ACQUISITION OF NATIONAL FOREST LAND 



Public-domain lands chiefly valuable for timber production or watershed 

 protection can be reserved as national forests by act of Congress or, in some 

 States, by Presidential proclamation. Almost invariably there are inter- 

 mingled with or related to such lands other areas of similar character in 

 private, county, or State ownership. In general, these must be protected, 

 managed, and utilized in complete unity with the Federal lands if there is 

 to be reasonably effective and economical achievement of the objectives 

 of national forest administration. 



Such indispensable unity of management is attainable, ordinarily, only by 

 vesting in Federal ownership the intermingled private lands, under terms 

 and conditions equitable to the owners. In consequence, Congress has 

 enacted a series of laws under which private lands can be acquired through 

 purchase, exchange, or donation. State consent is required by the Weeks 

 Law of 191 1 and the Flood Control Act of 1944 for the purchase of private 

 lands. Within the present boundaries of the national forests and purchase 

 units there are approximately 35 million acres of private lands. Outside the 

 national forest and purchase-unit boundaries are many million acres for 

 which a national forest status might best serve the public interest and 

 welfare. 



Purchase Areas 



The initial national forest movement, which consisted exclusively of the 

 withdrawal of appropriate portions of the public domain, did not meet the 

 needs of that part of the Nation east of the Great Plains, where practically 

 all public lands, except some small and relatively valueless residues, had 

 long before passed into private or State ownership. The establishment of 

 national forests in the East was therefore dependent upon the acquisition of 

 lands by purchase. Congress accordingly enacted the Weeks Law of March 

 1, 191 1, which was amended and extended by the Clarke-McNary Law of 

 June 7, 1924. The national forest system east of the Great Plains stems 

 largely from these two statutes. 



The Weeks Law stipulates that no lands can be acquired under its pro- 

 visions within any State until that State, by act of its legislature, has given 

 consent. The Federal Government has followed a consistent policy of pur- 

 chasing only lands which the owners voluntarily offer to sell. The right of 

 eminent domain or condemnation has been exercised in less than a score of 

 cases, except by agreement with landowners as a means of quieting title. 



Purchase work is conducted under the direction of the Secretary of Agri- 

 culture, but no land may be paid for unless its acquisition has been approved 

 by the National Forest Reservation Commission, which consists of the Secre- 

 tary of War, the Secretary of the Interior, the Secretary of Agriculture, two 

 members of the Senate, and two of the House of Representatives. In order 

 to systematize the program, purchases have been confined to specific areas, 

 known as purchase units, previously approved by the Commission. As a 

 rule, such units are not established unless it is evident that the Federal Gov- 

 ernment can expect ultimately to acquire a reasonably compact tract of at 

 least 100,000 acres valuable principally for forest purposes. 



At the end of 1943, 81 purchase areas had been established under the 

 Weeks Law, as amended by the Clarke-McNary Law: 4 in New England; 

 12 in the Appalachian region; 2 in the piedmont of North and South Caro- 

 lina; 16 in the southern pine region; 21 in the Ozark and central hardwood 

 States; 9 in the Great Lakes and upper Mississippi region; 16 in the Western 



