In 1905, he resigned to return to the USFS as Chief of the Office of Forest Extension.
In 1909 he was appointed State Forester of Connecticut and lecturer at the Yale School of Forestry.
From 1912 - 1933, Spring was Professor of Silviculture in the Department of Forestry within the New York State College of Agriculture at Cornell University.
[1] In February 1933, Spring was appointed Dean of the New York State College of Forestry at Syracuse University, succeeding Hugh P. Baker who had been elected President of what was to become the University of Massachusetts at Amherst.
On his retirement in May 1944, Syracuse University conferred upon him the honorary degree of Doctor of Laws (LL.D.