A century ago, the Weeks Act paved the way for the creation of White Mountain National Forest and 40 other federally protected lands. Locals look back on the law’s history and ahead to the next 100 years of forest conservation.

Covering roughly a quarter of New Hampshire, the White Mountains are a defining feature of the Granite State’s natural identity.

This northern section of the Appalachian range includes the towering, wind-blasted peak of Mt. Washington and the plummeting, glacial slope of Tuckerman Ravine. It features oft-visited state parks like Crawford Notch and Franconia Notch. It’s home to more than 100 miles of the Appalachian Trail, the former perch of the Old Man of the Mountain, and ski resorts like Loon, Wildcat and Cannon.

As visitors travel the White Mountains today, taking in its stunning vistas, it’s hard to believe this forest was in danger of vanishing a century ago. In the late 1800s and early 1900s, rampant logging cleared vast swaths of trees from the forest. The resulting erosion and runoff caused massive floods that shut down mills, and fuel spills led to wildfires that blackened whole mountainsides. 

“At the dawn of the 21st century, in the White Mountains of New Hampshire, we see in many areas a forest that had been very poorly managed,” said Thaddeus Guldbrandsen, a faculty member for Environmental Science & Policy at Plymouth State University and founding director of the Center for Rural Partnerships. “One of the most egregious aspects of that mismanagement had to do with the portable sawmill operators. These were folks who didn’t have a long-term commitment to the land. They would go into a forest area, take the resources out and move to the next area without much concern for the long-term sustainability of the forest resources.”

What saved the forest was a piece of legislation signed into law by President William Howard Taft almost exactly 100 years ago, in March 1911. The Weeks Act, named for New Hampshire native John Wingate Weeks, paved the way for the establishment of White Mountain National Forest, which now encompasses 800,000 acres. It also led to the creation of 40 other national forests in the eastern United States, representing 20 million total acres across 26 states.

Plymouth State and several other organizations are celebrating the Weeks Act centennial throughout the year. For Guldbrandsen, the goal is to make residents aware of a law that not only defined a new era of forest conservation in the United States, but also permanently altered the relationship between state and federal government.

“This is a conversation that started in New Hampshire,” he said. “It started in our forests and flowed down our rivers to the rest of the country and came to really transform both the natural landscape and the political landscape for the following 100 years.”

the threat

Tourists, painters and writers discovered the beauty of New Hampshire’s majestic mountain peaks in the early 1800s. Farmers on the land were gradually displaced by hotels and inns that sprang up across the region. By the 1850s, railroads were carrying people from around the Northeast to the White Mountains.

Loggers, too, soon took an interest in the forest, though not for the scenery. By the end of the Civil War, the state was selling massive tracts of land to speculators interested in both the tourist and logging industries. Railroads brought tourists in and hauled timber out. In 1867, New Hampshire sold off all of its remaining public land in the White Mountains—160,000 acres that included Mt. Washington—for about $26,000. 

Sawmill operations, fueled by demand for wood to build houses, continued logging the mountainsides unabated for the next several decades. 

“Initially, they thought the forests were endless so they kept harvesting them,” said Linda Upham-Bornstein, history, heritage and culture coordinator at the Center for Rural Partnerships. “That began to deplete the forest. Sawmill loggers really just wanted to take out anything of value for construction and then move on. They didn’t want to stay here and wait for the forest to re-grow.”

But another faction of the timber industry took a more lasting interest in the forest. Technological advances made it possible to manufacture paper, previously made primarily from rags, from soft woods like spruce. 

“Newspapers were capitalizing on this effort and started to build pulp and paper mills to produce newsprint,” Upham-Bornstein said.  

Unlike the sawmill industry, though, pulp and paper mills could not pick up and relocate when the trees ran out. The mills needed renewable local supplies of water and timber to keep making paper, and their own operations threatened both.

“They started to realize that, ‘Oops, we’re gonna run out of trees,’” Upham-Bornstein said. 

