View source for History of the New York State College of Forestry

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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.,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://foresthistory.org/Publications/FHT/FHT1998/cornell.pdf |title=Roots of American Forestry Education |website=Foresthistory.org |access-date=2016-07-20}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://news.cornell.edu/stories/2021/05/cornell-shares-land-acknowledgement|title = Cornell shares land acknowledgement}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://cals.cornell.edu/american-indian-indigenous-studies/about/land-acknowledgment|title = Land Acknowledgment}}</ref> It was advocated for by Governor [[Frank S. Black]], but 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 (ethic)|conservation]].<ref>Reznikoff, pp. 1080-5.</ref> 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 and Costa Rica; it commemorated its centennial anniversary in 2011.

==Founding at Cornell University==
[[File:Bernard Fernow.jpg|thumb|right|upright=.8|[[Bernhard Fernow]], first Dean of the College]]
[[File:FMIB 41624 Students and Loggers in Permanent Camp on the Cornell Forest Reserve.jpeg|thumb|right|Students and Loggers in Permanent Camp on the Cornell Forest Reserve]]
{{see also|New York State College of Forestry at Cornell}}
The New York State College of Forestry, the first professional school of forestry in North America, was founded at [[Cornell University]] in [[Ithaca, New York|Ithaca]], NY, "by an act of the [[New York State Legislature]] in April 1898."<ref>{{cite web|url=http://iarchives.nysed.gov/xtf/view?docId%3D20-1-401.xml |title=New York State College of Forestry pamphlets|access-date=2010-02-13 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://archive.today/20110722141054/http://iarchives.nysed.gov/xtf/view?docId=20-1-401.xml |archive-date=2011-07-22 }}</ref> Along with the establishment of the College, the legislature also provided for the purchase of {{convert|30000|acre|km2}} of forest in the [[Adirondack Mountains]], the Axton tract near [[Upper Saranac Lake]], from the Santa Clara Lumber Company, for $165,000.<ref>Donaldson, pp. 202-207.</ref><ref>https://extapps.dec.ny.gov/docs/lands_forests_pdf/colonelfoxconservationistarticle.pdf</ref> 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"),<ref>Schmaltz, Norman J. 1983. "The land nobody wanted: the dilemma of Michigan's cut-over lands", ''Michigan History Magazine'', Vol. 67 Jan/Feb, pp. 32-40.</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.fs.fed.us/r9/ottawa/offices/districts/jw_toumey_nursery/bio.htm |title=Ottawa National Forest - Home |website=Fs.fed.us |access-date=2016-07-20}}</ref> Wisconsin, and elsewhere.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=V8RBsHohKfcC&q=carl+schurz+cornell+university&pg=PA640 |title=McClure's magazine ... - Google Books |year=1909 |access-date=2012-11-01}}</ref>

[[Image:Sanford Robinson Gifford - Crépuscule sur le mont Hunter.jpg|thumb|right|''Hunter Mountain, Twilight'' (1866) by [[Hudson River School]] artist [[Sanford Robinson Gifford]], showing the devastation wrought by years of tanbarking and logging.]]

