75th Anniversary of Weeks Act Observed
The Beginnings of the ‘People’s Forest’--The Weeks Act of 1911
The White Mountain National Forest may never have been if not for the vision of a Massachusetts Congressman named John Weeks. In 1909, the New Hampshire native sponsored legislation leading to the creation of the national forest two years later. The Weeks Act became law in 1911, and the acquisition of land for the national forest began the following year.
At the 75th anniversary in 1986 of the act that gave life to the “White Hills of New Hampshire,” members of the Newcomen Society, along with U.S. Forest Service and the Society for the Protection of New Hampshire Forests met at the Mount Washington Hotel to commemorate the event.
Former New Hampshire Governor Sherman Adams spoke on the significance of the Weeks Act for its 75th anniversary just as he had when the act had been in existence for a quarter century in 1936. He noted that the act was not simply the work of individual legislators or activists or government bodies.
“It was rather a coalescence of the public interest in natural resource protection and management, the public concern over forest depletion, and the public appreciation for the unique array of goods and services which emanate from the forest,” he told the gathering. Indeed, as the host to nearly five million visitors each year, the WMNF may truly be called, as Adams did, “a people’s forest.”
The former governor and logger said that while the Forest Service, after a half-century of stewardship, strayed in the 1960s in favor of clear cut harvesting, it is, once again, more in step with the people for whom it works.
Adams stressed the importance of selective timber harvesting and opined that commitment to such a policy is what will allow the forest to survive. He also hailed the contributions of Joseph B. Walker, a Concord lawyer and member of the state’s first forestry commission in 1883, and Philip Ayres, chief executive officer of the Forest Society in 1902.
Walker was perhaps the first activist who championed the cause of sensible forestry at a time when the timber barons were indiscriminately stripping and laying bare vast acres of New Hampshire’s White Mountains.
It was Ayres who led the campaign to establish a federal land reserve here and his work with the Forest Society and the public helped fuel the drive toward creating the forest.
Now, as we view, hike, and recreate in the White Mountains, we can thank Weeks for bringing the campaign to Washington and President Taft for signing it into law on March 1, 1911.
Note: Sherman Adams, (Jan. 8, 1899-Oct. 27, 1986) New Hampshire Governor from Jan. 6, 1949-Jan. 1, 1953