History of the New York State College of Forestry
Encyclopedia
The New York State College of Forestry, the first professional school of forestry in North America, opened its doors at Cornell University
, in Ithaca, New York
, in the autumn of 1898. After just a few years of operation, it was defunded in 1903, by Governor Benjamin B. Odell, in response to public outcry over the College's controversial forestry practices in the Adirondacks. Less than a decade later, in 1911, the New York State College of Forestry was reestablished at Syracuse University
by the New York State Legislature, with a mandate for forest conservation. The institution has continued to evolve and is now part of the State University of New York
(SUNY) system, while still closely related and immediately adjacent to Syracuse University. Today, the State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry
, or SUNY-ESF, is a doctoral-degree granting institution based in Syracuse, New York
, with facilities and forest properties in several additional locations in upstate New York; it is commemorating its centennial anniversary.
in Ithaca
, NY, "by an act of the New York State Legislature in April 1898". Along with the establishment of the College, the legislature also provided for the purchase of 30000 acres (121.4 km²) of forest in the Adirondack mountains
, the Axton tract near Upper Saranac Lake
, from the Santa Clara Lumber Company, for $165,000. This act came as an enlightened response to the devastation being wrought at the time by indiscriminate logging not only in New York, but also in Pennsylvania, Michigan ("the lands that nobody wanted"), Wisconsin, and elsewhere.
The good intentions of Cornell, as New York State's land grant
college to establish a college of forestry were thwarted by the inept and "clueless" actions of Bernhard Fernow Dean of the College. His clear-cutting of Adirondack Forest Preserve lands, given to him by the state for teaching and experiments, adjacent to a "great camp" Knollwood Club
whose members included Louis Marshall, lawyer and framer of the 1895, Article 14 the "Forever Wild" clause in the New York State constitution, and five wealthy Jewish friends. You can begin to imagine the "howl" that went up at Knollwood which was within the view shed of the Axton tract. Dean Fernow dismissed the noise as coming from "those" bankers. The location of their camp on Saranac Lake
was dictated by antisemitism of the late 19th century which limited the availability of lands for sale to Jews in the Adirondacks, even to such immensely wealthy Jews as club member Daniel Guggenheim
A lawsuit was brought against Fernow and Cornell University by Louis Marshall and his Knollwood neighbors for incompetence and malfeasance in managing the Axton forest property.
This was not Cornell University's first venture into forestry. Almost forty years earlier, under the 1862 Morrill Land Grant Act, the Federal land grant scrip
for New York state of 989,920 acres**, was given to Cornell, to the later chagrin of the trustees of Syracuse and New York Universities. As a matter of fact, Genesee College
the forerunner of Syracuse University
, accepted $25,000 from Ezra Cornell to drop its opposition to the proceeds from the Morrill Land grant going to Cornell University. Ezra Cornell
, under advice from lumberman trustee Henry Sage, wisely parlayed the grant into ownership of Wisconsin pine lands that he held until the wanton logging was diminished and the price for lumber increased, providing a substantial endowment for the university. "In Search of Ezra's Pines"
Dr. Bernhard Fernow, then chief of the USDA's Division of Forestry, was invited to head the new College. In preparation for assuming this new post, Fernow visited George Vanderbilt's Biltmore Estate, where Dr. Carl Schenck
was establishing the Biltmore Forest School
. Fernow saw the mission of forestry education as different, if complementary, to that envisioned by Schenk. In subsequent correspondence with Schenck, Fernow wrote that "the Cornell School of Forestry 'shall greatly lack in practical demonstration' and variety of demonstrations", and inquired whether "Cornell students [could] supplement their education by summer courses at Biltmore".
Fernow resigned his Federal appointment in July 1898 to come to Ithaca. "At ten o'clock on the morning of September 22 or 23, 1898, in a classroom in Morrill Hall", classes commenced at the New York College of Forestry, "the first professional school of forestry in North America", according to Professor Ralph Hosmer
. Just two years later, in the fall of 1900, the New York State College of Forestry had 24 students; Biltmore nine students in its 12-month program; and Yale's new postgraduate forestry program, seven.
A fruitful marriage or hybridization between German methods (Professor Bernhard Fernow) and American practice of forestry, silviculture
came about in the person of Raphael Zon
, an emigre' from Simbirsk, Russia. Part of North America's very first graduating class in forestry from the New York State College of Forestry at Cornell
in 1901, Zon later became a "giant" among American foresters, or as Secretary of Agriculture Claude R. Wickard
said, the "dean of all foresters of America."
, was first published in October 1902, at the New York State College of Forestry at Cornell University, under the editorial advisement of a board of faculty and alumni. The affiliation lasted only through the first volume, as publication was disrupted by the closure of the College in 1903. The Quarterly was published independently with a board of editors composed of many prominent figures in American forestry in the early part of the 20th century, including Editor-in-Chief Bernhard Fernow and Carl Schenck
, founder of the Biltmore Forest School
.
