1172 A NATIONAL PLAN FOE AMERICAN FORESTRY 



The Weeks Law is generally applicable to all parts of the United 

 States, but it was enacted to meet conditions which were particularly 

 acute in the Eastern States. Its practical application, as a matter 

 of administrative policy, therefore has been limited to those States 

 situated east of the Great Plains, since the extensive areas of public 

 lands in the Western States afforded a large field of Federal action 

 without additional acquisition through cash purchase. 



As originally formulated, the purchase program contemplated 

 the eventual purchase of approximately 1 million acres in the New 

 England States and 5 million acres in the Southern Appalachian 

 region. In time the program was enlarged to include the national- 

 forest units in Arkansas, and later to permit the establishment of a 

 unit in northwestern Pennsylvania. Meanwhile, changes were 

 made in the boundaries of previously established areas so that 

 they would more effectively serve the purpose of their creation. 

 At the close of the fiscal year 1924 there were 23 approved purchase 

 units (later consolidated into 18) with a combined gross area of 

 9,568,515 acres. 



Under the Weeks Law, purchases were confined to areas on the 

 upper headwaters of navigable streams where the maintenance of a 

 forest cover was found by the United States Geological Survey to 

 favorably influence the navigability of the stream. This limitation 

 debarred from consideration the vast forest areas in the Lake States 

 and the southern pine belt of the South Atlantic and Gulf States, 

 where the need for constructive public action in forest conservation 

 became more acute with each passing year. In consequence a 

 demand arose for the extension of the Federal purchase program to 

 such regions as a means of determining, demonstrating, and stimu- 

 lating better forest practice. In response to that demand the 

 Sixty-seventh Congress, by Senate Resolution 398, created a Senate 

 select committee of five members, which made an exhaustive study 

 of the entire situation, holding hearings throughout the country 

 at many important centers of timber production and use. Its 

 findings, Senate Report No. 28, Sixty-eighth Congress, recom- 

 mended amendment of the Weeks Law to include timber production 

 as an objective of Federal management; which was done by the 

 act of June 7, 1924 (43 Stat. 653), popularly known as the "Clarke- 

 McNary law." 



Pursuant to the purpose of that law an enlarged program was 

 submitted to and approved by the National Forest Reservation 

 Commission, under which 20 new purchase units designed primarily 

 to stimulate timber production were proposed and eventually 

 established. Meanwhile need was established for three additional 

 units primarily to protect watersheds and these also were approved. 



The full extent, present attainment, and requirements for comple- 

 tion of the hitherto established acquisition program in the Eastern 

 States, under the Weeks Law as modified by the Clarke-McNary 

 Law, is set forth in table 3. It shows that primarily for watershed 

 protection 21 national-forest purchase units have been created in 

 16 of the Eastern States. They contain a gross area of 10,696,453 

 acres, of which 4,717,307 acres is now under Federal control. Of 

 this, 3,728,083 acres have been acquired by purchase at a total cost 

 of $18,832,667.64, an average of $5.05 per acre. 



