The Fall 2025 “A History of Scientific Forestry: From Extraction to Ecosystem Management” webinar series organized by Yale Forest Forum will explore the history of “scientific forestry.” We will trace its origins to early-modern European views of nature, where scientific expertise was seen as a tool for dominion over the natural world and for colonial expansion.
The series examines how European forestry practices influenced the development of forestry in the United States during the 19th century and how the profession gained ground in North American universities — including The Yale Forest School, founded in 1900. We will trace the transformation of forestry from its early focus on exploitation and extraction in the East, to the protection and recovery of forests in the West, and to the development of an ecosystem and ecological approach to managing our nation’s forests in the 20th century. We will also evaluate forestry in the United States by considering its successes and its problematic legacies in relation to Indigenous land dispossession and settler colonialism. Finally, we will explore how the profession evolved with advances in modern genetics and ecosystem forestry, culminating in the watershed legislation of the 1970s, including the National Environmental Policy Act, the Endangered Species Act, and the National Forest Management Act, which laid the foundation for a new era in forest management.