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Abstract
Gifford Pinchot played a significant role in America's first conversation movement. He put forward many conservation polices for American federal government. Pinchot's thoughts on natural resources conservation have rich content. He realized the limitation of natural resources, so he advocated scientific management and governmental supervision on public land. He embedded conservation with moral significance and regarded conservation as an essential means of promoting social justice and international peace. The analysis on Pinchot's thoughts on conversation can help people understand the development of American environmental thoughts in the 20 century and can also provide inspiration for natural resources protection in China.
Key words Conservation, Scientific forestry, Utilitarianism, Pacifism
At the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20'h century , there was a large-scale conservation movement in US where industrialization and urbanization had been developing at a staggering speed. Under its influence, America formulated a series of important natural resources and environmental protection policies. Although the direct leader of this movement was president Theodore Roosevelt, Gifford Pinchot, the president's science consultant, was the planner of many conservation policies at that time, especially forestry policies. Pinchot was the first professional forester in America. As the first director of the United States Forestry Service, an advocator of American national forests system, as well as the founder of Society of American Foresters and Yale School of Forestry, Pinchot was regarded as an important creator and pioneer of the conservation movement in US in the 20'h century. Many of his thoughts are still guiding people today, especially for forestry^1. This article discusses and evaluates Pinchot's thoughts on conservation.
1 Sources of Pinchot's thoughts of conservation
Gifford Pinchot was born in a rich farmer's family in Connecticut in America in August, 1865. He had many dreams and career planning when he was young, but was finally engaged in conservation under the influence of his family and society. Taking forestry as the starting point, he gradually extended conservation to many other natural resources like rivers, land and minerals. His father, James Pinchot, was the enlightener and guider of Pinchot's thoughts. Pinchot pointed out in his autobiography that although his father was not a forester, he deserved to be called the " father of American forestry" because...