Introduced by Massachusetts Congressman John W. Weeks and signed into law by President William Howard Taft, the law authorized the United States Secretary of Agriculture to "Examine, locate and recommend for purchase ... such lands within the watersheds of navigable streams as ... may be necessary to the regulation of flow of navigable streams...." This meant that the federal government would be able to purchase private land if the purchase was deemed necessary to protect rivers' and watersheds' headwaters in the eastern United States.
[2] The Weeks Act also provided measures for more cooperation between federal and state governments in regard to fire control.
[3] The Weeks Act also authorized establishment of the National Forest Reservation Commission to consider and approve purchase of these identified lands.
The commission was composed of the secretaries of the Interior, Agriculture, and War (for the Corps of Engineers), as well as two members each from the House and Senate.
The Weeks Act was involved in the United States Forest Service v. Cowpasture River Preservation Assn.