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 [[History of Cornell University|Cornell]],<ref name="cornell1">{{cite web |url=http://ezramagazine.cornell.edu/centerspread.html |title= Ezra Magazine: Pining for Ezra: The other Cornell|website=ezramagazine.cornell.edu |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101004152014/http://ezramagazine.cornell.edu/centerspread.html |archive-date=October 4, 2010}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.hcn.org/issues/52.4/indigenous-affairs-education-land-grab-universities|title = Land-grab universities|date = 30 March 2020}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.landgrabu.org/|title=None}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://blogs.cornell.edu/cornelluniversityindigenousdispossession/2020/07/29/cornell-a-land-grab-university/|title = Cornell: A "Land-Grab University"? – Cornell University and Indigenous Dispossession Project}}</ref>
<ref>{{cite web| url-status = live| archive-url = https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211206/KNzhCrOoTCs| archive-date = 2021-12-06| url = https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KNzhCrOoTCs&feature=youtu.be| title = Taking a Hard Look: Is Cornell a Land-Grab University? | website=[[YouTube]]| date = 29 April 2021}}{{cbignore}}</ref> 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 W. 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.<ref>Gates, Paul W. 1943. ''The Wisconsin Pine Lands of Cornell University: A Study in Land Policy and Absentee Ownership''. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://ezramagazine.cornell.edu/FALL10/centerspread.html |title=In Search of Ezra's Pines |publisher=Ezramagazine.cornell.edu |access-date=2012-11-01}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|author=Daniel Mansoor |url=http://cornellpines.blogspot.com/2010/06/evening-at-turks.html |title=In Search of Ezra's Pines: 1 Everyone Comes to Turk's |publisher=Cornellpines.blogspot.com |date=2010-06-18 |access-date=2012-11-01}}</ref>

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 Washington Vanderbilt II|George Vanderbilt]]'s [[Biltmore Estate]], where Dr. [[Carl A. 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."<ref>{{cite web|date=2003|website=Lib.ncsu.edu|access-date=2016-07-20|title=Finding Aid for Biltmore Estate Forestry Department's Managers, Series F|location=[[Asheville, North Carolina]]|url=http://www.lib.ncsu.edu/specialcollections/forestry/biltmore/tbc2_f.html}}</ref>

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",<ref>Rodgers, ''Bernhard Eduard Fernow'', p. 262.</ref> classes commenced at the New York College of Forestry, "the first professional school of forestry in North America", according to Professor [[Ralph Hosmer]].<ref>{{cite journal|author1=Maunder, Elwood R.|date=September 26, 1960|title=Oral History Interview with Ralph S. Hosmer|journal=Forest History Society|url=http://www.foresthistory.org/Research/HOSMER60.pdf|access-date=February 13, 2010}}</ref> 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 School of Forestry|Yale's]] new postgraduate forestry program, seven.<ref>{{cite journal|author=Sparhawk, W.N.|date=1950|title=The History of Forestry in America|page=710|journal=Trees: Yearbook of Agriculture, 1949|location=[[Washington, D.C.]]|url=https://archive.org/strea/treesyearbookofa00unitrich|access-date=2016-07-20}}</ref>

A fruitful marriage or hybridization between German methods<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.pbs.org/harriman/1899/1899_part/participantfernow.html |title=Harriman: Bernhard Fernow |publisher=PBS |date=1923-02-06 |access-date=2012-11-01}}</ref> (Professor Bernhard Fernow) and American practice of forestry, [[silviculture]]<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.yale.edu/silvics/ |title=Ashton Lab - Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies |publisher=Yale.edu |access-date=2012-11-01}}</ref> 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,<ref>{{cite web|url=https://foresthistory.org/december-1-1874-a-red-star-is-born/ |title=December 1, 1874: A [Red&#93; Star is Born « Peeling Back the Bark |publisher=Forest History Society |date=2009-04-20 |access-date=2012-11-01}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.fs.fed.us/rm/pubs/rmrs_p053/rmrs_p053_363_370.pdf |title=Archived copy |access-date=2009-10-26 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111026101421/http://www.fs.fed.us/rm/pubs/rmrs_p053/rmrs_p053_363_370.pdf |archive-date=2011-10-26 }}</ref> or as Secretary of Agriculture [[Claude R. Wickard]] said, the "dean of all foresters of America."<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.foresthistory.org/Publications/JofFH/schmaltz_pt2.pdf |title=Forest Researcher Raphael Zon : Part 2 |author=Norman J. Schmaltz |website=Foresthisdtory.org |access-date=2016-07-20}}</ref>

==Publication of the ''Forestry Quarterly''==
''Forestry Quarterly'', later to be merged into the ''[[Journal of Forestry]]'', was first published in October 1902, at the New York State College of Forestry at Cornell University, under the editorial advisement of [[Bernhard Fernow]], John Gifford, and [[Walter Mulford]].<ref>{{cite journal|journal=Forestry Quarterly|volume=1|date=October 1902|title=Frontispiece|url=https://archive.org/download/forestryquarterl01newy/forestryquarterl01newy_bw.pdf|access-date=2016-07-20}}</ref> The affiliation lasted only through the first volume, as publication was disrupted by the closure of the College in 1903. Subsequently, 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]].

