At the beginning of the 20th century, efforts to preserve forested land in the United States were driven by those like John Muir who favored preserving them for aesthetic purposes, and those like Gifford Pinchot, who advocated managing them for utilitarian reasons. One of the first scientifically trained foresters born in North America, Pinchot was the first chief of the United States Forest Service, founder and first president of the Society of American Foresters, and a founder of the Yale School of Forestry. As chief forester, he served as an adviser to President Theodore Roosevelt on the environmental issues of the day and helped shape that administration's conservation agenda. Pinchot made utilitarian conservation, or the regulated use and scientific management of natural resources for the ...