United States
Department of
Agriculture
Forest Service
Pacific Southwest
Research Station
General Technical
Report
PSW-GTR-233
TU
DE PA
RT
RE
April 2013
MENT OF AGRI C U L
The Search for Forest Facts:
A History of the Pacific Southwest
Forest and Range Experiment
Station, 1926–2000
Anthony Godfrey
The Forest Service of the U.S. Department of Agriculture is dedicated to the principle of multiple use management of the Nation’s forest resources for sustained yields of wood, water,
forage, wildlife, and recreation. Through forestry research, cooperation with the States and
private forest owners, and management of the national forests and national grasslands, it
strives—as directed by Congress—to provide increasingly greater service to a growing Nation.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) prohibits discrimination in all its programs and
activities on the basis of race, color, national origin, sex, religion, age, disability, sexual orientation, marital status, family status, status as a parent (in education and training programs
and activities), because all or part of an individual’s income is derived from any public assistance program, or retaliation. (Not all prohibited bases apply to all programs or activities).
If you require this information in alternative format (Braille, large print, audiotape, etc.), contact the USDA’s TARGET Center at (202) 720-2600 (Voice or TDD).
If you require information about this program, activity, or facility in a language other than English, contact the agency office responsible for the program or activity, or any USDA office.
To file a complaint alleging discrimination, write USDA, Director, Office of Civil Rights, 1400
Independence Avenue, S.W., Washington, D.C. 20250-9410, or call toll free, (866) 632-9992
(Voice). TDD users can contact USDA through local relay or the Federal relay at (800) 8778339 (TDD) or (866) 377-8642 (relay voice users). You may use USDA Program Discrimination Complaint Forms AD-3027 or AD-3027s (Spanish) which can be found at: http://www.
ascr.usda.gov/complaint_filing_cust.html or upon request from a local Forest Service office.
USDA is an equal opportunity provider and employer.
Author
Anthony Godfrey is president, U.S. West Research, Inc., 2395 Fisher Lane,
Salt Lake City, UT 84109. U.S. West Research, Inc. a public history and cultural
resource management firm.
Pesticide Precautionary Statement
This publication reports research involving pesticides. It does not contain recommendations for their use, nor does it imply that the uses discussed here have been
registered. All uses of pesticides must be registered by appropriate state or federal
agencies, or both, before they can be recommended.
CAUTION: Pesticides can be injurious to humans, domestic animals, desirable
plants, and fish or other wildlife—if they are not applied properly. Use all pesticides
selectively and carefully. Follow recommended practices for the disposal of surplus
pesticides and pesticide containers.
Cover: 1914. John M. Miller (on right), pioneer in Western forest entomology and
bark beetle control projects with USDA Forest Service. Credit: U.S. Forest Service,
Pacific Southwest Research Station.
Abstract
Godfrey, Anthony. 2013. The search for forest facts: a history of the Pacific
Southwest Forest and Range Experiment Station, 1926–2000. Gen. Tech. Rep.
PSW-GTR-233. Albany CA: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service,
Pacific Southwest Research Station. 542 p.
In 1926, the California Forest Experiment Station, which later became the Pacific
Southwest (PSW) Research Station, was established at the University of California, Berkeley. Today, the PSW Research Station represents the research and
development branch of the USDA Forest Service in California and Hawaii and the
U.S.-affiliated Pacific Islands. The PSW Research Station develops and delivers
science-based information, technologies, and applications to help people make
informed decisions about natural resource management, conservation, and environmental protection. This comprehensive history covers forestry science in California,
Hawaii, and the Pacific Islands by the Forest Service prior to 1926 and then that
of the PSW Research Station to 2000. The growth of forestry research in America
and California is described. The publication considers forest research in context of
the New Deal, World War II, environmental forestry, and ecosystem research in
California and Hawaii.
Keywords: Forestry, science, history, California, Hawaii, research.
i
Acknowledgments
As with any project of this scale, there are countless people and institutions to thank
for their contributions.
First and foremost, I would like to thank Pacific Southwest (PSW) Research
Station Communications Staff Marilyn Hartley (retired) and Keiko Williams who
patiently served as the designated Contracting Officer Representatives (CORs) for
this project. In late 2005, as I sat in a tiny windowless backroom at the PSW headquarters in Albany, California, pouring through catalogued and neatly boxed up
historical documents and photographs stored in anticipation of my arrival, Marilyn
Hartley, along with visual information specialist Martha Shibata, worked closely
with me and provided daily kindness and encouragement during the project’s initial
research stage. In 2006, Keiko Williams picked up responsibility for the project and
thereafter carried it diligently through until publication. During this time period,
Lynn Sullivan, editor for the Pacific Northwest Research Station, Portland, Oregon,
made the necessary formatting and editorial changes to meet Forest Service scientific publication requirements. While the manuscript underwent these revisions, Ms.