==Defunding of the College==
{{See also|People v. Brooklyn Cooperage Co.}}
The fledgling college of forestry soon became mired in controversy, centered around [[Bernhard Fernow|Fernow's]] management of the forest lands given to Cornell by the state "for experiments in forestry". Soon after his appointment as Dean, Fernow moved quickly to establish a [[demonstration forest]] on the {{convert|30000|acre|km2}} of land in the [[Adirondack Park|Adirondack forests]] acquired by Cornell with the authorization for the new college. The site was near Axton, New York, location of an old lumber settlement originally called Axe-town, in [[Franklin County, New York|Franklin County]].

Fernow's plan called for [[clearcutting]] the tract at the rate of several thousand acres per year to prepare for planting conifers. With an annual state appropriation for the college of only $10,000, Cornell entered into a contract with the [[Brooklyn Cooperage Company]] for the project to be viable. Under terms of the contract, the firm was to take the logs and [[cordwood]] from the forest land for a 15-year period. (In the 1890s, the more valuable [[red spruce]] trees had been logged, leaving primarily northern hardwoods.) Fernow had a {{convert|6|mi|km|adj=on}}-long railroad spur built from Axton to [[Tupper Lake, New York|Tupper Lake]] in order to deliver logs to the company's facility. The firm turned the hardwood logs into barrels and the cordwood into [[methanol]] and [[charcoal]], through a process called [[destructive distillation]].

The contract proved to be profitable and beneficial for the company only. To his credit, Fernow established the first [[tree nursery]] in New York State at Axton. But Cornell gained insufficient funds from the relationship to fully replant the clear-cut areas. Most of the non-native conifer species that were planted, such as [[Norway spruce]], did not do well for years, with a denuded area resulting.

The demonstration forest, near Saranac Lake, drew heated opposition from neighboring land owners.<ref name=donald>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0L8LAAAAYAAJ&q=Brooklyn+Cooperage+Company%5D&pg=PA203|title=''A history of the Adirondacks, Volume 2''|first=Alfred Lee|last=Donaldson|pages=202–207|publisher=Century Co|year=1921}}</ref> Smoke from the burning of brush and logging slash, along with Fernow's disposition toward landowners from nearby Saranac Lake further alienated the public.<ref>Gove, B. 2005. ''Logging railroads of the Adirondacks''. Syracuse University Press. pp. 176-181.</ref> Fernow's actions drew criticism also from Adirondack guides such as Ellsworth Petty (father of [[Clarence Petty]]), who protested the plan and, in a letter writing campaign, successfully lobbied the State to assign a special "Committee of the Adirondacks" to tour the Axton site. In its findings, the commission concluded that "the college has exceeded the original intention of the State when the tract was granted the university for conducting [[Silviculture|silvicultural]] experiments."<ref name="Christopher 2002. p 31">Christopher, Angus. 2002. ''The Extraordinary Adirondack Journey of Clarence Petty'', p 31. Syracuse University Press {{ISBN|0-8156-0741-5}}</ref>

A lawsuit was filed against the Brooklyn Cooperage Company, with the People of New York State as plaintiff. It was officially entitled, ''[[People v. the Brooklyn Cooperage Company]]''. Cornell was included in the lawsuit so that its contract with the firm could be annulled.<ref name=nyt>''New York Times'', "Cornell Forestry Case: Appellate Division Decision Against Brooklyn Cooperage Company," July 13, 1906, p.4.</ref>

