Theodore Parker Lukens (October 6, 1848 – July 1, 1918) was an American conservationist, real estate investor, civic leader, and forester who believed that burned over mountains could again be covered in timber which would protect watersheds. Lukens collected pine cones and seeds of different types and conducted experimental plantings on the mountain slopes above Pasadena, California. His perseverance earned him the name "Father of Forestry."Godfrey, Anthony pp. 34-35
Lukens established Henninger Flats tree nursery, which provided seed stock for an estimated 70,000 trees.Angeles National Forest Fire Lookout Association Newsletter, p.4 He worked for the United States Forest Service and was acting supervisor of the San Gabriel Timberland Reserve and the San Bernardino Forest Reserve in 1906.
Lukens served two terms as mayor of Pasadena and was active in municipal and civic affairs of early-day Pasadena. Prior to becoming mayor, Lukens was involved in an anti-Chinese movement that culminated in racist riots against Chinese American residents and businesses in what is now Old Town Pasadena and an official ordinance barring anyone of Chinese ancestry from the city. Lukens remained prominent in civic and conservation issues until his death in 1918.Sierra Club's John Muir Exhibit.
Reforestation Lukens was interested in growing plants, even before moving out to Southern California from Illinois, where he had owned and operated a nursery in Whiteside County, Illinois. By 1882 the Lukens family established a home in Pasadena. Lukens already knew of the hardwoods in his native Midwest but now the former nurseryman sought to learn about the native and non-native trees of Southern California. Among them: live oak, pepper, camphor, umbrella, eucalyptus and various citrus trees.Sargent, Shirley p. 8
Lukens undertook several expeditions to study the San Gabriel and San Bernardino Mountains from 1897 to 1899. He learned the "paradise" of Southern California had some serious problems as well. The increased use and misuse of resources by miners, loggers and livestock owners had devastated the lands. Wildfires caused the worst damage due to the Mediterranean climate of long, hot and dry summers which turned fires into infernos, leaving behind burned and bare hillsides, resulting in erosion and flooding during the rainy season.
Among the different species of trees Lukens studied, the knobcone pine was the best choice he believed, for its fire-resistant properties. The cones, which are embedded in the tree, only open and release seeds after a wildfire. He learned how to open the cones by boiling them and the method of watering and care that produced seedlings. The cone is sealed by a glaze-like resin and only opens after melting from heat of at least 200 °F (93 °C). The knobcone is well suited for reforestation as it grows on rocky hillsides in serpentine or granitic soil. Botanist Willis Linn Jepson observed that the knobcone grows on sites that are the "most hopelessly inhospitable in the California mountains".Lanner, Ronald p.97
Lukens' belief in the solution of tree planting was shown by lectures he gave, as well as writings and photographs he prepared. His proposals gained support. In 1899, William Kerckhoff, president of the Forest and Water Association, paid for $50 worth of seed to give University of Southern California forestry students for planting, and in a two-week period, more than 60,000 seeds were sown by the young foresters. The next year Lukens, with support by the Forest and Water Association, planted several thousand knobcone and ponderosa pine seeds in the San Gabriel mountains above Altadena, California. Lukens' reported to the association that "ridges and crowns of hills were selected, that when the trees came into fruiting the seed would be cast in different directions down steep slopes."The Los Angeles Times, "Creating New Forests", Feb.9, 1900. On a wider scale, the conservation movement was gaining momentum throughout California. In 1899, 24 organizations met in San Francisco and formed The California Society for Conserving Water and Protecting Forests. Another group formed was The Forest and Water Society of Southern California, composed of the Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce and the Southern California Academy of Science.Godfry, Anthony pp.48-9
Tree nursery at Henninger Flats In 1903, Lukens expanded the tree-planting enterprise with a lease on the Henninger property for the US Forest Service, of which he was an employee. Chief Forester Gifford Pinchot approved the lease in October 1903 for the clearing of . Reforestation became official policy. Improvements included a 48' by 60' lath house and rabbit-proof fence. The first firebreak constructed in the San Gabriel Reserve was around Henninger Flats to protect the site. Lukens worked to make Henninger Flats a high elevation tree nursery that would produce seedlings for reforestation and watershed restoration efforts. Lukens and his assistants grew more than 60,000 experimental tree seedlings at the nursery. Most of the 1,000 trees that were planted in the San Gabriel and San Bernardino reserves for the Forest Service were grown at the nursery during 1903-1907. Locally, the nursery provided 17,000 seedlings for Los Angeles' Griffith Park,Los Angeles County Fire Department the second-largest city park in California.The 100 Largest City Parks. from The Trust for Public Land. The nursery received many orders for seed and seedlings from foresters worldwide, including Chile and Australia. Galen Clark, former Guardian of the Yosemite Grant, approved massive tree plantings, and declared this a "grand enterprise..." in a 1904 letter to Lukens.Sargent, Shirley p.53
