776 



A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 



THE EFFECT OF THE WEEKS LAW ON STATE FORESTRY 



On March 1, 1911, Congress passed the Weeks law. Section 2 of 

 this law appropriated $200,000 to enable the Secretary of Agriculture 

 to enter into cooperative agreements with the States in order to pro- 

 tect from fire the forested watersheds of navigable streams. The 

 cooperative agreements were to provide for the organization and 

 maintenance of a system of fire protection organized in accordance 

 with State laws, manned by State appointees, and supported finan- 

 cially by the State and the Federal Government jointly, on condition 

 that the State should contribute not less than half the total cost. 



Table 1 shows the growth of State fire protection under the Weeks 

 law and the amendatory Clarke-McNary law of 1924, from 1911 down 

 to the present time: 



TABLE 1. The growth of Federal-State cooperative forest fire protection, calendar 



years 1911-1931 



1 Private expenditures previous to 1917 probably understated because complete data for earlier years are 

 lacking. 



2 Data lacking. 



3 Includes Territory of Hawaii. 



The workings of the laws under which Federal cooperative aid 

 has been extended to the States will be fully discussed in the chapter 

 of this report entitled "Federal and State aid." For the purpose 

 of the present section, all that is called for is a brief indication of 

 the part that this law has played in shaping the development of 

 State forestry, determining its set-up, crystallizing its program, and 

 giving it its present capacity for further development and future 

 usefulness. 



The immediate effect of the Weeks law was to make the adminis- 

 tration of fire protection a recognized field of activity for the State 

 forestry departments generally. It gave them something specific to 

 do, and the same thing to do everywhere. The whole trend of State 

 forestry was given thereby a new direction. The influence exerted 

 by the Weeks law was by no means due solely to the opportunity 

 that it held out to obtain Federal money and the resulting stimulus 