In May 1903, Governor [[Benjamin B. Odell]] made a [[pocket veto]] of funding to continue the new college. In his statement, 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."<ref>Lincoln, Charles Z. ed., ''Messages from the Governors'', vol. X [Albany, 1910], 555, as a footnote in Colman, p. 161.</ref>

On the night 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.<ref>Rodgers, p. 371.</ref>

[[Image:Cornell Fernow Hall September 2008.jpg|300px|thumb|left|alt=Fernow Hall, Cornell text|Fernow Hall, Cornell University]]

==Forestry Studies continue at Cornell==
{{See also|New York State College of Forestry at Cornell}}
Forestry continued at Cornell,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://rmc.library.cornell.edu/bailey/cornellag/cornellag_9.html |title=Liberty Hyde Bailey - A Man for All Seasons |publisher=Rmc.library.cornell.edu |access-date=2012-11-01}}</ref> 
with Dean [[Liberty Hyde Bailey]] adding a Department of Forestry to the [[Cornell University College of Agriculture and Life Sciences|New York State College of Agriculture at Cornell University]] in 1910–11. [[Walter Mulford]], of the University of Michigan, was appointed as department chair.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://content.cdlib.org/xtf/view?docId=hb6r29p0fn&doc.view=frames&chunk.id=div00024&toc.depth=1&toc.id= |title=University of California: In Memoriam, April 1958 |publisher=Content.cdlib.org |access-date=2012-11-01}}</ref> At Dean Bailey's request, in 1911, the New York Legislature appropriated $100,000 (~${{Format price|{{Inflation|index=US-GDP|value=100000|start_year=1911}}}} in {{Inflation/year|US-GDP}}) to construct a building to house the Forestry Department on the Cornell campus; the building was later named [[Fernow Hall (Ithaca, New York)|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.<ref>Guise, C.H. 1963. "Ralph Sheldon Hosmer (1874–1963)," ''Journal of Forestry'' 61(9):686.</ref>

==Reestablishment at Syracuse University==
{{see also|State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry}}
The New York State College of Forestry was reestablished on July 28, 1911 at [[Syracuse University]],<ref>{{cite web |url=http://archives.syr.edu/exhibits/sunyesf.html |title=Syracuse University Archives: Exhibits - "SUNY ESF and SU: 100 Years of Collaboration" |publisher=Archives.syr.edu |access-date=2012-11-01 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110606044810/http://archives.syr.edu/exhibits/sunyesf.html |archive-date=2011-06-06 |url-status=dead }}</ref> through a special bill signed by [[New York (state)|New York]]'s Governor [[John Alden Dix]].<ref>{{cite report |author=[[Syracuse University]] |title=Relationship of the New York State College of Forestry at Syracuse University to Syracuse University |journal=College History |date=October 1956 |volume=5 |page=10 |url=https://digitalcommons.esf.edu/collegehistory/5/ |access-date=17 February 2021 }}{{Dead link|date=August 2024 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref> [[Louis Marshall]], with a summer residence at [[Knollwood Club]] on Saranac Lake 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 Roscoe Day|James R. Day]] his desire to have a forestry school at the University. Marshall was designated by his fellow trustees to lobby Governor [[Charles Evans Hughes|Charles E. Hughes]] 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...<ref>Marshall, Louis. Letter to Governor Charles Hughes, June 8, 1910. In Reznikoff, pp. 1081-2.</ref>

[[Image:Bray-hall-c1914.jpg|300px|thumb|right|alt=Bray Hall under construction text|Bray Hall under construction, New York State College of Forestry at Syracuse University, c. 1914]]

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.<ref>Marshall, Louis. Letter to Governor John A. Dix, July 25, 1911. In Reznikoff, pp. 1083.</ref> The bill was signed by Governor Dix,<ref>Alpert, p. 36.</ref> and the College "incorporated by Chapter 851 of the Laws of 1911".<ref>Marshall, Lewis. Letter to John N. Carlisle, February 25, 1913. In Reznikoff, p. 1092.</ref> Marshall was elected president of the newly reestablished college's board of trustees, a position he held until his death in 1929. The relationship were not always smooth, for example in 1913, there were frictious exchanges between Syracuse University Chancellor James R. Day and Board of Inquiry appointed by the newly elected Governor [[William Sulzer]] over the proper location of the college (other location being Cornell).<ref name="Fights to Retain"/>

