Theodore Roosevelt and Gifford Pinchot Christmas Tree Controversy

       By 1901, when Theodore Roosevelt was the President of the United States, there was a tremendous amount of alarm among naturalists and conservationists regarding the indiscriminate cutting of evergreens for Christmas trees. When the press asked Roosevelt if he was going to continue with the traditional White House Christmas tree he responded with a resounding "no". He believed that the rate at which trees were being cut for Christmas would destroy what was left of America's forests. 

      However, his sons Archie and Quentin didn't agree with their father and secretly smuggled a tree into a closet in Archie's room. When Roosevelt found out about the tree on Christmas day he was embarrassed. After lecturing the boys he sent them to see his friend and cabinet member, Gifford Pinchot (who later became the first Chief of the Forest Service). To Roosevelt's surprise Pinchot told the boys that cutting a Christmas tree, if done right, was actually good for the forest. Pinchot believed it was forest fires and not Christmas tree cutters that were the real threat. 

      After that Roosevelt continued with the official policy of no Presidential tree - but secretly allowed Archie to put up a small tree in his own room. 

"The Importance of Trees" 

(At the turn of the 20th century, there had been massive deforestation. It was for this reason the national forest reserves were established in 1891 and later became national forests in 1905. Today, at the turn of the 21st century, we now have too many trees. Research indicates that prior to European settlement, ponderosa pine forests had an average of 40-50 trees per acre. Today these same forests have 400-500 trees per acre. The excessive build-up is largely a result of fire suppression and the cause for large catastrophic wildfires).

• Getting Christmas Dinner On a Ranch by Theodore Roosevelt