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unprotected because the appointing appointing powers are squabbling over "who shall be appointed;" so long as the political machines of the counties dictate the appointment of rangers and guards, it is unsafe to remove the present constitutional provision that prohibits the cutting of timber on the preserves.

Are the citizens of New York going to continue to withhold their valuable preserves from forest management because they dare not trust them to the men whom they themselves put in charge? Are the citizens of New York going to prohibit a sane management of 1,600,000 acres of forest property, which means the absolute waste of millions of dollars belonging to the State, because they cannot trust themselves to the proper management of this property? I believe that they are not. I do believe that they will take the wiser course and annul the present constitutional restrictions that prevent the cutting of timber and the organization of the preserves for forest management. At the same time, however, I believe they will guard them by constitutional provisions which absolutely remove them from party spoils or political control.

Many people in New York are very skeptical as to the possibility of removing the preserves from under the damnable and blighting influence of party spoils. If I thought for a moment that this could not be done, I should say, let the present constitutional provision. remain as it is; let the timber rot on the ground; let the forests remain unthinned; let them go unmanaged until the citizens of the State feel that they can trust themselves to adequately protect and manage their own property. If the people of New York want to remove the preserves from political control and management, if the people of New York want to improve the preserves and make them more fully serve the public, they can do so. All that it is necessary for them to do is to formulate a sound forest policy and stand solidly behind the forest officials in the maintenance and improvement of the forests.

It is my purpose to set forth in as

direct and clear a manner as I am able what it is necessary for New York to do in order that she may safely remove the present constitutional restriction to the cutting of timber and the proper management of the forest preserves.

1. She must create a State Forest Service. There should be a department of forests separate from the administration of waters, fish and game or any other resource. Past experience in many States has clearly demonstrated that wherever forestry is combined with the administration of fish, game and other resources but little progress has been made in forestry. Oregon tried it, but it was soon abandoned for an independent department. West Virginia and Alabama have the administration of their forests combined with the administration of other resources and largely because of it have made little or no progress in forestry in recent years. New York is the most conspicuous example of this wretched policy. The writer has been a careful student of the progress of forestry in New York for nearly two decades and freely admits that the situation is worse to-day than at any other time during the past decade. If the citizens of New York desire an improvement over the present, the very first thing necessary is the creation of an independent State forest service.

All of the States that are moving forward in forestry have independent forestry departments. Such departments now exist in Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, New Jersey. Maryland, Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Kentucky, Tennessee, North Carolina, Washington, Oregon and California. I beg to ask the question, "Is it not time that New York with her splendid forest preserves, now the prey of political spoils, turned to her little neighbors, Vermont and New Hampshire, and learned how they, with meager appropriations, are moving forward at a rapid pace in the administration of their forests?"

The present Conservation Commission of New York has, in the judgment of the writer, been able to ac

complish little in forestry. How can it? The Commission is charged with such broad duties that they have no time to initiate and little time to carry out the work. Water power, water supply, drainage, fish production, fish and game protection, as well as all land and forest matters, OCcupy its time. It is so large that it clogs with work. The men can have no first-hand knowledge. The administration has been made more ineffective by cutting down of the appropriations; $50,000 in fire protection and $10,000 in reforestation work in 1914.

2. The State Forest Service must be in charge of five persons known as Commissioners.

Selection of a Commission. The Association for the Protection of the Adirondacks, the Empire State Forest Products Association, and the New York State Forestry Association shall each select one member. The Governor of the State shall appoint two commissioners, one of whom shall be a regularly appointed and serving professor of forestry in a college or university of the State, and the other shall be a business man not engaged in the manufacturing of wood, lumber or its products. Any such commissioner not already receiving a salary paid by the State shall be entitled to pay for his services at the rate of $15 per day for time actually employed, but during no fiscal year to exceed $500 each.

The terms of office of the commissioners should be so arranged at the outset as to expire at different times, and also so arranged that neither the whole commission nor a majority of its members change in any year. All commissioners shall be entitled to their necessary expenses incurred in the discharge of their official duties. Each commissioner shall file with the State Comptroller a bond with sufficient surety to the amount of $10,000.

Such a commission would be nonpolitical in character; personal interests would be avoided; public interest would predominate; such a commission would ensure safety in the management of the State preserves under a rational forest. policy. Experience shows that New

York is getting the service of her greatest men as members of her Board of Regents for the benefit of education. She is also getting the best of her men and women as members of charitable boards to look after these institutions. This shows what can be done when people, who are unselfish, are interested. What is going on in education and charity can take place in forestry if a similar organization is adopted. What the situation needs is the services of a commission of big, free men, nonpartisan and public spirited, who can put into effect and maintain a rational forest policy.

Powers of the Commission.

1. They shall elect one of their members chairman and another vice-chairman. Such officers shall continue in office one year or until their successors are elected.

2. They shall appoint a State Forester who shall act as secretary of the board. He shall be a technically trained forester, a graduate of a forest school, which offers not less than a four-year undergraduate or a two-year graduate course in forestry, and shall have had not less than five years' experience in practical forestry. His salary shall be $4,000 per annum. The State Forester shall serve at the option of the State Forestry Commission. He shall be provided with suitable offices and allowed necessary traveling expenses while on official business.

3. They may designate two of their number to act with the chairman of the Commission as an Executive Committee. Said committee shall have power to act on such matters as may be designated by the Commission.

4. Meetings shall be held once each month and at such other times as may be called by the chairman or requested by a majority of the Commission.

5. They shall have the care, control and supervision of the forest preserves and all parks and reservations herein described.