The first dean of the College at Syracuse University, from 1911–12, was [[William L. Bray]], Ph.D. University of Chicago,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/collections/ecology/aepsp3.html |title=American Environmental Photographs, 1891-1936 - Ecology and the American Environment (American Memory from the Library of Congress) |publisher=Memory.loc.gov |access-date=2012-11-01}}</ref> botanist, plant ecologist, biogeographer and Professor of Botany at Syracuse University.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wrQUAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA1 |title=Forest resources of Texas - William L. Bray - Google Boeken |access-date=2012-11-01|last1=Bray |first1=William L. |year=1904 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.esf.edu/org/knothole/The_Knothole/Archive_files/Volume%2061,%20Issue%209.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110609121619/http://www.esf.edu/org/knothole/The_Knothole/Archive_files/Volume%2061,%20Issue%209.pdf |url-status=dead |archive-date=June 9, 2011 |title=The Knothole |volume=61 |date=April 4, 2008 |website=Esf.edu |access-date=2016-07-20 }}</ref> In 1911, in addition to assuming the deanship of forestry he organized the Agricultural Division at Syracuse University. The first class enrolled 52 students and had only two faculty members, but tuition was free.<ref name="DO_roots"/>

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.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/biographicalrec00foregoog |page=[https://archive.org/details/biographicalrec00foregoog/page/n85 67] |quote= charles fuller baker agricultural college. |title=Internet Archive |via=[[Internet Archive]] |year=1913 |publisher=Yale Forest School |access-date=2012-11-01}}</ref>

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.<ref>{{cite news| url=https://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F20B1FFA3B5F13738DDDAD0994DD405B838DF1D3&scp=18&sq=new%20york%20state%20college%20of%20forestry,syracuse&st=cse | work=The New York Times | title=OPPOSES FORESTRY SCHOOL; Cornell Against $310,000 Appropriation for Syracuse Department | date=May 14, 1913}}</ref> It is reputed that Marshall handed him a pen and said, "Sign it." Governor Sulzer complied.<ref name="Alpert, Herbert 2001">Alpert, Herbert. 2001. ''Syracuse Jewish Observer'', February 22.</ref>

[[Image:SUNY-ESF-Bray-Hall.jpg|300px|thumb|left |alt=Bray Hall today text|Bray Hall today, SUNY-ESF]]

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."<ref>Marshall, Louis. Letter to Governor William Sulzer, February 8, 1913. In Reznikoff, p. 1087.</ref> Dean Baker said that these prospective student inquiries come from twenty-five States and six foreign countries.<ref name="Fights to Retain">{{cite news |title=Chancellor Day Fights to Retain the State College of Forestry |url=https://basic.newspapers.com/clip/63874141 |access-date=24 November 2020 |work=The New York Times |date=15 February 1913 |page=76 |via=[[Newspapers.com]]}}</ref> Graduate courses at the College were authorized in 1918.<ref>Reznikoff, p. 1100</ref> Female students were enrolled as early as 1915, but the first female graduated from ESF only in 1940.<ref name="DO_roots">{{cite news |last1=Viderman |first1=Eugene |title=ESF: Know Your Roots |url=http://dailyorange.com/2007/11/esf-know-your-roots/ |access-date=18 February 2021 |work=[[The Daily Orange]] |date=6 November 2007}}</ref>

This is what [[State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry|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 (wilderness activist)|Bob Marshall]].<ref name="Alpert, Herbert 2001"/>

