The Appalachian Forest Purchases 



By Hon. John W. Weeks 

 i'.S. Senator from Massachusetts 



PERHAPS I cannot do better in speaking about forest 

 conservation than to call attention to the work 

 of the National Forest Reservation Commission 

 which has had charge of the purchases made in the White 

 Mountain and Appalachian regions under what is known 

 as the Weeks Act. The original appropriation for this 

 purpose amounted 

 to eleven million 

 dollars, to be ex- 

 pended during the 

 six years fol- 

 lowing the passage 

 of the act; but the 

 Commission fol- 

 lowed such a pru- 

 dent and careful 

 course that it was 

 not possible to or- 

 ganize sufficiently 

 to take up the ex- 

 amination and pur- 

 chase of lands dur- 

 ing the first two 

 years of the life of 

 the appropriation. 

 For that reason 

 three million dol- 

 lars of the appro- 

 priation lapsed and 

 only eight millions, 

 or substantially that 

 amount, has been 

 expended up to 

 this time. 



Senator Gal- 

 linger, of New 

 Hampshire, who is 

 a member of the 

 Commission, re- 

 cently offered an 

 amendment to the 

 Agricultural 

 Appropriation Bill providing a million dollars to be 

 expended in continuing these forest purchases during 

 the fiscal year ending the thirtieth of next June and 

 two million for the fiscal year ending the thirtieth of 

 June, 1918. This measure passed on August 5th. This 

 is really a rcappropriation and is one of the most com- 



Pholo fry Henry Haielotk Pierce. Boston. Mass. 



HON. JOHN \V. WEEKS 

 United States Senator from Massachusetts and Vice-president of the American Forestry Association 



mendable actions taken in forestry matters since the 

 passage of the original law. 



Having followed with some care the work of this 

 Commission from the financial standpoint, it is my im- 

 pression that the purchases made have been entirely 

 justified and that, as in the case of the State of New 



York, the Govern- 

 ment will eventu- 

 ally reap a very sub- 

 stantial profit if it 

 wishes to dispose of 

 the lands, and if the 

 timber is carefully 

 cut that there will 

 be for all time a 

 substantial return 

 on the original 

 investment. 



In addition to 

 this work, the pro- 

 visions in the origi- 

 nal law for the 

 protection of for- 

 ests from fire have, 

 in my judgment, 

 saved timber hav- 

 ing a value of many 

 times the cost of 

 the service ; in fact, 

 one of the greatest 

 advances made in 

 recent years has 

 been the effective- 

 ness of the fire 

 service, cooperated 

 in by the States in 

 the East and con- 

 ducted by the For- 

 est Service in the 

 Rocky Mountain 

 sections. While 

 there is no way to compute the actual results in dol- 

 lars and cents, based on the destruction from fires 

 in years past, it is safe to say that the sav- 

 ing from this one service has been greater than the 

 whole expenditure for the Forest Service since its 

 establishment. 



542 



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