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A century ago, the US Congress passed legislation that authorised the Secretary of Agriculture 'to purchase forested, cutover, or denuded lands within the watersheds of navigable streams'. Known as the 797 7 Weeks Act, the bill had an enormous impact on the newly created national forest system. The purchase authority eventually added nearly 20 million acres to the national forest system east of the Mississippi River, but its influence goes far beyond the boundaries of the national forests. In addition, the Weeks Act provided funding and authority for the US Forest Service to enter into cooperative agreements with state and private forest owners, thus extending federal forest conservation practices across the nation. This article traces the events and context surrounding forest management in the US that led to passage of the Act. After decades of efforts, a coalition of public interest and congressional support combined to pass one of the foundational pieces of legislation in American forest management whose influence continues today.
Nearly a century ago, the US Congress passed legislation that enabled the Forest Service to purchase land and created the foundation for cooperative agreements with non-federal forest owners. Signed into law by President William Howard Taft on 1 March 1911, the Weeks Forest Purchase Act1 represented years of efforts by public and private advocates who wished to see eastern US forest lands come under federal protection. Unlike the American west where the federal government reserved forest lands from the public domain by decree, eastern states had long before transferred their public lands into private hands, leaving purchase as the only means to preserve and restore forests in that region. Prior to the Act's passage, the federal government lacked the authority to purchase private lands for inclusion and restoration in the national forest system. Over time, purchases totalled more than 20 million acres in the east, creating national forests in 22 states. Just as significantly, the Act provided federal matching funds for the first time to state forestry programmes engaged in fire prevention. The matching funds for non-federal programmes marked the beginning of a new era in cooperation that extended federal forest management policies beyond national forest boundaries through agreements that continue today. The Weeks Act provided the statutory foundation for cooperation and...