On that night in May 1903 when the telegram arrived announcing Governor Odell's veto of the annual appropriation for the College of Forestry, Dean Fernow was at a dance. Despite the bad news, the dance went on. Fernow and the forestry students offered to carry on the school. However, Cornell's Board of Trustees and President Schurman (despite Bailey's urgings to the contrary) decided to close the doors of the Forestry College. In June, 1903, instruction in the College ceased and the faculty was dismissed.
with Dean Liberty Hyde Bailey
adding a Department of Forestry to of the New York State College of Agriculture at Cornell University
in 1910-11. Walter Mulford, of the University of Michigan, was appointed as department chair. At Dean Bailey's request, in 1911, the New York Legislature appropriated $100,000 to construct a building to house the Forestry Department on the Cornell campus; the building was later named Fernow Hall.
In 1914, noted forester Ralph Hosmer
, a 1902 graduate of the Yale School of Forestry and contemporary of Gifford Pinchot
, replaced Mulford as Professor and head of the Department of Forestry at the New York State College of Agriculture at Cornell University
, a position he held until his retirement in June 1942.
, through a special bill signed by New York
's Governor John Alden Dix
. After the Cornell/ Axton debacle, Louis Marshall, one of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit and a prime mover for the establishment of the Adirondack and Catskill Forest Preserve (New York)
, understood that a "proper" College of Forestry was needed in New York state. In 1910, Marshall became a Syracuse University
Trustee and confided in Syracuse University Chancellor James R. Day
his desire to have a forestry school at the University. Marshall was designated by his fellow trustees to lobby Governor Charles E. Hughes
towards such an end:
By 1911, Marshall's efforts resulted in passage of New York State Senate Bill No. 18, "An Act to establish a State College of Forestry at Syracuse University, and making appropriation therefor", to establish and fund the school. The bill was signed by Governor Dix, and the College "incorporated by Chapter 851 of the Laws of 1911". Marshall was elected president of the newly reestablished college's board of trustees, a position he held until his death in 1929.
The first dean of the College at Syracuse University, from 1911–12, was William L. Bray
, Ph.D. University of Chicago, botanist, plant ecologist, biogeographer and Professor of Botany at Syracuse University. In 1911, in addition to assuming the deanship of forestry he organized the Agricultural Division at Syracuse University.
Bray's successor, from 1912–20, was Dr. Hugh P. Baker
, a graduate of Yale's School of Forestry (M.F., 1904) and the University of Munich (Ph.D., Economics, 1910). Baker previously had worked with the United States Bureau of Forestry and Forest Service (1901–04), and before coming to Syracuse had been Professor of Forestry at the Pennsylvania State College.
In 1913, funds for construction of Bray Hall, the first campus building, were still languishing in the state capital. Louis Marshall, as President of the College's Board of Trustees, wanted action, so two years after the appropriation bill was first signed by Governor Dix, Marshall went to the newly-elected Governor William Sulzer
, who reportedly had wanted to further delay signing the $250,000 appropriation. It is reputed that Marshall handed him a pen and said, "Sign it." Governor Sulzer complied.
By 1913, according to Marshall, the college had "160 students, representing 46 counties of [New York] State. It has developed a faculty of eight trained men, all of whom are graduates of forest schools of high standing.... Dr. Hugh P. Baker, who is the Dean of the College ... has received applications from over eight hundred prospective students." Graduate courses at the College were authorized in 1918.
This is what ESF
president Dr. Cornelius B. Murphy, Jr.
had to say at the re-dedication of Marshall Hall on January 19, 2001: "Louis Marshall is largely the reason that everyone from the college is here today. Louis Marshall was recruited by Chancellor Day in 1910 to make the concept of the 'forestry college' at Syracuse University a reality. Louis was tenacious, prodding both the Governor and the Legislature to take action. Louis Marshall... lobbied for the $250,000 appropriation to make a building a reality. I think that it is safe to say that Louis Marshall was our father, our first leader and our first forester. Today we rededicate this building to his memory and accomplishments." The re-dedication events included the unveiling of two bronze plaques: one in honor of Louis Marshall and the other in honor of his son, ESF alumnus, Bob Marshall
.
As Dean of the New York State College of Forestry at Syracuse University, Nelson Courtlandt Brown
, secured the gift of the Charles Lathrop Pack Demonstration Forest, soon to be followed by a 15,000 acre Archer Milton Huntington and Anna Hyatt Huntington
Wildlife Forest in Newcomb, New York
. Brown subsequently secured the state appropriation for Marshall Hall, which offered greater teaching and laboratory space. Brown also procured increases in state appropriations for teaching salaries, as well as a grant of $10,000 for forest investigations.
Samuel N. Spring
was appointed dean of the New York State College of Forestry in Syracuse, NY in February 1933, succeeding Baker. Spring served as Dean of the College of Forestry until his retirement in May 1944.
