Undated portrait Gifford Pinchot. Gifford Pinchot (1865-1946) was the first Chief of the United States Forest Service (1905-1910) and the 28th Governor of Pennsylvania (1923-1927, 1931-1935). He was a Republican and Progressive. Pinchot is known for reforming the management and development of forests in the United States and for advocating the conservation of the nation's reserves by planned use and renewal. He called it "the art of producing from the forest whatever it can yield for the service of man." Pinchot coined the term conservation ethic as applied to natural resources. He was the first to demonstrate the practicality and profitability of managing forest for continuous cropping. His leadership put conservation of forests high on America's priority list. He died from leukemia in 1946, at the age of 81. Gifford Pinchot National Forest in Washington and Gifford Pinchot State Park in Lewisberry, Pennsylvania, are named in his honor, as is Pinchot Hall at Penn State University.