Law to form public forests in eastern U.S. turns 100

CONCORD, N.H. — A century ago, the idea of the federal government buying private land and turning it into public forest was novel — and controversial.

Now, forest, conservation and education officials are planning field trips, lectures and arts festivals to commemorate next year's 100th anniversary of the Weeks Act, which led to the creation of national forests in the eastern U.S.

Today, national forests encompass more than 25 million acres in 26 eastern states, the U.S. Forest Service says.

"It is one of the single most important pieces of environmental legislation in the 20th century," said Char Miller, director of environmental analysis at Pomona College in Claremont, Calif. "It helps to establish new relationships between the federal government and the states. ... It lays the groundwork for all levels of government to begin to collaborate on environmental issues."

The law helped shape a national attitude about conserving public lands, but scholars and environmentalists agree that most people don't understand what it represents.

"It's probably true that most of us take a place like the White Mountain National Forest for granted," said Jack Savage, a spokesman for the Society for the Protection of New Hampshire Forests, which lobbied for the law in the early 1900s. "We assume it's kind of always been there."

The 800,000-acre forest in New Hampshire attracts millions of visitors each year, a major draw in a state where tourism is one of the largest industries.

By the turn of the century, the federal government owned forests west of the Mississippi, but much of the land in the East had been privately owned since colonial times. It was heavily cut over, and the land became prone to erosion and fire.

The future of the forests and their watersheds were at stake. In New Hampshire, for example, grand hotels in the north — the White Mountain region — were worried about attracting tourists. In the south, mill owners who relied on water power from rivers wanted to stop flooding.

Enter John Wingate Weeks, who grew up on a farm in Lancaster, which includes part of the White Mountain National Forest. Weeks was a well-known banker in Boston before his election to Congress in 1904, representing Massachusetts. He understood the interests associated with the forest and helped bring them together to propose the bill in 1908.