Among the salient differences between the forestry programs at Cornell and Syracuse were the wood utilization, wood chemistry and pulp & paper majors at the latter.
, the State College of Forestry became a specialized college within the multi-campus SUNY system. The college's name was changed to State University College of Forestry at Syracuse University. In 1972, with burgeoning public interest in environmental education
, the College's name was changed again, to the State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry
(SUNY-ESF). Today, the college retains a close relationship with Syracuse University
, but is autonomous, unlike some other state-supported colleges at private institutions in New York state. ESF students not only take courses, enroll in concurrent degree programs, and enjoy other benefits of the college's association with Syracuse University, but also may take courses at Cornell's state-funded colleges, and at the SUNY Upstate Medical University.
Cornell University
Cornell University is an Ivy League university located in Ithaca, New York, United States. It is a private land-grant university, receiving annual funding from the State of New York for certain educational missions...
, in Ithaca, New York
Ithaca, New York
The city of Ithaca, is a city in upstate New York and the county seat of Tompkins County, as well as the largest community in the Ithaca-Tompkins County metropolitan area...
, in the autumn of 1898. After just a few years of operation, it was defunded in 1903, by Governor Benjamin B. Odell, in response to public outcry over the College's controversial forestry practices in the Adirondacks. Less than a decade later, in 1911, the New York State College of Forestry was reestablished at Syracuse University
Syracuse University
Syracuse University is a private research university located in Syracuse, New York, United States. Its roots can be traced back to Genesee Wesleyan Seminary, founded by the Methodist Episcopal Church in 1832, which also later founded Genesee College...
by the New York State Legislature, with a mandate for forest conservation. The institution has continued to evolve and is now part of the State University of New York
State University of New York
The State University of New York, abbreviated SUNY , is a system of public institutions of higher education in New York, United States. It is the largest comprehensive system of universities, colleges, and community colleges in the United States, with a total enrollment of 465,000 students, plus...
(SUNY) system, while still closely related and immediately adjacent to Syracuse University. Today, the State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry
State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry
The State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry is an American specialized doctoral-granting institution located in the University Hill neighborhood of Syracuse, New York, immediately adjacent to Syracuse University...
, or SUNY-ESF, is a doctoral-degree granting institution based in Syracuse, New York
Syracuse, New York
Syracuse is a city in and the county seat of Onondaga County, New York, United States, the largest U.S. city with the name "Syracuse", and the fifth most populous city in the state. At the 2010 census, the city population was 145,170, and its metropolitan area had a population of 742,603...
, with facilities and forest properties in several additional locations in upstate New York; it is commemorating its centennial anniversary.
Founding at Cornell University
The New York State College of Forestry, the first professional school of forestry in North America, was founded at Cornell UniversityCornell University
Cornell University is an Ivy League university located in Ithaca, New York, United States. It is a private land-grant university, receiving annual funding from the State of New York for certain educational missions...
in Ithaca
Ithaca, New York
The city of Ithaca, is a city in upstate New York and the county seat of Tompkins County, as well as the largest community in the Ithaca-Tompkins County metropolitan area...
, NY, "by an act of the New York State Legislature in April 1898". Along with the establishment of the College, the legislature also provided for the purchase of 30000 acres (121.4 km²) of forest in the Adirondack mountains
Adirondack Mountains
The Adirondack Mountains are a mountain range located in the northeastern part of New York, that runs through Clinton, Essex, Franklin, Fulton, Hamilton, Herkimer, Lewis, Saint Lawrence, Saratoga, Warren, and Washington counties....
, the Axton tract near Upper Saranac Lake
Upper Saranac Lake
Upper Saranac Lake is one of three connected lakes, part of the Saranac River, in the towns of Santa Clara and Harrietstown, near the village of Saranac Lake in the Adirondacks in northern New York. Upper Saranac Lake is the sixth largest lake in the Adirondacks. With Middle Saranac Lake and...
, from the Santa Clara Lumber Company, for $165,000. This act came as an enlightened response to the devastation being wrought at the time by indiscriminate logging not only in New York, but also in Pennsylvania, Michigan ("the lands that nobody wanted"), Wisconsin, and elsewhere.
The good intentions of Cornell, as New York State's land grant
Land grant
A land grant is a gift of real estate – land or its privileges – made by a government or other authority as a reward for services to an individual, especially in return for military service...
college to establish a college of forestry were thwarted by the inept and "clueless" actions of Bernhard Fernow Dean of the College. His clear-cutting of Adirondack Forest Preserve lands, given to him by the state for teaching and experiments, adjacent to a "great camp" Knollwood Club
Knollwood Club
Knollwood Club is an Adirondack Great Camp on Shingle Bay, Lower Saranac Lake, near the village of Saranac Lake, New York. It was built in 1899–1900 by William L. Coulter, who had previously created a major addition to Alfred G. Vanderbilt's Sagamore Camp...
