Last week of April honors 'father of Pennsylvania forestry,' Joseph T. Rothrock
Apr. 25—Joseph T. Rothrock dedicated much of his life to educating Pennsylvanians about the importance of the forests and natural areas that were once much more abundant in the Keystone State.
Born in 1839 in Mifflin County, Rothrock began his career as a botanist and surgeon before starting the "Michaux Forestry Lectures" traveling the state by horse and wagon for two decades seeking to teach the public about the effect that lumbering was having on the landscape.
It was hard to miss — by 1899, Pennsylvania led the country in lumber production, cutting 2.3 billion board feet that year alone. A board-foot is a 1-by-1-foot length of board an inch thick.
Rothrock, among others, was concerned that the practice was unsustainable, and moreover was filling rivers and streams with sediment and quickening the erosion of the land.
"The trees are producing oxygen, clean water and habitat for wildlife," said Dave O'Barto of Consulting Foresters, a Pennsylvania company that works to help manage sustainable timbering. "In my opinion, there's a degree of responsibility that comes with that."
Rothrock thought so as well.
His lectures led to the 1886 creation of the Pennsylvania Forestry Association, the first such group in the country with the stated goal of "promoting forest stewardship to ensure the sustainability of all forest resources."
Rothrock was its first president, and state officials in 1961 proclaimed the last week of April as "J.T. Rothrock Memorial Conservation Week."
O'Barto is working with Export officials to help selectively timber a wooded property they own in Murrysville. But they are also looking to implement best management practices on the land. And O'Barto said before timbering can begin, there's the ever-present invasive species problem to deal with.
"Japanese stiltgrass, barberry, multi-flora rose, bittersweet vines," he said. "These things inhibit the regeneration of our forests — that and deer. But when you take some of the canopy out and get some more light to the forest floor, you promote regeneration."
Rothrock continued as a member of the state Forestry Commission on and off through 1924, by which time more than 1.13 million acres of land had been purchased and preserved.
In 1902, Rothrock established the Mont Alto Tree Nursery to grow seedlings that would re-populate the forests decimated by large-scale lumbering. Today, it is Penn State Mont Alto, and O'Barto spent a year there before going on to Penn State's main campus to finish his education.
He said that while timbering for profit remains a sizable industry, interest has also grown in proper forest management and more "green" practices.
"The industry as a whole is slowly acknowledging that there is value with land owners providing a service through carbon sequestering," he said, referring to plants' natural process of capturing carbon dioxide. "That's kind of the new buzzword now. There are actually some programs that are paying landowners to get involved with that."
Today, there are 2 million acres of sustainably managed Pennsylvania forest. But 70% of the state's forested land is in the hands of private land owners, "so they have a big stake in what happens with our wooded areas," O'Barto said.
In a similar vein to Earth Day, the national conservation holiday that would come about less than a decade later, during J.T. Rothrock Memorial Conservation Week residents are encouraged to "consider through suitable activities the broader subject of conservation of all of the natural resources from which the wealth of the Commonwealth is derived."
Patrick Varine is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Patrick at 724-850-2862, pvarine@triblive.com or via Twitter .
