Forestry, Department of

The Bates College Department of Forestry was established in 1917 through a bequest from Benjamin Clark Jordan of Alfred, Maine, a prominent businessman in the lumber industry for over 40 years. At the time of his death in 1912, Jordan had accumulated more than 11,000 acres of timber land in York County, the bulk of which he planned to present to Bates College.

In December of 1917, Bates accepted the title of the land with three conditions outlined in Jordan's will: (1) to establish and maintain a Forestry Department of instruction at the college, (2) to care for the land according to scientific methods of forestry cultivation and (3) to pay Jordan's daughter a life-time annuity in cash in place of annual stumpage rights.

In that same year, the College formed the B. C. Jordan Lumber Company to care for the land and yield a profit to fund the Forestry Department. When the Department was established, courses were added to the catalog gradually, creating a four-year course of study that would result in a Bachelors degree in Forestry Science. The courses ranged from Elementary Forestry and Forest Protection to Advanced Silviculture and Forest Physiography.

In addition to the extensive equipment required for the new Department, a nursery was established on campus for experimentation with seedlings, and plans were made for an arboretum. Special care was taken to maintain the liberal arts objectives of the College by emphasizing the cultural aspects of forestry as well as the technical. The faculty of the Department included Lawrence Rich Grose from 1918-1920 and Bernard Emerson from 1920-1922.

After 1922, however, a decline in the lumber business caused the income of the Bates Forest to drop below the expense of its maintenance, leaving nothing to fund the Department. From 1923 through 1933, the only course offered was entitled "General Forestry," a purely cultural class taught by Professor Frank Dean Tubbs of the Geology Department.

During that time, the Bates Forest was managed by Raymond E. Rendall, who succeeded in decreasing the deficit somewhat, but it soon became clear that the College could no longer to afford to maintain the land or the Department. The Jordan Lumber Company was liquidated in 1932, and a committee was formed to investigate the possibility of discontinuing the College's management of the Forest. The subsequent legal proceedings carried all the way up to the Maine Supreme Court, when in 1934, Chief Justice William R. Pattangall signed a decree relieving Bates College of both the title and responsibility for the land, effectively terminating the Department of Forestry.