At the dawn of the 20th century, the nation's forests were in trouble.
The country was headed for a timber famine. The great woodlands of the East had been cut, and those in the West were in the path of the loggers. Public land was being sold for pennies or given away outright.
To Gifford Pinchot, a young forester from Pennsylvania, it was "a gigantic and lamentable massacre."
He thought the nation's resources should belong to - and benefit - all, not just a wealthy and powerful few.
He decided to do something about it.
In 1905, largely due to his efforts, the U.S. Forest Service was created, and he became its first chief. His legacy is still being played out in forest conservation today. And his ideals are still its foundation, even as hitherto undreamed of challenges such as climate change threaten.
To be sure, the nation's foresters have never forgotten Pinchot. Two months ago, when U.S. Department of Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack outlined his vision for the future of the nation's forests, he began by invoking "G.P," whose guiding principle was to manage forests "for the greatest good, for the greatest number, for the longest time."
But recently, Pinchot - a two-term governor of Pennsylvania who died in 1946 - has come back into wider public focus.
Today, publisher Houghton Mifflin Harcourt is releasing The Big Burn by Timothy Egan, the story of the largest wildfire in American history.
In 1910, more than three million acres of western forest were incinerated by a wall of flames and black smoke that rolled across a parched landscape with a mighty roar. Eighty-five people died.
Central to Egan's story are the nation's forests themselves. And Pinchot's efforts to conserve them.
Ken Burns' recent PBS series on national parks touched on Pinchot's friendship with John Muir and their differing opinions on how to protect the wilderness they both loved.
Muir's romantic, spiritual philosophy was one of preservation - cordon nature off and leave it alone, basically. It led to the national park system, which now includes 84.6 million acres.
Pinchot's conservation philosophy was utilitarian - manage the lands for maximum public good, which could include recreation, protecting water quality, and, yes, logging. It led to the national forest system, which encompasses 192 million acres.
"Today, if you like that nice wooden salad bowl, you're going have to cut down a tree to get it. But, as long as the resource is used wisely and sustainably, then we can continue to have both - the forest and the product," says Lori Danuff-McKean, of the U.S. Forest Service in Milford, Pa.
"That was Pinchot's philosophy 100 years ago. And that's the same philosophy the Forest Service is using today."
Indeed, it was because the land could be used that it was saved at all, says Al Sample, president of the Pinchot Institute for Conservation.
Politically, "we never would have been able to protect 192 million acres of federal land as national park, managed strictly for preservation."
Pinchot was, perhaps, an unlikely hero. His grandfather was a timber baron who clear-cut wide swaths of Pennsylvania. Pinchot himself often touted the common welfare, yet lived in a family castle with 63 turrets - Grey Towers in Milford, now a national historic site.
He was tall, leggy, and had a bushy mustache. His sweetheart died young, but throughout much of his life, Pinchot often thought he was being visited by her.
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