Fires became another source of consternation. Sparks flew off railroad tracks and ignited piles of dry wood that were often saturated with spilled fuel. By the turn of the 20th century, fires had scorched about 100,000 acres in the White Mountains, according to David Govatski, secretary of the Weeks Act Centennial Committee and a board member of WhiteMountainHistory.org.

As awareness of the problems grew, industry leaders also started to fear their activities would drastically reduce the flow of critical rivers like the Connecticut, Saco, Merrimack, and Androscoggin. 

“The perception was that if you cut all of the forest out of the mountains where the four big rivers start from and then you burn it, the water’s going to rush off in the spring and there won’t be any left in the summer,” Govatski said.

Meanwhile, hotel guests expecting to witness pristine wooded forests were disappointed to find clear-cut and blackened slopes.

“It was at a time, a little over 100 years ago, when the forests were being cut at a massive scale,” Govatski said. “The loggers were basically cutting entire mountainsides off. It was totally unsustainable and the public was quite upset.”

the solution

John Wingate Weeks was born in Lancaster in 1860 and grew up on a farm overlooking the White Mountains until he was 17. He graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy and later co-founded a financial firm in Boston. After making his fortune, he entered politics in Newton, Mass., where he became mayor. In 1905, Weeks was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives, where, during his second term, he was appointed to the House Agriculture Committee.  

By that time, public consensus had swelled around the need for legislation that would protect forest land. The Society for the Protection of New Hampshire Forests, led by forester Philip W. Ayres, had formed in 1901 with the goal of promoting local and national forest conservation. 

“There was a tremendous amount of interest in some form of a forest bill, one that would set aside forest reserves,” said historian Rebecca Weeks Sherrill More, great-granddaughter of John Wingate Weeks.

But, in those days, conserving land in the East was complicated. There were several national forests out West, but they had been established on public land. In places like the White Mountains, however, all the land was privately owned.

Several bills related to forest protection failed to clear the House and Senate in the late 1800s and early 1900s. But Weeks crafted a bill that drew support from a broad range of economic and environmental interests.

“He presented this bill in a way that would be palatable to both people who were concerned with the forests and the natural environment, as well as people who were concerned with different aspects of the economy,” Guldbrandsen said. “It was quite an amazing coalition of people of differing political stripes and economic interests.”

He also garnered support from several different geographic regions. Southern portions of the Appalachian Mountains faced the same plight as the White Mountains, and a number of groups united to promote conservation, including the Appalachian Mountain Club and various New England organizations.

Still, Weeks encountered resistance in Congress. House speaker Joseph Cannon famously vowed he would not spend “one cent for scenery.” Others questioned whether it was constitutional for the government to purchase private land.

Weeks addressed both concerns by convincing lawmakers that protecting forests was in the nation’s best interest. The argument hinged largely on how erosion from logging affected rivers and watersheds. A lack of navigable waterways would threaten both the flow of commerce and national security, he argued.

“What he did in his bill was to talk about the importance of stream flow and rivers to interstate commerce, and that really settled the question of the constitutionality of the federal government buying land from private landowners,” Govatski said.

Congress finally passed the Weeks Act on Feb. 15, 1911, and it was signed by President Taft on March 1. The bill authorized federal purchase of forest lands, and provided for fire controls between state and federal authorities.

“Even beyond land conservation, this is a truly remarkable law because it totally transformed the relationship between states and the federal government,” Guldbrandsen said.

the present

The National Forest Reservation Commission tentatively approved the White Mountain area on March 27, 1911. But the forest did not spring up overnight. The government still had to go about purchasing land from numerous private owners. The first purchase took place in 1914 with the acquisition of 7,000 acres near Benton.

The national forest has increased in size bit by bit ever since, and it’s still growing. According to Tiffany Benna, spokesperson for the White Mountain National Forest, the government recently added a 240-acre parcel in Cathedral Ledge near Bartlett.

Unlike national parks, where specific geological features or areas are protected from development, national forests can still allow logging and other commercial activities. In the White Mountains, Benna said, loggers currently harvest about 12 million to 15 million board feet of wood per year.

