NATIONAL FOREST RESERVE IN WEST VIRGINIA 



By J. A. \'iQUESNEv, 

 Forest, Came and Pish JJ^arden. 



ON account of the peculiar location 

 of the State of West X'irginia, 

 perhaps no State in the Union 

 needs a larger forest reserve, hut no 

 action has yet been taken by the State 

 to purchase or control any forest lands, 

 neither has any law been passed con- 

 trolling- the cutting of timber so that 

 our cut-over lands may again be re- 

 forested. 



This is a deplorable condition, but 

 nevertheless true, and the effects may 

 be seen by traveling over many railroads 

 of the State and looking at the cut- 

 over areas, that are almost depleted of 

 vegetation and practically useless for 

 all time to come. 



However, the National Government, 

 having made a careful study of these 

 conditions and realizing, especially, the 

 great danger that we are facing on ac- 

 count of the drying up of the fountain 

 heads of our great commercial streams, 

 sometime ago, under the Weeks Law, 

 made an appropriation for the purpose 

 of making investigations looking to the 

 purchase of large areas of wooded lands 

 in several States. 



Among the States that have properly 

 qualified or passed laws, allowing the 

 United States Government to purchase 

 land for the purpose mentioned, are 

 Maine, New Hampshire, Maryland, 

 Virginia, West Virginia, North Caro- 

 lina, Tennessee, South Carolina and 

 Georgia, and naming the counties in 

 W^est \'irginia in which this land will 

 be purchased as parts of Pendleton, 

 Hardy, Randolph and Pocahontas. 



For many years the United States 

 Congress has been endeavoring to have 

 a law enacted and appropriations made 

 for the purpose of purchasing sufificient 

 forest reserves to insure an even supj^ly 

 of water to our navigable rivers, were 

 only successful in having such bill be- 

 come a law until a recent session of 

 Congress. 



Antiri])aling the passage of such a 

 law by the United States Government, 

 the West \Mrginia Legislature of 1909, 

 in conformity with the suggestions of 

 Governor Dawson, in his biennial 

 message, passed a bill which gives the 

 United States Government the right to 

 acciuire such property. 'J'his bill com- 

 prises Chapter (U of the Acts of 1909, 

 and is as follows : 



"An act to empower the United 

 States of America to acquire lands in 

 West Virginia, by condemnation or 

 otherwise, for a national forest reserve, 

 and granting to the United States all 

 rights necessary for the proper control 

 and regulation of such reserve. 



Section 1. That the consent of the 

 Legislature of West Virginia be and is 

 hereby given to the acquisition by the 

 United States, by purchase or by con- 

 demnation with adequate compensation 

 of such lands in West V^irginia as in 

 the opinion of the Federal Govern- 

 ment may be needed for the establish- 

 ment of such a national forest reserve 

 in that region ; provided, that the State 

 of West V^irginia shall retain a con- 

 current jurisdiction with the United 

 States in and over such lands so far 

 that civil process in all cases, and such 

 criminal process as may issue under 

 the authority of the State of West Vir- 

 ginia against anv person charged with 

 the commission of any crime without 

 or within said jurisdiction may be exe- 

 cuted thereon in like manner as if this 

 act had not been passed. 



Sec. 2. The pc^wer is hereby con- 

 ferred upon Congress to pass such 

 laws as it may deem necessary to the 

 acquisition, as hereinbefore provided, 

 for incorporation in said national forest 

 reserve of such forest-covered lands 

 in \\'est X'irginia as in the opinion of 

 the Federal Government may be needed 

 for this purpose. 



Sec. 3. The pmver is hereby con- 



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