Seeing the forest for the trees

Sliding Rock and Looking Glass Falls mark the winding roadway through the Pisgah National Forest to the Blue Ridge Parkway. Perhaps lesser known, the Cradle of Forestry is a unique 6,500-acre Historical Site that offers a well-preserved, interactive look into forest conservation and an industry that helped define the mountains of North Carolina. 

The Cradle of Forestry’s history of conservation dates back to the Biltmore Estate’s construction and reforestation of overly farmed land that once surrounded it. Frederick Law Olmsted, the founding father of American landscape architecture and designer of New York’s Central Park, had been hired to design the grounds of the Estate. His vision for Biltmore included a small pleasure ground and garden, a major arboretum and nursery, and a systematically managed forest. A conservation-minded man, Olmsted felt creating a managed forest at Biltmore was important because it could serve as an example for the rest of the country. 

Olmsted ensured the long-term success of the estate’s forestry program by persuading Vanderbilt to hire a trained forester named Gifford Pinchot in 1892. Pinchot implemented a unique management plan that included identifying tree species, growth conditions, and volumes of timber per acre and improving tree growth with selective thinning. The plan, which was designed to improve the forest while returning a profit to the landowner, was the first of its kind in America and served as a national model. German forester Dr. Carl A. Schenck took charge of Biltmore’s forest in 1895, which at the time totaled over 100,000 acres. In 1898, he established the Biltmore Forest School—the first of its kind in the country. During its 15 years of existence, the school educated more than 300 students, many of whom served as the first generation of American foresters.

The Cradle’s Forest Discovery Center celebrates Vanderbilt, Pinchot, Schenck and the beginning of forestry in America through a brief video and two guided trails that lead visitors back in time to seven historical buildings, a 1915 Climax logging locomotive and an antique portable sawmill.  

For more information, visit cradleofforestry.com.