PRIVATE FORESTRY MEASURES 25 



available, shall lead to forfeiture of the rights to these privileges, to 

 State administration of the holdings for a 10-year working period, 

 with costs -j- 4 per cent interest collected at the end thereof and, if the 

 public interest warrants it and the owner continues obstinate in his 

 mismanagement, to eventual expropriation. The New York law 

 today provides that land may be appropriated "for the protection and 

 conservation of the lands, forest, and waters within the State." 



The inspection, supervision, and control of these working plans and 

 of these properties, to carry out the scheme just proposed, requires 

 that there shall be established within the Conservation Commission 

 an office of Forest Management with a high-grade forester in charge. 

 To this office will fall the duties of : (1 ) Reviewing all working plans 

 submitted to it ; (2) advising owners as to any changes therein it deems 

 essential; (3) approval or rejection of the plans; (4) if approved, 

 then annual visits to each forest and inspection of the operations 

 thereon to make sure that the provisions of the working j^lan are 

 being observed and executed; (5) written approval or rejection of 

 departures from the plan; (6) revision or renewal of the plans at the 

 end of each 10-year working period, which will be greatly facilitated 

 if the owner keeps adequate control books, including a record of 

 cuttings and plantings; (7) in the event of failure to file a plan or if 

 the plan filed is rejected, this office must determine whether the public 

 interest requires that the State take over the management of the 

 property for the next working period; (8) if so, it falls to this office 

 to handle the property and to keep all records so that costs plus 

 interest may be levied at the expiration of the 10-year working period; 

 (9) in the event of continued obduracy, this office shall decide whether 

 to recommend the expropriation (appropriation) of the area in question. 



To do all this for 300 separate parcels of land will require a stafi' 

 of at least three extra foresters besides the head of the new office. 

 One man can not handle over 100 such parcels to advantage and the 

 chief of the office should be free to be a real executive. 



The areas to be covered under this plan are ai)proximately 2.002.000 

 acres in the Adirondacks, 102,000 acres in the Catskills, and T(i,000 

 acres in other parts of the State, making 2,180,000 acres altogether. 



Of course, where the forest is actually administered by this office, a 

 temporary supervisor must be appointed. In the two chief regions, the 

 district rangers and rangers can be of immense assistance in this respect. 



Expensive? Yes. The chief of the office of Forest Management 

 should receive $1,000, and i)referably $5,000, yearly, the three assist- 

 ants each $2,500, or preferably $3,000. With travel and incidentals, 

 this office 'will annually require between $15,000 and $20,000. But. 

 compared to the value of the resources involved, this is a mere drop 

 in the bucket. 