whose members included Louis Marshall, lawyer and framer of the 1895, Article 14 the "Forever Wild" clause in the New York State constitution, and five wealthy Jewish friends. You can begin to imagine the "howl" that went up at Knollwood which was within the view shed of the Axton tract. Dean Fernow dismissed the noise as coming from "those" bankers. The location of their camp on Saranac Lake
Saranac Lake
Saranac Lake may refer to:* Saranac Lake, New York, a village in the northern Adirondacks*One of the three nearby Saranac Lakes, part of the Saranac River:**Upper Saranac Lake**Middle Saranac Lake**Lower Saranac LakeSee also...
was dictated by antisemitism of the late 19th century which limited the availability of lands for sale to Jews in the Adirondacks, even to such immensely wealthy Jews as club member Daniel Guggenheim
Daniel Guggenheim
Daniel Guggenheim was an American industrialist and philanthropist, and a son of Meyer Guggenheim.-Biography:...
A lawsuit was brought against Fernow and Cornell University by Louis Marshall and his Knollwood neighbors for incompetence and malfeasance in managing the Axton forest property.
Scrip
Scrip is an American term for any substitute for currency which is not legal tender and is often a form of credit. Scrips were created as company payment of employees and also as a means of payment in times where regular money is unavailable, such as remote coal towns, military bases, ships on long...
for New York state of 989,920 acres**, was given to Cornell, to the later chagrin of the trustees of Syracuse and New York Universities. As a matter of fact, Genesee College
Genesee College
Genesee College was a college founded in 1832 as the Genesee Wesleyan Seminary by the Methodist Episcopal Church. It was located in Lima, NY and eventually relocated to Syracuse, NY, becoming Syracuse University.-Genesee Wesleyan Seminary:...
the forerunner of Syracuse University
Syracuse University
Syracuse University is a private research university located in Syracuse, New York, United States. Its roots can be traced back to Genesee Wesleyan Seminary, founded by the Methodist Episcopal Church in 1832, which also later founded Genesee College...
, accepted $25,000 from Ezra Cornell to drop its opposition to the proceeds from the Morrill Land grant going to Cornell University. Ezra Cornell
Ezra Cornell
Ezra Cornell was an American businessman and education administrator. He was a founder of Western Union and a co-founder of Cornell University...
, under advice from lumberman trustee Henry Sage, wisely parlayed the grant into ownership of Wisconsin pine lands that he held until the wanton logging was diminished and the price for lumber increased, providing a substantial endowment for the university. "In Search of Ezra's Pines"
Dr. Bernhard Fernow, then chief of the USDA's Division of Forestry, was invited to head the new College. In preparation for assuming this new post, Fernow visited George Vanderbilt's Biltmore Estate, where Dr. Carl Schenck
Carl Schenck
Carl Heinrich Johann Schenck was a German businessman who established in 1881 in Darmstadt, Germany the company Carl Schenck Eisengießerei & Waagenfabrik. Today Carl Schenck AG is a subsidiary of the global technology conglomerate DÜRR AG based in Stuttgart.The Carl-Schenck-Award by the TU...
was establishing the Biltmore Forest School
Biltmore Forest School
The Biltmore School of Forestry was the first school of forestry in North America. The school of "practical forestry" was founded by Carl A. Schenck in 1898 on George W. Vanderbilt's Biltmore Estate near Asheville, North Carolina.-History:...
. Fernow saw the mission of forestry education as different, if complementary, to that envisioned by Schenk. In subsequent correspondence with Schenck, Fernow wrote that "the Cornell School of Forestry 'shall greatly lack in practical demonstration' and variety of demonstrations", and inquired whether "Cornell students [could] supplement their education by summer courses at Biltmore".
Fernow resigned his Federal appointment in July 1898 to come to Ithaca. "At ten o'clock on the morning of September 22 or 23, 1898, in a classroom in Morrill Hall", classes commenced at the New York College of Forestry, "the first professional school of forestry in North America", according to Professor Ralph Hosmer
Ralph Hosmer
Ralph Sheldon Hosmer was Hawaii's first territorial forester, a contemporary of Gifford Pinchot who was among the group of educated American foresters that organized what is now the U. S. Forest Service...
. Just two years later, in the fall of 1900, the New York State College of Forestry had 24 students; Biltmore nine students in its 12-month program; and Yale's new postgraduate forestry program, seven.
A fruitful marriage or hybridization between German methods (Professor Bernhard Fernow) and American practice of forestry, silviculture
Silviculture
Silviculture is the practice of controlling the establishment, growth, composition, health, and quality of forests to meet diverse needs and values. The name comes from the Latin silvi- + culture...
came about in the person of Raphael Zon
Raphael Zon
Raphael Zon was a prominent U.S. Forest Service researcher.- Early Life :Raphael Zon was born in Simbirsk in the Russian Empire in 1874, to parents Gabriel Zon and Eugenia Berliner. A classmate of Lenin's, he fled Russia in 1896 while on bail following arrest for organizing a trade union...
