Pikes Peak and National Forests

Pikes Peak and National Forests. . Although Pikes Peak is not the highest peak in Colorado, it may be the best known, thanks to "America the Beautiful.", On Pikes Peak, Katharine Lee Bates was inspired to write a song that praises the natural beauty of this country. As you look toward that mountain now, much of the landscape before you is part of the National Forest System, specifically the 1.1 million acres of the Pike National Forest. The Forest Service mission, "Caring for the Land and Serving People,” expresses its policy of resource management., In the early 1890s, the public called for government action to protect forests and watersheds in the western United States from exploitation. The government responded by creating Forest Reserves. In 1905, these lands were transferred to the Forest Service, a newly created agency in the United States Department of Agriculture. In 1907, these lands were renamed National Forests. Today, this designation covers 190 million acres throughout the United States.,

"We, the American people, have come into the possession of nearly four million square miles of the richest portion of the earth; it is ours to use and conserve for ourselves and our descendants, or to destroy. The fundamental question which confronts us is: What shall we do with it?"

, , from Pinchot's 1910 essay, "The Fight for Conservation", Captions , Top left: Zebulon Pike , Bottom left: Gifford Pinchot, the first Chief of the U.S. Forest Service , Right: Early forest rangers packed mules, fought fires, rode boundaries, tracked poachers, and performed a host of other duties.