6. They shall make all necessary rules and regulations for the enforcement of the provision of this article, and when any such rules are filed in the

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office of the Secretary of State and have been posted for not less than thirty days in the town or towns where they apply, then such rules shall have the same effect as a law in that respect.

7. They shall administer all laws relating to forest culture and reforesta

tion.

8. They shall publish from time to time pamphlets and circulars of instruction relative to the care, use, management and protection of forests and woodlands.

9. They shall have power to issue licenses to persons engaged in business in the preserves and public parks of the State herein described on such terms and conditions as it may impose.

10. They shall conduct investigations as to methods of reforestation; control and prevention of forest fires; growth studies; yield tables; or otherwise to secure competent information required in forestry practice, and to issue publications thereon.

11. They shall have power under the provisions of this act, subject to the approval of the Governor, to purchase lands, forests and rights in timber within the forest preserve counties of the State.

12. They shall have all the powers relating to the forest preserves and the State parks which were vested in the Forest Purchasing Board and in the Forest, Fish and Game Commission on the twelfth day of July, nineteen hundred and eleven.

13. They shall have the power to receive and accept in the name of the people of the State, by gift or devise, the fee or other estate therein of land for forest preserve or forestry purposes, and also to receive or accept by gift, contribution or bequest, moneys to be used in acquiring or improving real estate for such purposes.

14. They shall have the power to dispose of timber under prescribed regulations, issue leases for camp sites and business undertakings on the preserves and employ such other means of developing revenue as are consistent with the best forest practice, but all such powers shall be subject to the approval of the Governor.

15. They shall have the power to apply all receipts from the sale of timber and other resources toward the purchase of land within the boundaries of the preserves and the general improvement of the forests.

Powers of the State Forester.

Under the common form of State forest organization as outlined above, the powers of the State Forester should remain substantially as in the present law. The following paragraph, however, should be added:

All appointments in the State Forest Service shall be made under the recommendation of the State Forester and from the Civil Service lists.

The State Forest Fire Service.

The laws relating to forest fires should remain practically as they are with the exception that they be amended. to apply to all parts of the State where the Commission decides that forest interests demand such application. New York is in the peculiar position of having a modern system of forest fire laws which apply to only a portion of the forests in the State. The forest property outside the Adirondack and Catskill districts is fully as valuable as that within.

Other Changes in the Present Conservation Law.

The following sections of article 4 of the present conservation law should remain as they are: Sections 50–54 inclusive; 59; 61-88 inclusive; 90-109 inclusive. Sections 55-58 inclusive and section 60 relating to the powers of the Commission should be repealed; also section 89 relating to the exemption of reforested lands from taxation. The latter part of section 94 should be changed, charging one-half of expense of fire fighting to all the fire towns pro rata according to assessed valuation. This will tend to equalize the expense. Changes in the Constitution Recom

mended Under a Commission Plan. In order to bring about the many changes here discussed, which the writer believes highly desirable in order to develop an efficient State Fore

Service in New York, it is necessary to amend article VII of the State Constitution by inserting a new section to bet known as section 7-a to read as follows:

Section 7-a. The prohibition of section 7 shall not prevent the cutting or removal of mature, dead or fallen timber or trees detrimental to forest growth on lands constituting the forest. preserves, nor the leasing of camp sites, nor the construction of roads and fire trails. The Legislature may authorize the sale of lands outside the limits of the Adirondack park and of the Catskill park, as such parks are now established by law.

The proceeds of such sales of lands and all other net revenue from the forest preserves shall be set apart in a separate fund and shall be used for the purchase of lands by the State in the Adirondack and Catskill parks, for the reforestation of lands owned by the State in said parks, and for such other purposes for the improvement of forest in said parks as the Commission shall provide.

The forests of the State shall be under the care and management of a Commission of five Commissioners, called the Forest Commission. The Commission shall not be charged with any public duties except those which relate to the forests, and it shall appoint all officers and employees engaged in the service of the Commission from the Civil Service lists.

The Empire State Forest Products Association, the Association for the Protection of the Adirondacks, and the New York State Forestry Association shall each select one commissioner. The Governor of the State shall appoint two commissioners, one of whom shall be a regularly appointed professor of forestry in a college or university of the State, and the other shall be a business man not engaged in the manufacture of wood or other forest products.

Action may be brought by any citizen. to enforce the provisions of this section and to prevent its violation, upon appli

cation to and approval by the Supreme Court.

With the above constitutional provision as a basis, the Legislature is in position to go forward and revise the present laws to conform with the recommendation.

Form of Resolution.

RESOLVED, That article VII, section 7 of the Constitution be amended by inserting a new section to be 7-a, to read as follows:

Section 7-a. The prohibition of section 7 shall not prevent the cutting or removal of mature, dead or fallen timber or trees detrimental to forest growth on lands constituting the forest preserve, nor the leasing of camp sites, nor the construction of roads and fire trails. The Legislature may authorize the sale of lands outside the limits of the Adirondack park and of the Catskill park as such parks are now established by law.

The proceeds of such sales of lands and all other net revenue from the forest preserve shall be set apart in a separate fund and shall be used for the purchase of lands by the State in the Adirondack and Catskill parks for the reforestation of lands owned by the State in said parks and for such other purposes for the benefit of the forest in said parks as the Commission shall provide.

The forests of the State shall be under the care and management of a commission of five commissioners, called the Forest Commission. The Commission shall not be charged with any public duties, except those which relate to the forests, and it shall appoint all officers and employees engaged in the service of the Commission from the Civil Service lists.

Action may be brought by any citizen to enforce the provisions of these sections and to prevent their violation, upon application to an approval by the Supreme Court.

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