, an emigre' from Simbirsk, Russia. Part of North America's very first graduating class in forestry from the New York State College of Forestry at Cornell
New York State College of Forestry at Cornell
The New York State College of Forestry at Cornell was a statutory college established in 1898 at Cornell University to teach scientific forestry. The first four-year college of forestry in the country, it was defunded by the State of New York in 1903, over controversies involving the college's...
in 1901, Zon later became a "giant" among American foresters, or as Secretary of Agriculture Claude R. Wickard
Claude R. Wickard
Claude Raymond Wickard served as Secretary of Agriculture under President Franklin D. Roosevelt from 1940 to 1945. Wickard was born on his family farm in Carroll County, Indiana, near Camden...
said, the "dean of all foresters of America."
Publication of the Forestry Quarterly
Forestry Quarterly, later to become the Journal of ForestryJournal of Forestry
The Journal of Forestry is the primary scholarly journal of the Society of American Foresters that aims to advance the forestry profession, keeping professional foresters informed about developments and ideas related to the practice of forestry. The journal publishes editorial and technical content...
, was first published in October 1902, at the New York State College of Forestry at Cornell University, under the editorial advisement of a board of faculty and alumni. The affiliation lasted only through the first volume, as publication was disrupted by the closure of the College in 1903. The Quarterly was published independently with a board of editors composed of many prominent figures in American forestry in the early part of the 20th century, including Editor-in-Chief Bernhard Fernow and Carl Schenck
Carl Schenck
Carl Heinrich Johann Schenck was a German businessman who established in 1881 in Darmstadt, Germany the company Carl Schenck Eisengießerei & Waagenfabrik. Today Carl Schenck AG is a subsidiary of the global technology conglomerate DÜRR AG based in Stuttgart.The Carl-Schenck-Award by the TU...
, founder of the Biltmore Forest School
Biltmore Forest School
The Biltmore School of Forestry was the first school of forestry in North America. The school of "practical forestry" was founded by Carl A. Schenck in 1898 on George W. Vanderbilt's Biltmore Estate near Asheville, North Carolina.-History:...
.
Defunding of the College
The fledgling college of forestry soon became mired in controversy, however. Just a few years later in 1903, Governor Benjamin B. Odell vetoed funding for it, together with some harsh words due to the outcry over a pending lawsuit: the People of New York State vs the Brooklyn Cooperage Company and Cornell University. In his veto message, Governor Odell said: "The operations of the College of Forestry have been subjected to grave criticism, as they have practically denuded the forest lands of the State without compensating benefits. I deem it wise therefore to withhold approval of this item until a more scientific and more reasonable method is pursued in the forestry of the lands now under the control of Cornell University."- During the Brooklyn Cooperage trial, a forester on Chief Pinchot's staff, Charles S. Chapman, testified on behalf of the plaintiff. He testified that between the two silvicultural methods that might have been adopted—the "selection system" of choosing individual trees for felling or the "clear cutting" and replanting system--"Fernow had erred in changing to the clear cutting and replanting method."
- In June 1910, the "Company" and Cornell lost the lawsuit and again lost on appeal on March 19, 1912. The lawsuit and its aftermath defined forestry in the United States for a generation. The 30000 acres (121.4 km²) of forest lands were placed under the "forever wild" protection of the Adirondack Forest Preserve.
- This is what Louis Marshall had to say, "I hold before me the decision in the case of the People against the Brooklyn Cooperage Company ... the consequence of that (its contract with the University [Cornell] which agreed to cut logs and cord wood and deliver at its own expense) was that this 'tremendous' tract of thirty thousand acres was to be cut down 'flat' from one end of it to the other, in order that the scientific foresters might start a new forest which might mature a hundred years from the time that that contract was entered into. This is scientific forestry?" In other words, the idea, to destroy a forest in order to save it, is abominable.
On that night in May 1903 when the telegram arrived announcing Governor Odell's veto of the annual appropriation for the College of Forestry, Dean Fernow was at a dance. Despite the bad news, the dance went on. Fernow and the forestry students offered to carry on the school. However, Cornell's Board of Trustees and President Schurman (despite Bailey's urgings to the contrary) decided to close the doors of the Forestry College. In June, 1903, instruction in the College ceased and the faculty was dismissed.
Forestry Studies continue at Cornell
Forestry continued at Cornell,with Dean Liberty Hyde Bailey
Liberty Hyde Bailey
Liberty Hyde Bailey was an American horticulturist, botanist and cofounder of the American Society for Horticultural Science.-Biography:...
adding a Department of Forestry to of the New York State College of Agriculture at Cornell University
Cornell University College of Agriculture and Life Sciences
The New York State College of Agriculture and Life Sciences is a statutory college at Cornell University, a private university located in Ithaca, New York...
in 1910-11. Walter Mulford, of the University of Michigan, was appointed as department chair. At Dean Bailey's request, in 1911, the New York Legislature appropriated $100,000 to construct a building to house the Forestry Department on the Cornell campus; the building was later named Fernow Hall.
