Seasons Greetings!

In honor of the season, Peeling Back the Bark would like to feature a small selection of just a few of the holiday cards and greetings found in various Forest History Society archival collections.  The following selected materials represent just a fraction of the many collections available in the FHS Archives.  Below each image can [...]

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President bans Christmas tree from White House!

Recently, Eben came across a story about how Theodore Roosevelt refused to allow a Christmas tree in the White House because of “environmental concerns.”  A bit of research kept turning up variations on the story about the ban and how his son Archie smuggled one in against his father’s wishes, which provoked an angry reaction.  [...]

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New Collection: National Fire Danger Rating System

A key instrument in fighting wildfires is the National Fire Danger Rating System — used to anticipate fires ahead of time by predicting the potential danger for fire in a specific geographic area.  The Forest History Society Library and Archives staff recently processed a collection that provides a history of the Forest Service’s creation of [...]

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FHS in the News!

The Forest History Society has appeared twice in the news recently! Staff historian Jamie Lewis was interviewed for a story about the drop in the number of visitors to national forests on an annual basis written by Associated Press reporter Jeff Barnard. “National Forest visitors down, no one knows why” appeared in newspapers around the [...]

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December 1, 1874: A [Red] Star is Born

On this day in 1874, Raphael Zon was born in Simbirsk, Russia.  From Russian radical to New World immigrant, Zon achieved national and international influence as a forest researcher.  Gifford Pinchot even proclaimed, “Mr. Zon is my old and valued friend. . . There is no higher authority in forestry in America.”
In Simbirsk, Zon studied [...]

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