One-thousand acres of woods on the Lower Eastern Shore of Maryland will be named for the state's first forester, according to the Baltimore Sun.
Fred W. Besley first began his tenure as state forester in 1906 after having been tapped by the first leader of the U.S. Forest Service. The Maryland Board of Public Works voted Wednesday to affix Besley's name to forestland in Dorchester County.
The state of Maryland was the nation's third state to establish a program for forestry, which occurred while woodlands in Maryland were being consumed for purposes including settling, farms and industrial production.
Besley devoted 36 years to calling attention to conservation, both private and public. He also conducted inventories of state forests while promoting efforts to reforest and reigning in forest fires. Besley also grew Maryland-owned forest system from 2,000 acres in 1906 to at least 100,000 acres by 1942. The amount of forest owned by the state of Maryland today stands at 138,000.
The innovator worked and owned the five wooded tracts of land that will take on the name Fred W. Besley Demonstration Forest, which Maryland purchased in 2010.
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