Clarke-McNary Act: 
Expanded Federal Cooperation and Support 
Controversy: Federal 
Regulation of Private Lands 
Ten years after passage of 
the Weeks law, 7 of the 12 
Southern States still did not 
have forestry organizations 
or laws that would permit 
them to benefit from Federal 
fire-control cooperation. 
Forestry associations had 
been formed in several States 
to work toward legislation to 
establish a forestry office 
and organization. At the 
national level, the American 
Forestry Association was 
very active. Discussions 
were under way concerning 
Federal regulation of private 
lands for timber cutting, 
reforestation, and protection. 
Forest Service Chief Henry 
Graves stimulated the 
discussion with a speech 
before a New England 
Forestry Conference in 
February 1919 in which he 
said that further devastation 
of the forests should be 
stopped, and that practical 
forest management should 
be applied to both public 
and private forest lands. 
His suggested 
Federal—State cooperation 
to solve the problem 
generated considerable 
interest but also controversy. 
The profession was in 
agreement that something 
needed to be done but could 
not agree on the best 
approach. Initially there was 
opposition from industry 
because of uncertainty about 
the extent of public control 
contemplated in the proposal. 
Graves continued to give 
attention to his proposal and 
presented it on a number of 
occasions to meetings of 
foresters, timberland owners, 
and industry operators 
(Peirce and Stahl 1964, 
Graves 1919). 
Earlier, B.E. Fernow had 
commented on the forestry 
situation: "We may as well 
recognize now as later that 
forestry is in the main a 
business for the state, and 
only under very special 
conditions for private 
enterprise. The long time 
element makes it so." He 
suggested that the 
Government could handle 
the problem of cutover land 
and that the Weeks law policy 
be broadened beyond 
watershed and streamflow to 
recognize that, ". . .there are 
far larger nationwide 
economic interests in this 
forest problem which call for 
national action." He also 
recognized that 
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