In 1914, noted forester Ralph Hosmer
Ralph Hosmer
Ralph Sheldon Hosmer was Hawaii's first territorial forester, a contemporary of Gifford Pinchot who was among the group of educated American foresters that organized what is now the U. S. Forest Service...
, a 1902 graduate of the Yale School of Forestry and contemporary of Gifford Pinchot
Gifford Pinchot
Gifford Pinchot was the first Chief of the United States Forest Service and the 28th Governor of Pennsylvania...
, replaced Mulford as Professor and head of the Department of Forestry at the New York State College of Agriculture at Cornell University
Cornell University
Cornell University is an Ivy League university located in Ithaca, New York, United States. It is a private land-grant university, receiving annual funding from the State of New York for certain educational missions...
, a position he held until his retirement in June 1942.
Reestablishment at Syracuse University
The New York State College of Forestry was reestablished in 1911 at Syracuse UniversitySyracuse University
Syracuse University is a private research university located in Syracuse, New York, United States. Its roots can be traced back to Genesee Wesleyan Seminary, founded by the Methodist Episcopal Church in 1832, which also later founded Genesee College...
, through a special bill signed by New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
's Governor John Alden Dix
John Alden Dix
John Alden Dix was the 38th Governor of New York from January 1911 to December 1912.-Life:Born in Glens Falls, Warren County, New York, Dix attended Cornell University, but never graduated. He was an initiated member of the Beta Charge of the Theta Delta Chi fraternity...
. After the Cornell/ Axton debacle, Louis Marshall, one of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit and a prime mover for the establishment of the Adirondack and Catskill Forest Preserve (New York)
Forest Preserve (New York)
New York's Forest Preserve is all the land owned by the state within the Adirondack and Catskill parks, managed by its Department of Environmental Conservation. These properties are required to be kept "forever wild" by Article 14 of the state constitution, and thus enjoy the highest degree of...
, understood that a "proper" College of Forestry was needed in New York state. In 1910, Marshall became a Syracuse University
Syracuse University
Syracuse University is a private research university located in Syracuse, New York, United States. Its roots can be traced back to Genesee Wesleyan Seminary, founded by the Methodist Episcopal Church in 1832, which also later founded Genesee College...
Trustee and confided in Syracuse University Chancellor James R. Day
James Roscoe Day
James Roscoe Day was an American educator.-Biography:He was born in Whitneyville, Maine on June 7, 1845. He studied at Bowdoin College, and was in 1872 ordained a minister of the Methodist Episcopal Church...
his desire to have a forestry school at the University. Marshall was designated by his fellow trustees to lobby Governor Charles E. Hughes
Charles Evans Hughes
Charles Evans Hughes, Sr. was an American statesman, lawyer and Republican politician from New York. He served as the 36th Governor of New York , Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States , United States Secretary of State , a judge on the Court of International Justice , and...
towards such an end:
- ...one of the greatest duties of State and National Governments is that of conserving our natural resources. First among these are our forests... there is no greater subject as to which there is more widespread ignorance, than that of forest conservation and the planting of forests.... The State of New York... is the owner of millions of acres of forest lands which are in constant jeopardy, and which is beginning to suffer the consequences of the evils of deforestation... [The State] is under an imperative duty to ... call a halt to the wild rage for destruction which seems to grow by what it feeds upon.... If the bill should become a law, it is the intention of the Board of Trustees of Syracuse University to select ... a number of gentlemen who are enthusiastic in their desire to further the great cause of forest conservation...
By 1911, Marshall's efforts resulted in passage of New York State Senate Bill No. 18, "An Act to establish a State College of Forestry at Syracuse University, and making appropriation therefor", to establish and fund the school. The bill was signed by Governor Dix, and the College "incorporated by Chapter 851 of the Laws of 1911". Marshall was elected president of the newly reestablished college's board of trustees, a position he held until his death in 1929.
The first dean of the College at Syracuse University, from 1911–12, was William L. Bray
William L. Bray
William L. Bray, Ph.D. University of Chicago, botanist, plant ecologist, biogeographer and Professor of Botany at Syracuse University, was the first dean of the New York State College of Forestry at Syracuse University, from 1911-12....
, Ph.D. University of Chicago, botanist, plant ecologist, biogeographer and Professor of Botany at Syracuse University. In 1911, in addition to assuming the deanship of forestry he organized the Agricultural Division at Syracuse University.
Bray's successor, from 1912–20, was Dr. Hugh P. Baker
Hugh P. Baker
Hugh Potter Baker was a graduate of the Michigan State College of Agriculture; Yale's School of Forestry ; and the University of Munich...
, a graduate of Yale's School of Forestry (M.F., 1904) and the University of Munich (Ph.D., Economics, 1910). Baker previously had worked with the United States Bureau of Forestry and Forest Service (1901–04), and before coming to Syracuse had been Professor of Forestry at the Pennsylvania State College.
