Guy M. Brandborg

Who was Guy M. Brandborg?

Guy M. Brandborg was supervisor of Montana's Bitterroot National Forest from 1935 to 1955 and later became a conservation activist. His campaigns were instrumental in passing the National Forest Management Act of 1976, the most significant policy affecting forestry practices on public lands since the founding of the National Forest Service.

Born in 1893 to a Minnesotan farmer, Guy M. Brandborg began working for the National Forest Service in the summer of 1914 as a seasonal ranger in the Lewis and Clark National Forest. From this starting point, he then studied forestry at Montana State University and after taking on a few other assignments with the Forest Service in Idaho and Montana, Brandborg became supervisor of the Bitterroot National Forest in 1935.

After World War II, to meet increased demands for timber, the Forest Service changed its management outlook from that of caretaker to that of lumber producer. A believer in sustainable practices, Brandborg was alarmed at the increased rate of forest cutting. His management goal was to balance production with conservation so that both forests and jobs would be conserved, and, in his judgment, the Forest Service practices were too exploitative to preserve either for future generations. Brandborg also opposed the Forest Service’s plan to ship logs to mills outside of the immediate area; he preferred to keep those jobs within the local community. He attempted to continue with his own management practices and keep the status quo, but that stance was not favored by the Forest Service, and in 1955 Brandborg retired from his position.