Frederick Erskine Olmsted, also known as Fritz Olmsted, (November 8, 1872 – February 19, 1925) was an American forester and one of the founders of American forestry. Through his work with the United States Forest Service, Olmsted helped establish the national forest system in the United States and helped train the next generation of Forest Service agents and college professors. He was instrumental in the creation of at least twenty national forests in California and the Muir Woods National Monument. He also wrote the Use of National Forest Resources (1905, 1907), a foundational Forest Service manual that laid the groundwork for the nation's enduring forest management system, elements of which remain in use today.
After leaving the Forest Service, Olmsted taught at Harvard University. He also worked as was a consulting forester with practices in Boston and California. His most important consultations resulted in fire management plans for the Canadian railways and for Mount Tamalpais in California. Olmsted was a founder and president of the Society of American Foresters.
Fritz Olmsted was the nephew of Frederick Law Olmsted, the influential landscape designer, and first cousin to landscape designers Frederick Law Olmsted Jr. and John Charles Olmsted. He initially trained in forestry at the Biltmore Forest School, an educational outgrowth of his uncle's suggestions for Biltmore Estate. His son, Frederick E. Olmsted Jr. is noted as an artist with the Federal Art Project and the Public Works of Art Project.
Early life and education
Olmsted was born in Hartford, Connecticut on November 8, 1872. He was the son of Lucy Sawyer Hollister (born 1848) and Albert Harry Olmsted (1842–1929), a banker. His father was a half-brother of acclaimed landscape designer Frederick Law Olmsted and uncle to Frederick Law Olmsted Jr. and John Charles Olmsted.
Olmsted went to Hartford Public High School, graduating in 1891. He then attended Yale University where he studied civil engineering, graduating from the Sheffield Scientific School with a Bachelor of Philosophy (Ph.B.) in 1894. While there, he was a member of the Fraternity of Delta Psi (St. Anthony Hall) and a member of the committee that selected the winner of the senior class cup . He was also the coxswain of the Yale Bulldogs' varsity crew team for three years.
After working for two years and receiving an introduction to forestry at the Biltmore Forest School, Olmsted returned to college, attending graduate school at Harvard University in 1897 and 1898. In the fall of 1897, he took courses at the University of Cambridge and Arnold Arboretum.
Starting in the spring of 1898, Olmsted spent a year working and studying with foresters in the Black Forest in Baden, Germany. He studied forestry under Dietrich Brandis at the University of Munich, receiving a diploma in 1899. In November 1899, at the suggestion of Brandis, he studied practical forestry in the foothills of the Himalayas in India where most of the forests were under state control. He returned to the United States in 1900.
Career
Banking
After graduating from Yale, Olmsted worked for a year at George P. Bissell & Company, his father's bank in Hartford, Connecticut. Although George P. Bissell & Company was the oldest private banking house in New England, the firm went into a receivership in 1896.
Geological survey and forestry
In 1896, Olmsted joined the topographic mapping division of the United States Geological Survey (USGS) at the suggestion of his first cousin, Frederick Law Olmsted Jr. He spent eighteen months near Asheville, North Carolina, surveying and building trails and roads, as well as re-surveying the USGS Pisgah Quadrangle map. While there, he met Dr. Carl A. Schenck, forester of the Biltmore Estate, and learned about career opportunities of the new field of forestry. He left the USGS and worked for Schenck for a few months while attending the earliest incarnation of the Biltmore Forest School, which was founded by Schenck in 1896.
Division of Forestry
On July 1, 1900, Olmsted was hired as an assistant forester by Gifford Pinchot, who headed the newly established Division of Forestry of the United States Department of Agriculture (now the United States Forest Service). Pinchot was also a Yale University graduate and had previously worked with the forests at Biltmore Estate, where he was hired at the suggestion of Olmsted's uncle Frederick Law Olmsted. Olmsted became a "boundary boy" for the Division of Forestry, locating the boundaries of the governmental forest reserves. He typically spent the winters in Washington, D.C., working in the field during the season.