In 1913, funds for construction of Bray Hall, the first campus building, were still languishing in the state capital. Louis Marshall, as President of the College's Board of Trustees, wanted action, so two years after the appropriation bill was first signed by Governor Dix, Marshall went to the newly-elected Governor William Sulzer
William Sulzer
William Sulzer was an American lawyer and politician, nicknamed Plain Bill Sulzer. He was the 39th Governor of New York and a long-serving congressman from the same state. He was the first and so far only New York Governor to be impeached...
, who reportedly had wanted to further delay signing the $250,000 appropriation. It is reputed that Marshall handed him a pen and said, "Sign it." Governor Sulzer complied.
By 1913, according to Marshall, the college had "160 students, representing 46 counties of [New York] State. It has developed a faculty of eight trained men, all of whom are graduates of forest schools of high standing.... Dr. Hugh P. Baker, who is the Dean of the College ... has received applications from over eight hundred prospective students." Graduate courses at the College were authorized in 1918.
This is what ESF
State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry
The State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry is an American specialized doctoral-granting institution located in the University Hill neighborhood of Syracuse, New York, immediately adjacent to Syracuse University...
president Dr. Cornelius B. Murphy, Jr.
Cornelius B. Murphy, Jr.
Cornelius B. Murphy, Jr. is the third President of the State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry, 2000- . He has a Ph.D. in Chemistry from Syracuse University. Previously, he was president and chief executive officer of O'Brien & Gere, a large environmental...
had to say at the re-dedication of Marshall Hall on January 19, 2001: "Louis Marshall is largely the reason that everyone from the college is here today. Louis Marshall was recruited by Chancellor Day in 1910 to make the concept of the 'forestry college' at Syracuse University a reality. Louis was tenacious, prodding both the Governor and the Legislature to take action. Louis Marshall... lobbied for the $250,000 appropriation to make a building a reality. I think that it is safe to say that Louis Marshall was our father, our first leader and our first forester. Today we rededicate this building to his memory and accomplishments." The re-dedication events included the unveiling of two bronze plaques: one in honor of Louis Marshall and the other in honor of his son, ESF alumnus, Bob Marshall
Bob Marshall (wilderness activist)
Robert "Bob" Marshall was an American forester, writer and wilderness activist. The son of wealthy constitutional lawyer and conservationist Louis Marshall, Bob Marshall developed a love for the outdoors as a young child...
.
As Dean of the New York State College of Forestry at Syracuse University, Nelson Courtlandt Brown
Nelson C. Brown
Nelson Courtlandt Brown graduated from Yale University with a Bachelor of Arts degree and a Master of Forestry degree .-Early Career:...
, secured the gift of the Charles Lathrop Pack Demonstration Forest, soon to be followed by a 15,000 acre Archer Milton Huntington and Anna Hyatt Huntington
Anna Hyatt Huntington
Anna Vaughn Hyatt Huntington was an American sculptor.-Life and career:Huntington was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Her father, Alpheus Hyatt, was a professor of paleontology and zoology at Harvard University and MIT, and served as a contributing factor to her early interest in animals and...
Wildlife Forest in Newcomb, New York
Newcomb, New York
Newcomb is a town in Essex County, New York, United States. The population was 481 at the 2000 census.The Town of Newcomb is at the west border of the county. It is southwest of Plattsburgh, southwest of Burlington, VT, northeast of Utica, NY, north-northeast of Albany, NY, and ...
. Brown subsequently secured the state appropriation for Marshall Hall, which offered greater teaching and laboratory space. Brown also procured increases in state appropriations for teaching salaries, as well as a grant of $10,000 for forest investigations.
Samuel N. Spring
Samuel N. Spring
Samuel N. Spring attended Yale University, receiving his A.B. degree in 1898; and M.F...
was appointed dean of the New York State College of Forestry in Syracuse, NY in February 1933, succeeding Baker. Spring served as Dean of the College of Forestry until his retirement in May 1944.
Among the salient differences between the forestry programs at Cornell and Syracuse were the wood utilization, wood chemistry and pulp & paper majors at the latter.
Incorporation into SUNY
In 1948, with the formation of the State University of New YorkState University of New York
The State University of New York, abbreviated SUNY , is a system of public institutions of higher education in New York, United States. It is the largest comprehensive system of universities, colleges, and community colleges in the United States, with a total enrollment of 465,000 students, plus...
, the State College of Forestry became a specialized college within the multi-campus SUNY system. The college's name was changed to State University College of Forestry at Syracuse University. In 1972, with burgeoning public interest in environmental education
Environmental education
Environmental education refers to organized efforts to teach about how natural environments function and, particularly, how human beings can manage their behavior and ecosystems in order to live sustainably. The term is often used to imply education within the school system, from primary to...