As Dean of the New York State College of Forestry at Syracuse University, [[Nelson C. Brown|Nelson Courtlandt Brown]], secured the gift of the [[Charles Lathrop Pack]]<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.esf.edu/campuses/eec/default.htm |title=SUNY-ESF: Environmental Education Camp |publisher=Esf.edu |access-date=2012-11-01}}</ref> Demonstration Forest, soon to be followed by a 15,000 acre [[Archer Milton Huntington]] and [[Anna Hyatt Huntington]] Wildlife Forest<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.esf.edu/aec/facilities/hwf.htm |title=SUNY-ESF: Adirondack Ecological Center |publisher=Esf.edu |access-date=2012-11-01 |archive-date=2015-10-28 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151028134413/http://www.esf.edu/aec/facilities/hwf.htm |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.esf.edu/campuses/aec/default.htm |title=SUNY-ESF: The Adirondack Ecological Center |publisher=Esf.edu |access-date=2012-11-01 |archive-date=2016-01-29 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160129135726/http://www.esf.edu/campuses/aec/default.htm |url-status=dead }}</ref> 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.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://iarchives.nysed.gov/xtf/view?docId=CESF_NelsonBrown.xml;query=;brand=default |title= DynaXML Error: Invalid Document|website=iarchives.nysed.gov |archive-url=http://webarchive.loc.gov/all/20100224150945/http://iarchives.nysed.gov/xtf/view?docId=CESF_NelsonBrown.xml;query=;brand=default |archive-date=2010-02-24}}</ref>

[[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.

==Incorporation into SUNY==
{{See also|State University of New York}}
With the formation of the State University of New York (SUNY) in 1948, 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]].

==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".<ref>Greene and Barron, p. 107.</ref>

==The resuscitation of the American chestnut==
The [[United States Forest Service]] had declared the [[American chestnut]] dead and advised cutting any trees having salvageable lumber.<ref>Freinkel, Susan. (2007). ''American Chestnut''. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press. {{ISBN|978-0-520-24730-7}}, multiple pages</ref> Possibly the most significant and important project ever undertaken by SUNY ESF is the resuscitation of the American Chestnut tree by Charles Maynard and William Powell using [[plant tissue culture]] and [[genetic engineering]] techniques to create the [[Darling 58]] chestnut.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/30/magazine/american-chestnut.html?action=click&auth=login-email&login=email&module=Top%20Stories&pgtype=Homepage|title = Can Genetic Engineering Bring Back the American Chestnut?|newspaper = The New York Times|date = 30 April 2020|last1 = Popkin|first1 = Gabriel}}</ref><ref>Freinkel chapter 8 Chestnut2.0 pages151-177</ref><ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-mhMdUryolU | title=The (Darling 58) Chestnut Tree: Bringing Back an American Icon &#124; William Powell | website=[[YouTube]] | date=28 October 2019 }}</ref> The SUNY ESF effort is following the trail blazed by plant tissue culture pioneers [[Gottlieb Haberlandt]] and Cornell University's [[Frederick C. Steward]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.susanfreinkel.com/books_American_Chestnut.html |title=American Chestnut |website=Susanfreinkel.com |date=2005-04-30 |access-date=2016-07-20}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|url=http://www.ucpress.edu/book.php?isbn=9780520259942 |title=American Chestnut - Susan Freinkel - Paperback - University of California Press |website=Ucpress.edu |access-date=2016-07-20}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.esf.edu/chestnut/#.UzBGVGa3M60 |title=SUNY-ESF: The American Chestnut Research and Restoration Project |website=Esf.edu |access-date=2016-07-20}}</ref>

Unfortunately, as of December 2023 the offspring of the Darling 58 and 54 transgenic American chestnuts have encountered 'headwinds' in field trials.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Grandoni |first=Dino |date=2023-12-27 |title=Genetic engineering was meant to save chestnut trees. Then there was a mistake. |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2023/12/24/chestnut-tree-genetic-engineering-mistake/ |access-date=2024-02-01 |newspaper=Washington Post |language=en-US |issn=0190-8286}}</ref><ref>{{cite web | url=https://tacf.org/darling-58/ | title=Darling 58 /54 }}</ref>

