Gifford Pinchot

Pinchot was already head of the Forestry Bureau when Roosevelt became President, and he stayed through the whole term as the directing force in conservation work and a counselor on most internal affairs. Roosevelt credits him with leading, and for a vital stretch embodying, the fight to preserve the forests through use rather than lock them away. His fearlessness, tireless energy, and single-minded devotion make him the indispensable ally in the book's central argument that the nation's resources belong to all the people.