Williams, along with Beth Purcille at PSW headquarters, conducted the tedious, but
very necessary, clerical work involved, such as tracking down literature citations
and locating and selecting historic photographs for the manuscript. Additionally, I
am greatful to James R. Sedell for initiating the undertaking before his retirement,
as Station Director of PSW Research Station.
There are also my debts to various institutions and repositories for their assistance. For instance, I am indebted to Irene Voit, technical information specialist for
the Rocky Mountain Research Station Library, Ogden, Utah, for providing valuable
Forest Service publications and photocopying services. I am also appreciative for
the aid and hospitality of Director Richard Boyden of the National Archives and
Records Administration at San Bruno, California, as well as his staff, for working
with me to locate critical material in the holdings of Record Group 95 (Records of
the Forest Service).
Once a substantial draft was completed, the Forest Service solicited three peer
reviewers for the project. They included James Lewis, staff historian for the Forest
History Society, Durham, North Carolina, and author of The Forest Service and
the Greatest Good: A Centennial History (2005), retired assistant director of the
PSW Research Station Enoch F. Bell, and former natural resource economist with
the USDA Forest Service Daina Dravnieks Apple. James Lewis and Enoch Bell
provided astute, knowledgeable, and comprehensive commentary on the manuscript
ii
along with detailed edits, while Apple offered new information on Management
Sciences Staff (MaSS), the internal think tank for the Chief’s office that was part
of PSW from 1962 to 1988.
Others to whom I owe particular recognition for aid in preparing this book are
my long-time colleague and friend Roy Webb at the University of Utah Marriott
Library for his usual stylistic admonitions, and the staff of U.S. West Research, Inc.
in Salt Lake City for the long hours they put into this project, especially Woody
“the dog” Mogelthorpe. Finally, I want to extend my gratitude and love to Deborah
L. Gardner, my wife. Although she had no active part in the production of the book,
her caring support and sacrifices were indispensable during the final stages of this
project.
Anthony Godfrey, Ph.D.
U.S. West Research, Inc.
Salt Lake City, Utah
July 2010
iii
CONTENTS
1Introduction
5Chapter 1: 1785–1904, Growth of Forestry Research in America and
California
41 Chapter 2: 1905–1925, Forest Service Research in California
105 Chapter 3: 1926–1932, Forestry Research Comes of Age in California
167 Chapter 4: 1933–1941, A New Deal for Forest Service Research
in California
235 Chapter 5: 1941–1945, Off to War
257 Chapter 6: 1946–1962, Golden State of Research
323 Chapter 7: 1963–1979, Environmental Forestry Research
379 Chapter 8: 1980–1994, Ecosystem Research
433 Chapter 9: 1995–2000, Epilogue
443 Scientific and Common Names
446 References
507 Index of People
520 Index of Subjects
iv
The Search for Forest Facts: A History of the Pacific Southwest Forest and Range Experiment Station, 1926–2000
Introduction
The history of the Pacific Southwest (PSW) Research Station nominally began on
July 1, 1926, when the California Forest Experiment Station was dedicated. On that
day, it occupied a modest four rooms in Hilgard Hall on the campus of the University of California, Berkeley. For the next 33 years, the California campus would be
its home. But the Station’s roots stretch back in time more than a century when the
seed of forestry science first blew ashore from Europe and found fertile ground in
America.
Chapters 1 and 2 recount the significant national and California events that led
in 1926 to the founding of the California Forest Experiment Station. Intertwined
within their pages are the key scientific ideas, principles, and people who appreciably contributed to the growth of forestry science within the branches of federal and
th
th
California state government from the late 18 and early 19 century to 1926.
From that point, chapters 3 through 5 carry the story from 1926 to the end of
World War II. These chapters discuss the coming of age of forestry research at the
California Forest Experiment Station as it transformed in 1932 into the California
Forest and Range Experiment Station (CFRES). The passage of the McSweeneyMcNary Research Act (1928) helped fund, focus, and direct CFRES research
projects along six lines, or functional divisions, of research: forest management,
utilization of wood and other forest products, forest protection, forest influences,
range research, and forest economics. By 1932, CFRES personnel had grown to
26 permanent staff, along with many clerks and cooperating personnel from other
U.S. Department of Agriculture agencies. Additionally at that time, CFRES drew
upon University of California students, or other short-term assistants to meet the
station’s research demands. During the remainder of the 1930s, the station continued to grow as it took advantage of the labor and funding provided by Franklin
Delano Roosevelt’s New Deal programs, like the Civilian Conservation Corps,
Public Works Administration, and Works Progress Administration. At this time,
CRFES also increased its forestry research program into genetics—a seventh line
of research—when in 1935 it acquired the Institute of Forest Genetics, a private
research institution located at Placerville, California. The station also acquired
several new experimental forests and ranges in California for various research purposes during the New Deal years, such as the Blacks Mountain (1934), San Dimas
(1934), and Redwood (1940) Experimental Forests, and the Burgess Spring (1935)
Experimental Range. By 1939 and the approach of world war, CFRES had the
personnel, funding, facilities, and experimental forests and ranges to match most
of its research needs. However, during World War II, the CRFES research program
diverted resources to the war effort, and retrenchment nibbled the station’s domestic
research program to the bone.