==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. Bray]] in basement of Lyman Hall, [[Syracuse University]]
* 1912 - [[SUNY-ESF Ranger School|New York State Ranger School]] established at [[Cranberry Lake]], 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. Roosevelt]]
* 1933 - Dedication of Louis Marshall Memorial Hall<ref>Adapted from "Dedication of the Louis Marshall Memorial", February 23, 1933, as reported in Reznikoff, pp. 1123-4.</ref>
* 1948 - New York State College of Forestry at Syracuse University incorporated into the newly formed [[State University of New York]] system
* 1972 - Name changed to [[State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry]] (SUNY-ESF)
* 2011 - SUNY-ESF commemorates its centennial
* 2012 - SUNY-ESF Ranger School marks 100-year anniversary of its founding

==See also==
{{div col|colwidth=30em}}
* [[List of heads of the New York State College of Forestry]]
* [[History of Cornell University]]
* [[SUNY-ESF Ranger School]]
* [[History of Papermaking in New York]]
* [[List of historic schools of forestry]]
{{div col end}}

==References==
===Notes===
{{Reflist|30em}}

===Bibliography===
* Alpert, Herbert. 2008. ''Louis Marshall: 1856-1929. A Life Devoted to Justice and Judaism.'' New York and Bloomington, IN: iUniverse. {{ISBN|978-0-595-48230-6}}
* Bishop, Morris. 1962. ''A History of Cornell''. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.
* Colman, Gould P. 1963. ''Education & Agriculture, A History of the New York State College of Agriculture at Cornell University''. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.
* Donaldson, Alfred Lee (1921). ''A History of the Adirondacks'', Volume 2. Century Co. Available: [https://books.google.com/books?id=0L8LAAAAYAAJ&dq=brooklyn+cooperage+company&pg=PA203 Google books].
* Gates, Paul W. 1943. ''The Wisconsin Pine Lands of Cornell University: A Study in Land Policy and Absentee Ownership''. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.
* Greene, John Robert, with Karrie A. Barron. 1996. ''Syracuse University: The Tolley Years, 1942-69''. Syracuse University Press.
* Pinchot, G.B., 1998 [1947]. ''Breaking New Ground''. Washington, DC: Island Press. {{ISBN|1-55963-669-6}}.
* Reznikoff, Charles, ed. 1957. ''Louis Marshall, Champion of Liberty: Selected Papers and Addresses''. Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society of America.
* Rodgers, Andrew Denny III. 1949. ''Liberty Hyde Bailey: A Story of American Plant Sciences''. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
* Rodgers, Andrew Denny III. 1951. ''Bernhard Eduard Fernow: A Story of North American Forestry''. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.

==External links==
* [https://digitalcommons.esf.edu/collegehistory/ Archived Submissions at ESF Digital Commons (1936-2011)] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200815013347/https://digitalcommons.esf.edu/collegehistory/ |date=2020-08-15 }}
* [https://books.google.com/books?id=DaZMAAAAMAAJ&dq=rh+fuller+struggle+of+the+first+state+to+preserve+its+forests&pg=PA613 R.H. Fuller. 1906. "The Struggles of the First State to Preserve its Forests," ''Appleton's Magazine''.]
* [http://www.cornellpress.cornell.edu/book/?GCOI=80140100183190 The Wisconsin Pine Lands of Cornell University...Cornell University September 26, 2011 - The Wisconsin Pine Lands of Cornell University. A history of Cornell University's acquisition, use, and sale of 500000 acres of pine lands in ...]
{{Syracuse University}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:History Of The New York State College Of Forestry}}
[[Category:New York State College of Forestry| ]]
[[Category:Ithaca, New York]]
[[Category:History of Syracuse, New York|Forestry]]
[[Category:History of colleges and universities in New York (state)|New York State College of Forestry]]
[[Category:History of forestry education|New York]]
[[Category:History of forestry in the United States]]
[[Category:History of Syracuse University]]