Weeks Act

The Weeks Act is a federal law (36 Stat. 961) passed by the US Congress on 1 March 1911 in the United States. It authorized the Secretary of Agriculture to "Examine, locate and recommend for purchase ... such lands within the watersheds of navigable streams as ... may be necessary to the regulation of flow of navigable streams...." The Act further states that lands so acquired will be reserved and administered as national forests. Prior to this time, on 1 February 1905, control over the forest reserves had been transferred from the General Land Office of the Department of the Interior to the Department of Agriculture. Responsibility for these lands was given to Chief Forester Gifford Pinchot. With these lands he gained the power to issue permits for water power development on National Forests. The Weeks Act appropiated 9 million dollars to purchase 6 million acres (24,000 km²) of land in the eastern United States. [ [http://www.nrcs.usda.gov/about/history/pdf/A_History_of_Water_Resource_001.pdf A History of Water Resource activities of the United States Department of Agriculture] ]

The Act also provided for cooperation in fire control between federal and state authorities.
The fire season of 1910 greatly influenced this legislation because it raised havoc across the western United States, especially in the state of Idaho where fires killed 85 people (72 of them firefighters), burned more than 3 million acres and destroyed an estimated 8 billion board feet of timber and put the US Forest Service 1.1 million dollars in debt. [Cermak, Robert W. "Fire In The Forest-A History of Forest Fire Control on the National Forests in California 1898-1956" USDA Forest Service Publishers, 2005 p.58 ISBN 1-59351-429-8]

The Weeks Act was originally intended for purchase of eastern lands, but later western lands were acquired under the Weeks Act. It was substantially expanded and modified by the Clarke-McNary Act in 1924.

Land Acquired with Weeks Act

Land acquired under the Weeks Act formed the nucleus of several national forests including Monongahela National Forest.

References

External links

[http://lcweb2.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?ammem/AMALL:@field(DOCID+@lit(jjh94-000053))] Library of Congress's American Memory-Evolution of the Conservation Movement 1850-1920. Description and text of Weeks Act.