, the College's name was changed again, to the State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry
State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry
The State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry is an American specialized doctoral-granting institution located in the University Hill neighborhood of Syracuse, New York, immediately adjacent to Syracuse University...
(SUNY-ESF). Today, the college retains a close relationship with Syracuse University
Syracuse University
Syracuse University is a private research university located in Syracuse, New York, United States. Its roots can be traced back to Genesee Wesleyan Seminary, founded by the Methodist Episcopal Church in 1832, which also later founded Genesee College...
, but is autonomous, unlike some other state-supported colleges at private institutions in New York state. ESF students not only take courses, enroll in concurrent degree programs, and enjoy other benefits of the college's association with Syracuse University, but also may take courses at Cornell's state-funded colleges, and at the SUNY Upstate Medical University.
Postwar boom
According to Greene and Barron, "By 1960, the college had become the largest forestry school in the country, with an enrollment exceeding seven hundred students".Timeline
- 1898 - New York State College of Forestry authorized by the New York State Legislature, to be established at Cornell University, in Ithaca
- 1900 - New York State College of Forestry has 24 students
- 1903 - New York State College of Forestry at Cornell University defunded
- 1911 - New York State College of Forestry (re)authorized; first classes under Dr. William L. BrayWilliam L. BrayWilliam L. Bray, Ph.D. University of Chicago, botanist, plant ecologist, biogeographer and Professor of Botany at Syracuse University, was the first dean of the New York State College of Forestry at Syracuse University, from 1911-12....
in basement of Lyman Hall, Syracuse UniversitySyracuse UniversitySyracuse University is a private research university located in Syracuse, New York, United States. Its roots can be traced back to Genesee Wesleyan Seminary, founded by the Methodist Episcopal Church in 1832, which also later founded Genesee College...
. - 1912 - New York State Ranger SchoolNew York State Ranger SchoolThe New York State Ranger School in Wanakena, New York, was founded in 1912 under the administration of the New York State College of Forestry at Syracuse University, to train forest rangers and other personnel for the still-young Adirondack Park....
established at Cranberry LakeCranberry LakeCranberry Lake is a lake on the Oswegatchie River in the Adirondack Park in New York in the United States. It is the third largest lake in the Adirondack Park Cranberry Lake is a lake on the Oswegatchie River in the Adirondack Park in New York in the United States. It is the third largest lake in...
, in the Adirondacks, under college administration - 1917 - First classes at newly-opened Bray Hall, the first building at the New York State College of Forestry at Syracuse University
- 1930 - Appropriation for second building at the Syracuse campus signed by Governor Franklin D. RooseveltFranklin D. RooseveltFranklin Delano Roosevelt , also known by his initials, FDR, was the 32nd President of the United States and a central figure in world events during the mid-20th century, leading the United States during a time of worldwide economic crisis and world war...
- 1933 - Dedication of Louis Marshall Memorial Hall
- 1948 - New York State College of Forestry at Syracuse University incorporated into the newly formed State University of New YorkState University of New YorkThe State University of New York, abbreviated SUNY , is a system of public institutions of higher education in New York, United States. It is the largest comprehensive system of universities, colleges, and community colleges in the United States, with a total enrollment of 465,000 students, plus...
system - 1972 - Name changed to State University of New York College of Environmental Science and ForestryState University of New York College of Environmental Science and ForestryThe State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry is an American specialized doctoral-granting institution located in the University Hill neighborhood of Syracuse, New York, immediately adjacent to Syracuse University...
See also
- List of heads of the New York State College of Forestry
- History of Cornell UniversityHistory of Cornell UniversityThe history of Cornell University begins when its two founders Andrew Dickson White of Syracuse and Ezra Cornell of Ithaca, met in the New York State Senate in January 1864. Together, they established Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, in 1865...
- New York State Ranger SchoolNew York State Ranger SchoolThe New York State Ranger School in Wanakena, New York, was founded in 1912 under the administration of the New York State College of Forestry at Syracuse University, to train forest rangers and other personnel for the still-young Adirondack Park....
- History of Papermaking in New YorkHistory of Papermaking in New YorkThis article recounts key aspects in the history of papermaking in New York state.The first invention to revolutionize paper making was the fourdrinier machine invented back in 1799, in France, by Nicholas Louis Robert and perfected by Henry and Sealey Fourdrinier. The second invention was the...
- Hubbard Brook Experimental ForestHubbard Brook Experimental ForestHubbard Brook Experimental Forest is an area of land in the White Mountains of New Hampshire that functions as an outdoor laboratory for ecological studies...
George R. Trimble, who had been detailed from the Fernow Experimental ForestFernow Experimental ForestFernow Experimental Forest is a research forest in Tucker County, West Virginia. It is operated by the U.S. Forest Service's Northern Research Station. It is named for Bernhard Fernow, a prominent forester in the late 19th century and early 20th century....
, chose the Hubbard Brook watershed as best suited for research needs