About Forests & People -- National Forests Grow

Congressional Directions

Growing on a rock foundation

Congress is not an institution that takes kindly to an agency in the Executive Branch gaining clout.  Soon the legislators noticed the Forest Service was selling stuff, timber, animal-unit-months of grazing privileges, permits for special uses within the National Forests.  Furthermore, the agency was using that money to do development work on the Forests, like build roads and trails, fire lookouts, ranger stations, planting trees, all those sorts of things.  Worst of all, they were doing it without Congressional permission, they didn’t need it, the agency had its own money.  Well, Congress needed to fix that, and they did.  A new law was passed in March, 1907 saying any money the Forest Service took in would go directly to the United States Treasury, Congress would allocate the budget for Forest Service operations, not the money the agency got from selling timber and grass.

That is an important and good thing for all of us, however frustrating it may be to the Forest Service.  It is good because it set the stage so the Forest Service proposed projects (timber harvesting, roads, campgrounds, essentially everything it does) in an annual budget and Congress would approve or change the agencies budget and that is what gets done.  If the agency had been allowed to use the money it generated to do projects there would be the temptation to put too much emphasis on bringing in money from things like timber sales and grazing fees and ignore the other forest uses, like wildlife habitat, fisheries, scenic beauty, water quality and recreation.  Congress did good.  But, more important, because Congress represents all of us and the annual budget, for the National Forests, and everything else, is a statement of what is important to America, it gives we people a say in how these National Forests are managed and what they should produce.

All things need maintenance and adjustment, the same goes for laws, in 1908 Congress passed the Twenty-Five Percent Fund Act.  This directs that 25% of the money coming from sale of National Forest  timber, grazing privileges, special use permits, etc. will go to the counties where a National Forest is located.  The money is for schools and roads and helps make up for the fact that Federal lands do not pay county property taxes.  These funds have been important to a lot of counties.  However, times have changed, the 25% doesn’t go as far these days, Congress needs to change the formula and it’s difficult for them to do.

A really good thing Congress passed was the Knutson-Vandenberg Act (K-V Act) in 1930.  This law authorized the Forest Service to establish forest tree nurseries and plant trees.  To pay for this, the agency could collect money from the sale of timber to replant harvested areas and keep the nurseries going.  That is looking-ahead and doing a good thing for all of us now and for future generations.  Otherwise, it is hard to plunk down the dollars to plant trees that will take a hundred years or more to be ready for harvest.

National Forests in the East

Roaring runoff  - May 4, 2015

Almost every year Congress passes laws giving management direction for the National Forests.  The Weeks Act of 1911 was one of them.  It authorized the government to purchase private land to become National Forest.  The idea was to pay market price for logged-over land, mined land and eroding farm land, designate it as National Forest and manage it to protect the headwaters of navigable streams.  This law was used mainly in Eastern states to create National Forests where there was no Public Domain, all the land had become private ownership long before.  Most of the National Forests in the East were established from purchases under the Weeks Act during the 1920’s and 1930’s, but some purchasing has continued.  At the beginning of the 21st century, 23 eastern states had 50 National Forests with a total of 24 million acres.   Over the years The Weeks Act has been a very successful program with public support.  These Eastern National Forest lands became places where natural beauty is; and productive forests, providing the public with outdoor recreation, clean water, wildlife habitat and a continuing flow of forest products.