Although that sounds like a lot, carefully managed logging can actually benefit the forest’s health, Benna said. Fire prevention measures have curtailed the natural fires that would otherwise make room for new generations of forest growth; controlled logging can help create new habitats and regenerate certain wildlife species.

It’s up to federal employees with the U.S. Forest Service, a branch of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, to determine how much logging—and how much recreational use—is sustainable in the forests. For that, the White Mountain National Forest has developed a forest plan, last revised in 2005.

“In that document we really look at that balance of use of the land,” Benna said. “We look in our plan to balance recreation with needs for fisheries enhancement and restoration and timber production and wood products. Really, following that plan, we feel like we have a pretty good balance going across the forest.” 

The White Mountains are home to a myriad of plant and animal species, and only one is currently listed as endangered in the state (the small whorled pogonia). Other previously endangered plants have recovered, including the Robbins’ cinquefoil. Still other wildlife species found in the White Mountains have been removed from the national endangered species list, like the bald eagle and peregrine falcon.

The White Mountains generate significant revenue for surrounding communities. A section of the Weeks Act established procedures for payment in lieu of taxes, initially demanding that 5 percent of revenues from national forests go to the communities in which they exist. That number was later boosted to 25 percent. Ski resorts and timber companies must pay for the right to operate on public lands. 

On top of all that, the forest provides vast opportunities for hiking, camping, fishing, hunting and other recreational activities. Although areas can be restricted for environmental reasons, most of the forest is free and open to the public.

“It’s incredible land of many uses. The recreational opportunities are just amazing,” Govatski said.

the future

As Govatski and others celebrate the history of the Weeks Act and White Mountain National Forest, they’re also examining future conservation concerns.

“We both want to look in the rearview mirror of the last 100 years and celebrate...but also to look forward and to come up with a vision for what it’s going to be like for the next 100 years,” Govatski said. “How can we have a land ethic that provides sustainable forestry and provides clean water and recreational opportunities and all of those other things we sometimes take for granted?”

The solution is sure to keep challenging environmentalists for years to come. Population growth continually increases development pressure and demand for resources. White Mountain National Forest, in cooperation with various non-profit conservation groups and land trusts, is always seeking more land. But, with limited funds at their disposal, they rely on landowners donating their property or selling at a low price.

“Of course, the danger is they’ll be sold to developers,” said Upham-Bornstein.

And, Govatski said, people constantly debate how much recreational and commercial use is appropriate. Some think ATVs should be allowed on forest trails in the summer; others think more timber harvesting should be permitted. 

The contentious debate over the Northern Pass Project is another case in point. It calls for the construction of 140 miles of transmission line from the Canadian border to Franklin, including a stretch through the White Mountains, to transmit hydroelectric power. While the White Mountain portion of the project would be on an existing corridor, it would likely have to be widened, Govatski said. Proponents say the project would bring clean, renewable energy to the state, while opponents argue it will carve an unsightly gash through the forest and outsource jobs to Canada.

More pointed to a national debate that could have regional implications. The U.S. Senate will vote in June on a resolution that would limit the Environmental Protection Agency’s authority to regulate greenhouse gas emissions. As with the Weeks Act, the results could have environmental and economic consequences for the White Mountains.

More noted that some members of Congress voted against the Weeks Act even after seeing clear scientific evidence of the dangers of clear-cutting forests. Similarly, she said, many modern politicians refuse to take action on global warming despite ominous scientific data on its potential consequences.

Observing the divisiveness that exists in state and national politics today, More said politicians could learn a great deal from the Weeks Act. Weeks, a Republican, worked with members of both parties and people of varying interests to build consensus around a piece of legislation that continues to benefit the entire nation.

“Other than it’s obvious results, which is an enormous amount of land which has been set aside for forest reserves, the other significance is that it’s an example of how people can come together across party lines and across regional differences and accomplish something important,” More said. “I think it has tremendous resonance.”

For a complete history of the Weeks Act, along with a schedule of events and lectures pertaining to the centennial celebration, visit www.plymouth.edu/gallery and click on the link for the “Protecting the Forests” exhibit. Other resources are available at www.weekslegacy.org, www.whitemountainhistory.org, or www.fs.fed.us.