On 2 October 2025, the Yale School of the Environment’s Yale Forest Forum webinar series—co-hosted by the Forest School at the Yale School of the Environment, the Forest History Society, the Society of American Foresters, and the University of Minnesota Department of Natural Resources—presented Ryan Hellebrand, who examined how two contrasting models of forestry practice—German scientific forestry and Indigenous autochthony—have shaped place-making and community identity in North American forests.

Opening remarks and series context

Terry Baker, CEO of the Society of American Foresters, opened the session by situating this fifth webinar in the broader “History of Scientific Forestry” series, which runs Thursdays through early December. He introduced his co-hosts—Mike Dockery (Associate Professor of Forest Resources, University of Minnesota), Gary Dunning (Executive Director, Forest School and the Forest Dialogue, Yale School of the Environment), and Dr Tanya Munns (President and CEO, Forest History Society)—and outlined the series’ aim to trace the evolution of European forestry practices in the United States and explore both their ecological achievements and their legacies of settler colonialism.

German scientific forestry and the concept of autochthony

In his presentation, Ryan Hellebrand defined forestry not merely as timber production but as “a system for organizing a community’s relation to place, about belonging and identity through time.” He traced the arrival of German scientific forestry—codified by six “fathers” who established dedicated forestry schools in the early 19th century—and explained how that model applied rigorous measurements, silvicultural methods, and planning horizons stretching decades into the future. Hellebrand argued that this German system carried with it a cultural project: to forge national identity by linking people to the soil, a concept he terms autochthony.

Institutionalization of forestry in the United States

Hellebrand showed how American foresters, alarmed by rapid deforestation and inspired by European exhibitions and international congresses in the 1860s and 1870s, imported German methods. He highlighted Bernhard Fernow—appointed chief of the U.S. Division of Forestry in 1886 and founder of the Cornell forestry school in 1898—and Carl Schenck, whose Biltmore Forest School also opened in 1898. Both men retained deep ties to German institutions and even military traditions, underscoring forestry’s entwined aims of economic management and national stewardship. In Wisconsin, a joint federal-state Forestry Commission (1898) and the creation of a state forestry law (1903) under Governor Robert La Follette institutionalized sustained-yield principles on lands north of Township 33, with Edward M. Griffith—trained under Schenck and Fernow—becoming the state’s first forester and experimental station director.

Menominee forestry and the sustainable development model

Contrasting these utilitarian, state-driven systems, Hellebrand turned to the Menominee Nation’s century-long stewardship of their reservation forests in northeast Wisconsin. Drawing on Chief Oshkosh’s 1848 insistence that Menominee lands supported indigenous lifeways, he showed how the Menominee negotiated to retain tribal ownership of their forests and mill throughout the 20th century, even amid U.S. termination policy (1954–73). The Menominee sustainable development model places autochthony—the reciprocal, intergenerational relationship to place—at its core, interweaving land sovereignty, institutions, technology, economy, and human behavior in a living system calibrated to Menominee values.

Reconciling divergent visions of forestry

Hellebrand concluded that whereas German scientific forestry sought to impose a rational, economic order on forests as a means of nation-building, Indigenous models like that of the Menominee prioritize long-term familial and communal bonds with the living landscape. Both approaches intervene intensively in forest ecosystems, but their underlying philosophies—state control versus tribal autochthony—lead to distinct practices, from rotation ages and species choices to the reintegration of prescribed fire. By juxtaposing these two narratives, Hellebrand invited listeners to reconsider forestry not only as resource management but as a cultural practice deeply entwined with questions of identity, belonging, and justice.

The Yale Forest Forum is a dynamic initiative within the Yale School of the Environment’s Forest School, serving as its special events hub. By convening academic experts, policymakers, industry stakeholders, and community leaders through semester-long speaker series, workshops, and webinars, the Forum fosters interdisciplinary dialogue on forest policy, conservation, and management. In doing so, YFF equips participants with the knowledge, networks, and innovative perspectives needed to address pressing challenges like climate change, biodiversity loss, and sustainable land use. (yff.yale.edu)

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