View from Warspur Trail, Giles County
Virginia has two national forests, the George Washington National Forest and Jefferson National Forest. Both are located in the western mountains of the state.
The Federal Government acquired these lands under the Weeks Act of 1911. At that time, the role of the Federal goverenment was seen as much more limited than today after two world wars, the Great Depression, the Cold War, and various decisions of the Congress to assert Federal responsibilities and approval by the Supreme Court. The authority of the Federal government to purchase private property was not as generally accepted as today.
The Weeks Act clearly tied the creation of these forests to the Federal responsibility for interstate commerce, by identifying the land acquisition as necessary to protect headwaters of navigable rivers. The headwaters were far from the international ports east of the Fall Line, but managing the runoff from the headwaters would help, along with dredging, to maintain the depth of the commercial shipping channels.
The US Forest Service has consolidated administration and streamlined operations of the forest. Now there's only one forest supervisor and headquarters staff to administer the timber sales, recreation/wilderness management, habitat restoration, mineral development, and other activities... but there are still two separate names on the map, both honoring early Virginians who had only minimal concerns with forest conservation.
It's important to note that the bureaucracy responsible for national forests is in a separate department for the bureaucracy responsible for the national parks. The National Park Service is in the Department of the Interior; the US Forest Service is in the Department of Agriculture.
Virginia has a similar split in its administration of state parks and state forests, reflecting the different philosophy and management pbjectives for those pieces of land. State forests are administered by the Virginia Department of Forestry, which reports to the Secretary of Commerce and Trade. The Virginia State Parks are in the Department of Conservation and Recreation, which reports to the Secretary of Natural Resources. [Thirty years ago, Virginia had a combined Department of Conservation and Economic Development, but creating separate organizations made it easier to manage the inevitable tensions between those advocating preservation/conservation vs. economic growth.]
 sunlight reaching the ground under a mature forest canopy |
 minimal sunlight on forest floor under a closed canopy forest, showing why the mature forests have little "green stuff" on the ground (all the energy is intercepted by the trees and tree-climbing vines) |
 leaves intercepting sunlight in a mature forest canopy |