1166 A NATIONAL PLAN FOB AMERICAN FORESTRY 



Fiscal year Continued. 



1928 (supplemental) .___ _ $1, 000, 000. 00 



1929 . ... 1,000,000.00 



1930 2,000,000.00 



1931 2,000,000. 00 



1932 (of which $300,000 reverted to Treasury) _ 2, 000, 000. 00 



Total appropriations 28, 318, 540. 00 



Reverted to Treasury 3, 282, 679. 24 



Net appropriations 25, 035, 860. 76 



For so important a project, careful control and supervision ob- 

 viously was necessary. To provide it the Weeks Law created the 

 National Forest Reservation Commission, in which was vested the 

 power of final approval of land purchases under the act. The project 

 involved three of the executive departments of the Government; the 

 War Department which had control over navigable streams, the 

 Department of the Interior which handled the public lands, and the 

 Department of Agriculture which functioned for the Federal Govern- 

 ment in matters relating to forestry. The Secretaries of these three 

 Departments therefore were made ex-officio members of the Com- 

 mission, the Secretary of War to be the President thereof. 



The project also was of direct interest to the legislative branch of the 

 Government, so that the law provided that two Senators designated 

 by the President of the Senate and two Representatives designated by 

 the Speaker of the House should also be members of the Commission. 

 Through the Commission both the legislative and executive branches 

 of the Government participate directly in the execution of the pro- 

 visions of the act. No purchases of lands can be made until they have 

 been approved by the Commission, which usually meets in formal 

 session about twice each year but functions additionally by recess 

 action based upon detailed memoranda. While authority to deter- 

 mine the areas within which purchases should be made is vested in 

 the Secretary of Agriculture by the act of March 1, 1911, the practice 

 is to present to the National Forest Reservation Commission all facts 

 relating to a proposed purchase unit and to secure its assent and 

 concurrence before initiating any negotiations for purchase within 

 such unit. Under the established procedure all expenditures of funds 

 for land purchases are carefully supervised and controlled, and 

 confined strictly to the purposes of the basic laws. 



One of the basic provisions of the Weeks Law (section 7) is 



That no deed or other instrument of conveyance shall be accepted or approved 

 by the Secretary of Agriculture under this act until the legislature of the State 

 in which the land lies shall have consented to the acquisition of such land by the 

 United States * * *. 



The States thus have full power to decide whether or to what extent 

 the Federal Government shall be allowed to purchase lands for 

 national-forest purposes. The majority of the State acts of consent 

 under which purchases are made contain no limitations, but several 

 apply to only certain specified parts of the State, one prescribes a 

 maximum area for the State, one a maximum area allowable within 

 any single county, two require the concurrence of the county com- 

 missioners, State conservation commission, and State land boards. 

 No national-forest purchase unit can be established nor purchases 

 made therein except in conformity with the provisions of the State act 

 of consent. 