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general technical report psw-gtr-233
From 1946 to 1962, a postwar boom in California energized CFRES, and it
eventually regained its former investigative abilities and capacities. By the early
1960s, the station entered into a “golden state” of research. As described in chapter
6, CFRES broke away from traditional ways of doing things through an administrative reorganization that moved the government agency off the University of
California campus. At the same time, CFRES sought and acquired significant
contributions of cooperative funding. In the 1950s, fundamental forestry knowledge took a back seat as the Forest Service sought to solve intensive management
problems through applied science. Additionally, by 1959, as a consequence of the
administrative boundary of the station being extended to Hawaii, the station was
renamed the Pacific Southwest Forest Research Station. The PSW Research Station
had by this time a corps of more than 100 research specialists who had acquired
their scientific skills from the country’s finest universities—including the University of California. In addition to the station’s six experimental forests (Blacks
Mountain, Yurok, Swain Mountain, Challenge, Stanislaus, and San Dimas), there
were four experimental ranges (Burgess Springs, Harvey Valley, San Joaquin, and
Teakettle Creek), three insect laboratories (Hat Creek, Miami, and Orleans), a fire
laboratory (Pilgrim Creek), two experimental watershed research areas (Sagehen
and Big Creek), and the Institute of Forest Genetics. However, while station scientists busied themselves in their research and field laboratories trying to meet
California and Hawaii’s practical forestry research needs, national research shifted
direction toward university-based forestry that pertained to the public’s growing
environmental awareness following the publication of Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring
(1962).
During the years 1963 to 1979, as told in chapter 7, the PSW Research Station
eventually fell in line with the nascent environmental movement, but first had
to undergo critical administrative changes. The PSW scientists were given more
opportunity to pursue their interests, and the station improved communication
between research scientists and the people who used the station’s research results
with articles in Forestry Research: What’s New in the West. They now worked in
research work units (RWUs) instead of the old functional divisions of a long-term
national research program, whereby individual RWU project leaders decided
independently what aspects of the research to prioritize. At the same time, equal
employment opportunity issues arose, and station directors were confronted with
calls for an employee union, followed by charges of discrimination against minorities and women in hiring and promotion—particularly the class action lawsuit
Gene Bernardi et al. v. Earl Butz. Despite management reform issues, station
investigations pursued critical research in the environmental era in several ways.
2
The Search for Forest Facts: A History of the Pacific Southwest Forest and Range Experiment Station, 1926–2000
Interdisciplinary RWUs investigated forest insect control strategies that did not use
toxic insecticides that disrupted biological systems. Other RWUs investigated the
effect of air pollution on California’s forests, while yet other PSW scientists studied
water management and snowpack density in the Sierra Mountains and the ability
to provide adequate supplies to dependent urban areas below. Fire research was
as complex as watershed research. Projects such as FIRESCOPE improved communication between agencies fighting fires and developed fire management plans
for the wild lands of southern California. Recreation and urban forestry were also
new research assignments for the PSW Research Station. Finally, forestry research
at PSW included environmental studies in Hawaii, Guam, and elsewhere in the
Pacific Islands. They studied how fires, insects, diseases, feral animals, and aggressive noxious and exotic plants damaged native forests. All the above research work
was conducted alongside continued research in more traditional areas in California,
such as pine and redwood management, genetics, range management, and similar
research pursuits. By 1979, the PSW Forest and Range Experiment Station had
reached the apex of its growth as an institution. The station’s investigations during
the environmental era from 1963 to 1979 continued to reflect an applied science
philosophical preference.
Starting a year later, faced with high inflation, even higher interest rates and
other economic problems, the Reagan administration worked for and achieved
unprecedented tax and budget cuts. They seriously affected the PSW Research
Station at a time when the public called for ecosystem management of the Nation’s
resources. By the end of the decade, this new ethos exhibited a concern for a common natural world, and spanned class, region, gender, ethnicity, and political lines
in the state. This same movement developed among the Forest Service scientific
community as well, resulting in ecosystem management. Naturally, it took time for
the station to evolve from a problem-organized institution to an interdisciplinary
ecosystem research organization. Chapter 8, the final chapter, explains how this
transition in research goals took place in an era of shrinking budgets, retirements,
competitive grants, and a relocation to new headquarters. Nonetheless, achievements were made in forest environmental research in California and Hawaii, and
the station tackled diverse problems in both regions from the spotted owl controversy in California to saving Hawaii’s native rain forests from invasive nonindigenous species.
An epilogue follows that overviews how Forest Service reorganization plans
at the end of the 20th century affected the revitalization of the Pacific Southwest
Research Station in the 21st century.
3