Join us for the Simsbury Land Trust Annual Dinner

Our guest speaker Will Price will talk about Gifford Pinchot, who was born in Simsbury and went on to become the first Chief Forester of the United States Forest Service and two-time Governor of Pennsylvania. Along with other 20th-century progressives–including his spouse Cornelia Bryce Pinchot and President Theodore Roosevelt–he fought to incorporate the principles of conservation, fairness, and equality into national policy and practice. The lecture will address what this meant for the Forest Service, and the forestlands of the United States during his tenure and through the decades since.

Will has been at the Pinchot Institute since 1999, becoming a Senior Fellow in 2023. His work has included projects with public agencies, companies, universities, Native American tribes, and other landowners--adapting conservation strategies to their needs and landscapes. Prior to the Institute he consulted with the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation; and worked as a research technician with NASA, and with the Forest Service PNW Research Station in Corvallis, Oregon. Will graduated from the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies with a Master of Forest Science degree, and holds a Bachelor’s of Science from University of Notre Dame, where he studied ecology.