PROGRESS OF THE PURCHASE OF EASTERN 

 NATIONAL FORESTS 



FROM REPORT PREPARED BY 



NATIONAL FOREST RESERVATION COMMISSION 



THE Eastern States are confronted with a serious 

 shortage of lumber for building purposes,* and of 

 wood for making paper.f As a result of injudi- 

 cious methods of cutting and the ravages of fire, privately 

 owned forest lands, after having been lumbered, ' have 

 declined in productivity, and some tracts have ceased 

 altogether to yield re- 

 turns. The supply of 

 eastern spruce available 

 for paper stock is near- 

 ly exhausted, eastern 

 building material is no 

 longer adequate fully 

 to meet industrial de- 

 mands, and the future 

 supply of hardwoods is 

 threatened and will not 

 be sufficient unless 

 prompt measures are 

 taken for maintaining 

 the productivity of the 

 hardwood forests. 



The act of March i, 

 191 1 (the Weeks law), 

 which was designed 

 primarily for affording 

 protection to the head- 

 waters of navigable 

 streams, seeks its re- 

 sults through the main- 

 tenance of forests. It 

 thus offers a means of 

 furthering measures for 

 maintaining a supply 

 of eastern timber. 

 Under its provisions 

 1,841,934 acres of 

 spruce and hardwood 

 forest in the Eastern 

 States have been or are 

 now in process of be- 

 ing acquired out of a 

 total of more than 50,- 

 000,000 acres of this 

 class of timberland 

 upon which eastern 

 industries have been 

 dependent for supply. 

 This act established 

 the National Forest 

 Reservation Commis- 



HARDWOOD STAND 



Yellow poplar, chestnut and oak, on purchased land characteristic of virgin and 

 culled forests being acquired in the Southern Appalachians. 



Report, Secretary Southern Pine Association, January, 1919. 

 tCommittee American Paper and Pulp Association, November, 1919. 



sion, consisting of the Secretary of War, the Secretary 

 of the Interior, the Secretary of Agriculture, two Mem- 

 bers of the Senate, and two Members of the House of 

 Representatives. The commission authorizes the pur- 

 chase of all lands being acquired under the act. Purchases 

 are restricted to such lands as are so located, as deter- 

 mined by the Geologi- 

 cal Survey, as to fee 

 influential in promot- 

 ing the navigability of 

 navigable streams by 

 protecting their head- 

 waters. This restric- 

 tion has practically re- 

 quired that purchases 

 be limited to rough 

 lands located in the 

 mountainous sections of 

 the country. 



The original Weeks 

 bill carried an appro- 

 priation of $11,000,000, 

 covering several years, 

 of which $3,000,000 

 was for the fiscal years 

 1910 and 191 1, but it 

 was possible to expend 

 economically only $17,- 

 000 of this appropria- 

 tion for these years, 

 leaving slightly more 

 than $8,000,000 avail- 

 able. To this, by the 

 agricultural appropria- 

 tion bill of 1916, was 

 added $3,000,00, being 

 a reappropriation of 

 the moneys that had 

 lapsed; and, by the 

 agricultural appropria- 

 tion bill for the fiscal 

 year 1920, there was a 

 further appropriation 

 of $600,000. The com- 

 mission has authorized 

 the expenditure of ap- 

 proximately all but 

 $300,000 of these ap- 

 propriations. 



The National Forest 

 Reservation Commis- 



M 



^ 