In 1907, John Muir visited the tree nursery and was greatly impressed by the work done at the site. A Los Angeles Times article in June, 1912 compared Lukens to the famed Johnny Appleseed.Sargent, Shirley p.55 Locally, his work at Henninger Flats was recognized when the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors and George H. Maxwell, executive director of the National Reclamation Association, inspected the tree nursery and nearby slopes, accompanied by Lukens. Afterwards, the Pasadena Star, on June 21, 1915, reported- "It was truthfully and justly the proudest moment of Mr. Lukens' life. His work was ranked by the speakers as among the most important for the future of Southern California and as a climax Mr. Maxwell said that in his years of travel and investigation of reclamation projects he had found none more of importance to mankind than the thing Mr. Lukens had done in solving the problem of reforestation of denuded watershed areas." Sargent, Shirley p.83
Although Lukens' work was recognized by fellow Southern Californians, the Forest Service had a different view. The Henninger Flats nursery was closed by the Forest Service in 1908 and moved to Lytle Creek. In a 'doleful' report written in 1912, the tree planting efforts on the national forest lands were deemed a failure by Assistant Chief of Silviculture T.D. Woodbury. The Forest Service's determined efforts to convert indigenous chaparral into forests fell short due to rabbits, rodents and a baking-hot sun and the project was eventually abandoned. Woodbury's report also suggested that tree planting become a research subject and recommended it be assigned to the newly established Feather River Experiment Station, located in the Plumas National Forest.Godfrey, Anthony p.95
Lukens had chosen the property for good reason-he had visited the site back in 1892 along with R.J. Busch, a Los Angeles businessman, and with the owner 's permission, they started the first experimental reforestation in California on the property by planting some selected conifers there. Those selected conifers were thriving when Lukens made a return visit about ten years later.
History of property The landowner was businessman Peter Stiel who acquired the parcel through the Homestead Act. In August, 1893, Steil then sold it to his friend William Henninger who had been living on the property since 1884. Henninger was born in Virginia in July 1817 and was among the pioneers arriving in California in the 1800s. He was instrumental in the discovery of the first major gold strike is the San Gabriel Mountains and settled in the small hanging valley above Altadena, California. From 1884 until 1891, Henninger was the primary occupant of the site. Henninger called the flats Clara Basin in honor of a grandchild, but this name died with him. He developed the site by building a house and a cistern for water storage. After clearing the chaparral he planted hay, melons, vegetables, and fruit and nut trees, carrying the produce to town down the steep mile and a half trail he built. He claimed water rights in 1886 for domestic and irrigation use from the first canyon north of the flats. Henninger died in 1894, and his daughters inherited the property. The property was then sold in February 1895, by auction, to Harry C. and Harriet M. Allen of Pasadena. Selling price was $2,600. In October 1895, the Allens sold the property for $5,000 to four men (W. Morgan, J. Vandevort, J. Holmes and W. Staats). These four men then sold the property in December 1895 to the Mt. Wilson Toll Road Company for $76,600. The price of this parcel had increased by 2800% in a single year. The Southern California real estate boom evidently included the mountainsides. The property was mostly unoccupied until Lukens' second visit in 1902. The Mt. Wilson Toll Road Company continued ownership of Henninger Flats until it was purchased by Los Angeles County in 1928. Currently, the county fire department manages the site, which is now known as the Henninger Flats Conservation Center and operates a museum, campground, and tree nursery.
Forester Lukens worked for the US Forest Service from 1900 to 1906. His first association with the agency was through Muir, who recommended him to Chief Forester Gifford Pinchot in 1899. Next, State Senator Delos Arnold, a prominent Pasadenan, recommended Lukens and by May 1, 1900, Lukens was offered the honorary position of Collaborater at $300 a year. His duties included investigative trips and he wrote detailed reports on other forests, as well as attended meetings and conventions. In 1906 he was promoted to the position of Acting Supervisor and was in charge of the San Bernardino Forest Reserve and the San Gabriel Timberland Reserve. The San Gabriel Reserve was the first federal reserve established in the state.Godfrey, Anthony p.38
Lukens knew how serious the threat of wildfire was in the mountains and pushed for more firefighters, which the Forest Service granted. A joint survey by the state of California and the US Forest Service (then Bureau of Forestry) found the forest conditions in deplorable shape. Watersheds were being damaged yearly by fire, overgrazing, and land clearing. Logging had badly deteriorated the forests. The survey results produced several actions, one of which was the passage by the California legislature of the Forest Protection Act that created a State Board of Forestry with a State Forester.
Lukens hired 55 men for firefighting and other duties, but less than one year later, he was instructed to reduce the force to 25 which he found unacceptable.Sargent, Shirley p.66 He wrote letters to Pinchot and influential friends in an attempt to bring political pressure to rescind the order. To complicate matters, he had requested and been granted a three-month personal leave of absence.
While Lukens was on vacation in Yosemite, Chief Pinchot transferred him from supervisor and into a "special position" with forestry extension services.Sargent, Shirley p.67 The agency also made expense and payroll mistakes which cost him money, He tendered his 11-word resignation on August 12, 1906 which also ended his work at Henninger Flats.
Conservationist