In 1951, my grandfather, Leo A. Drey, began to purchase forestland in the Missouri Ozarks. No single motivation can be ascribed to this expansive work of his. In my two months on the forest this summer, though, I have been most interested in one of these: his intention to show single tree selection's economic and ecological potential for the Missouri Ozarks. The name he eventually chose for his forest then, Pioneer, seems more than appropriate.