A forestry law pushed by civic and business leaders in Asheville one hundred years ago is being celebrated today. The Weeks Act allowed the federal government to purchase private land for the establishment of National Forests. sg
James Lewis is a historian at The Forest History Society. He says what started in Asheville has grown to almost 20 million acres nationwide.
" If you look at a map of the eastern United States and you look at where the Appalachian Mountains are, you would see National Forests running right down over top of the Appalachian Mountains and that's what the Weeks Act has helped create, those eastern National Forests."
Lewis says North Carolina is home to four National Forests totaling 1.25 million acres.
