George M. Jemison, Former Deputy Chief of Research and Development
1966-1969
USDA Forest Service
Research & Development Milestones under George Jemison's Leadership
The U.S. Department of Agriculture issued a racial hiring quota to the Forest Service. Jemison led Research and Development in recruiting minorities, with an emphasis on bringing minorities into leadership positions.
Forest Service Research and Development established a Wilderness Management Research Unit in 1967 in Missoula, Montana, following the passage of the Wilderness Act of 1964. Initial research focused on wilderness recreation, native vegetation in wilderness, and wilderness fire ecology. In 1993, wilderness research would be strengthened with the establishment of the Aldo Leopold Wilderness Research Institute, located within the Rocky Mountain Research Station.
To aid in fighting wildland fires, chemicals and compounds were developed, tested, and became an important firefighting tool. Scientists became better able to model and predict fire behavior. Better fire science led to the elimination of the 10 a.m. fire policy, which had decreed that all fires be suppressed by 10 a.m. on the day following the fire’s first report.
By the 1960s, Forest Service research was showing that in many forest ecosystems, frequent low-intensity fires were critical to ecosystem health.
“Environmental Forestry Research” was a new heading in the 1967 Chief’s Report.
