Western Pocono Trout Unlimited Speaker's Series

Date: 3/19/2015
Time: 7:00 PM

76 University Drive
Hazleton, PA 18202

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Event Description: The public is invited to this free-admission event: "Gifford Pinchot: The Greatest Pennsylvanian You Never Knew" Featuring U.S. Forest Service Presentation Specialist, Melody Remillard. U.S. Forest Service conservation coordinator, Melody Remillard, will present a slide program on the fascinating life story of one of Pennsylvania's most influential, colorful, and legendary citizens of the early 20th century, Gifford Pinchot. The first Chief of the U.S. Forest Service, close adviser and friend to President Teddy Roosevelt, two time governor of Pennsylvania, avid fly fisherman/sportsman (he authored two books on fishing) and visionary conservationist, Gifford Pinchot saved America's national forests at a time when they were being decimated by unscrupulous logging practices and greed. Advocating sustainable forestry management, Pinchot and his fledgling forestry crew saved these valuable natural treasures for future generations of Americans while providing the nation with a renewable natural resource. Complimenting Teddy Roosevelt's enthusiastic "Bully" presidential style, Pinchot himself, was often a larger than life character. As a high ranking national public figure in the early 1900's and later as a governor, Pinchot advocated for "seeking the greatest good, for the largest number in the long run" not only with his conservation policies for the nation's natural resources but he and his wife also supported women's suffrage and fought to abolish child labor. Many of the highways w use today (nearby Rte. 940 in Hazleton was once known as the Pinchot Trail) were part of his "get the farmer out of the mud" campaign to improve the commonwealth's roads. We will also be showing a special video of President John F. Kennedy's visit to Pinchot's magnificent ancestral home, Grey Towers, in Milford PA, on September 24, 1963 (just two months before his assassination) and his moving speech dedication the Pinchot family estate to the U.S. forest Service and proclaiming Pinchot: "The Father of Conservation in America". His legacy lives on today through the Pinchot Institute for Conservation and its director, grandson, Peter Pinchot. Mush of Trout Unlimited's conservation ethic was founded on principles established by this great but sometimes unknown Pennsylvanian.


Directions:
Penn State Hazleton Campus Kostos Classroom Building - Auditorium

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