United States Forest Service History in USDA-Gifford Pinchot.

The scientific inquiry into forestry by the federal government began in 1827 with a Treasury Department circular that instructed U.S. consuls to seek out "forest trees useful for timber." This simple directive on forestry research has grown into the world's premier forestry research organization housed within the Department of Agriculture. The first federally funded research efforts on the subject began in 1873 when Congress appropriated $2,000 to gather forestry information. The appropriation was directed towards the Department of Agriculture and established the genesis of forestry research in that agency. In 1886, Dr. Bernhard Fernow was appointed the first chief of the Division of Forestry in the Department of Agriculture. This division began as a research organization that distributed study materials but did not manage lands. In 1905 under Gifford Pinchot, the division was renamed the U.S. Forest Service as the forest reserves were transferred from the Department of the Interior to Agriculture. Now with hundreds of millions of acres of forests to manage, the Forest Service became a land management agency, but it never lost its research roots. The research and development branch was given primacy under Pinchot and continues as one of the core missions of the Forest Service. Today, the US Forest Service is still the world's leader in forestry research.