchot was responsible for the establishment of the US Forest Service in 1905, and had strong views on the need for managing the forests in the interests of long-term commercial development. Forests had to be managed like any other crop. Wanton exploitation was inefficient: good management involved sensible conservation.
