| Bernhard E. Fernow | |
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Bernhard Fernow
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| Born | January 7, 1851 Inowrocław, Province of Posen, Kingdom of Prussia |
| Died | February 6, 1923 (aged 72) Toronto |
| Residence | Ithaca, New York; Toronto |
| Citizenship | Prussian United States |
| Nationality | German |
| Fields | Forestry |
| Institutions | U.S. Division of Forestry (USDA), Cornell University, University of Toronto |
| Alma mater | University of Königsberg; Prussian Forest Academy at Münden[1] |
Bernhard Eduard Fernow (January 7, 1851 – February 6, 1923) was the third chief of the USDA's Division of Forestry of the United States from 1886 – 1898, preceding Gifford Pinchot in that position, and laying much of the groundwork for the establishment of the United States Forest Service in 1905.[2][3] Pinchot was the first Chief Forester of the USFS[4]. Fernow's philosophy toward forest management may be traced to Cotta's preface to Anweisung zum Waldbau (Instruction in Silviculture)[5] or Linnaeus' "economy of nature".
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Fernow was born in Hohensalza (Inowrocław) in the Prussian Province of Posen. After studying at the University of Königsberg and the Forest Academy at Münden, he met an American woman tourist in Germany whom he followed back to the United States where they were married.[6] She actively helped him in the many aspects of his work[7]
As chief of the USDA's Division of Forestry, Fernow's main policy goals were the establishment of a national forest system and introduction of scientific forest management. He produced many scientific reports while working toward the creation of national forests to protect watersheds. Displays that Fernow prepared for the forestry exhibit at the 1893 Chicago World's Fair played a prominent role in generating public support for establishing a Prussian-style national forest service and system for educating professional foresters in the United States[8].
In 1898 Fernow left the Division of Forestry to become the first dean of the New York State College of Forestry at Cornell, the first four-year forestry school in the United States. The program's life was short, being closed in 1903 following a veto of state appropriations by New York governor Benjamin Barker Odell, Jr. in response to a conflict over the direction and management of the School's experimental forest in Franklin County, New York. 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."(Charles Z. Lincoln, ed., Messages from the Governors, vol. X [Albany, 1910], 555) as a footnote in.[9] As the School's director, Fernow played a central role in this controversy. He had organized a plan to demonstrate how the northern hardwood forests of the area, which had previously been logged of their large spruce and white pine timber by former owners the Santa Clara Lumber Company, could be replanted with higher-value conifers, especially white pine. The plan drew criticism from adjacent landowners who successfully lobbied the State to oppose it because it involved clearcutting a total of 30,000 acres (120 km2) of forestland at the rate several thousand acres per year to prepare for planting conifers.[10][11] Smoke from the burning of brush and logging slash, along with Fernow's arrogant disposition toward landowners from nearby Upper Saranac Lake further alienated the public.[12]
The years 1899,1903,and 1908 were terrible years for forest fires in the Adirondacks. Many, tens of thousands of acres were consumed by forest fires. Most fires were started by sparks flying from coal-burning locomotive stacks and landing on logging slash. Louis Marshall branded locomotives as "instruments of arson."[13] The worst sin of the lumbermen was the fire menace that they left behind, and which caused incalculable destruction[14] Nevertheless, Fernow had a 6-mile (9.7 km) long railroad spur built from Axton to Tupper Lake in order to deliver logs to the Brooklyn Cooperage Company facility. The management plan had the backing of Cornell's president Schurman, and was found to be technically sound, if imperfectly carried out, by Fernow's contemporaries who practiced forestry in Europe and America[15][16] Still, the controversy resulted in Fernow's most notable professional failure, and has been seen in retrospect as evidence of his weakness at operating in the public arena to gain public and political support for forest management[17]. A plaque honoring Fernow is placed within a 68 acre (27.5 ha) remnant of the plantings from the failed experimental forest in what is now the Adirondack Park. A self-guided nature trail can be followed through the forest that includes specimens of Eastern White Pine and Norway Spruce planted as a part of Fernow's demonstration.
In 1899, Fernow had been recruited as a member of New York's E.H. Harriman expedition to Alaska along with fellow Cornellian Louis Agassiz Fuertes. The expedition set sail from Seattle on May 31, 1899 aboard the refitted steamer, the George W. Elder. "His research on the expedition was hampered by the fact that the coastal itinerary never gave him a look at the inland forests. His overview thus limited, he concluded that Alaska would never be a great source of timber: the wood was inferior and the conditions of lumbering too difficult. Some say that history has proven him wrong, but his opinion did have an effect: for a time, it discouraged commercial interests from prospecting for timber in the Alaskan forests."[18]
In 1907, Fernow became the founding Dean of the University of Toronto's Faculty of Forestry, Canada's first university school devoted to forest science. He served as editor-in-chief of the Journal of Forestry, which he had started at Cornell in 1902, until his death in 1923.[19] His reputation and legacy may have suffered because of the success and self-promotional efforts of Gifford Pinchot and others who did not share Fernow's Prussian-style vision for professional forestry in America[20][21]; nonetheless, he is considered among the leading pioneers in forestry education in America. The curriculum he set up at Cornell served as the model for professional forestry programs in North America that followed[22][23].
Mount Fernow, a peak in the Cascade Range, was named for Bernhard Fernow by Albert H. Sylvester. Fernow Hall at Cornell University was built in 1912 and named after Fernow. The Fernow Experimental Forest, a 4,700-acre (19 km2) outdoor laboratory and classroom run by the United States Forest Service, was established in 1934 near Parsons, West Virginia and named for Fernow.