Mount Washington Observatory Weeks Act Centennial Lecture Series
Heralded as one of the most successful pieces of conservation legislation ever passed, the Weeks Act has helped to protect nearly 20 million acres of forestland—including our beloved White Mountain National Forest.
Join us this summer for a special lecture series commemorating the signing of this act, and exploring the past, present and future of our national forests. This free series will be held at the Mount Washington Observatory Weather Discovery Center in North Conway on six successive Tuesday nights in July and August. All programs begin at 7pm.
The Series is presented by the Mount Washington Observatory and its Gladys Brooks Memorial Library, with the cooperation of the Center for Rural Partnerships, Plymouth State University, and in partnership with North Conway Public Library, the Conway Historical Society, the Jackson Historical Society, and the Bartlett Historical Society.
Generous support for the Lecture Series has been provided by the New Hampshire Humanities Council.
Additional support for the Series has been provided by The Pequawket Foundation Advised Fund of the New Hampshire Charitable Foundation.
Schedule
Tuesday, July 12
Rebecca Weeks Sherrill More (Adjunct Assistant Professor of History, Brown University)
The Impact of North Country Community and Collaboration in the Weeks Act of 1911
This program will focus on the impact of the North Country of New Hampshire on the passage of the Weeks Act in 1911. The Weeks Act may carry the name of its primary sponsor through the legislative process in the US House of Representatives, however, as then Senator John Wingate Weeks himself said to the SPNHF in 1915, "It was not passed by one man or any half dozen men...." The Act was the result of patient collaboration and compromise by a wide constituency of individuals and public and private organizations, from federal and state legislatures (north and south) to interstate business interests, regional hiking groups, women's associations, garden clubs, and granges.
Specifically, the talk will address how the northern New Hampshire community of Lancaster influenced John Wingate Weeks's commitment to public service and his ability to facilitate the resolution of conflict to achieve a beneficial result for all.
Tuesday, July 19
Tom Wagner, Supervisor (White Mountain National Forest)
100 Years of Public Land Management
This program outlines four periods of public land management in the east and links them to important societal trends that were occurring in the United States at the time. The lecture makes the case for how public land management has changed in response to economic, social, environmental and political factors in the last 100 years and uses Presidential State of the Union speeches to help illustrate his points. Forest Supervisor Wagner reinforces, from his experience as a practitioner, the importance of people from diverse backgrounds and viewpoints working together in a similar fashion to that established by citizens in the passage of the Weeks Act.
Tuesday, July 26
Mark Okrant (Professor of Tourism Management, Director of the Institute for New Hampshire Studies, Plymouth State University)
Two Centuries of Tourism in the White Mountains: A Region Comes Full Circle
Tourism educator, researcher and author Mark Okrant investigates the last two centuries of tourism development in the White Mountains. Examining historic and contemporary settings, Okrant will depict how tourism has shaped the region and, in turn, how transportation innovation and efforts such as the Weeks Act have shaped the area's tourism industry.
Tuesday, August 2
David Govatski (U.S. Forest Service, retired; Board of Directors, whitemountainhistory.org)
The Weeks Act and the Creation of the White Mountain National Forest
A century ago the White Mountain region looked considerably different. Most of the forest cover had been cut down, and many acres had been blackened by fires. The scenic beauty was marred for summer visitors, silt from eroding hillsides harmed water supplies, and saw mills were running out of wood. Drastic action was needed to restore the forest.
Congressman John Wingate Weeks played a key role in protecting the White Mountains from further damage, sponsoring what has been called "one of the most important Forest conservation bills in United States history." This law gave the federal government the resources to protect regional forest ecosystems, and led to the creation of the White Mountain National Forest.
This presentation will celebrate the legacy of the Weeks Act, and will feature historic photos of the early days of the White Mountain National Forest, including the forest fires and extensive logging that led to the Act. Participants can learn of the amazing restoration of this rugged mountain region and consider what the next hundred years may hold.
Tuesday, August 9
Linda Upham-Bornstein (Graduate Adjunct Faculty, Plymouth State University)
Working Forests: From Market Revolution to Industrialization
The presentation will examine the seemingly conflicting perspectives of the conservationist and the industrialist in New Hampshire's Northern Forest. The Northern Forest has functioned as a provider of necessities and an economic resource since colonial settlement. By 1870, there were some 640 sawmills alone across the region, transforming the landscape. The 1911 Weeks Act found the middle ground between conservation forces and economic demands, creating a legal framework and relationship that allows the forest to continue to preserve the landscape and the needs of the forest products industry.
Tuesday, August 16
Marcia Schmidt Blaine, Associate Professor of History, Plymouth State University
Saving the Mountains: Joseph B. Walker, Phillip Ayers, and the Weeks Act of 1911
In 2011, New Hampshire and the nation celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Weeks Act, an act that authorized the federal government to purchase and maintain land in the eastern U.S. as national forests. Where mountains and forests met, tourist, timber, hotel, railroad, mining, textile, and agricultural groups competed to have the landscape and its resources meet their needs. The mountain forests appeared in danger of annihilation. How could the seemingly competing goals of logging interests and conservationists be reconciled? Was scenery of value? In the mountains of New Hampshire, the arguments met reality.
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