FORESTRY IN THE STATE OF NEW YORK 



By Mary Cynthia Dickerson 



Introductory Note: It chances that the American Museum, for the main part zoological 

 and anthropological, has a practical interest in the forests of North America and their conservation. 

 This interest is founded on the fact that some thirty years ago, in the pioneer days of the forestry 

 movement, the former president of the American Museum, Morris K. Jesup, created here a depart- 

 ment of woods and forestry and installed the greatest collection of tree specimens in the world, the 

 Jesup Collection of North American Woods. 



We are to-day reminded of Mr. Jesup's interest in forestry, not alone by Mrs. Jesup's recent be- 

 quest to the Museum which calls to mind all of her husVjand's long devotion to the institution, 

 but also emphatically by the present condition of forestry in the state. If the forest reserves of 

 to-day had existed in Mr. Jesup's time, he would have been filled with rejoicing at so great a con- 

 siunmation of his desires. He urged that various forested lands be set aside as state forests, espe- 

 cially certain areas in the Adirondacks controlling the watershed of the Hudson. His words are on 

 record: "A wise and comprehensive state policy will seize upon the whole forest region [known as 

 the Adirondack Wilderness] and keep it for all time as a great forest preserve and in this way 

 insure abundant water to the Hudson . . " Mr. Jesup strove for this. He argued the matter 

 before the Chamber of Commerce (1883) and even went to Albany and made personal appeal before 

 a special committee of the Senate. He explained how forests store up rainfall, keeping it from 

 evaporation and particularly the melting snows of high mountain ridges, and thus provide constant 

 and equal water supply to the rivers which have their sources in the region. As a result of the 

 campaign that he inaugiirated, a law was passed creating an Adirondack preserve (1885). 



r 



lORESTRY in the state of New 

 York is flourishing everywhere 

 except in the woods," was 

 Gifford Pinehot's introduction to an 

 address on the Adirondack forests be- 

 fore the Camp Fire Club of America 

 in 1911. This introduction was fol- 

 lowed by an onslaught of facts in 

 which non-use of the state's holdings in 

 the Adirondack region combined with 

 fires on these holdings, and bad logging 

 and needless destruction combined with 

 fires on the holdings in the hands of 

 lumber companies and private individ- 

 uals made out a very poor showing for 

 New York. In the three years since 

 that time there has been definite im- 

 provement, yet the condition of forestry 

 in the state has been unusual from the 

 first and has truly flourished more in 

 clubs, associations, commissions and 

 even in legislatures than "in the woods." 

 More than 1,800,000 acres of land 

 constitute the forest reserves of New 



York State to-day.^ This is more than 

 any other state has set aside, Penn- 

 sylvania of pioneer interest and largely 

 responsible for the movement in other 

 states, coming nearest with 983,529 acres. 

 Notwithstanding the satisfaction to 

 be felt at this relatively large acquisition 

 of state lands, a vigorous campaign has 

 recently been waged and is still in prog- 

 ress to bring about various changes in 

 the laws of the state, for the greatest 

 hindrance immediately in the way of 

 progress is a matter of legislation. In 

 1894 laws were passed prohibiting all 

 direct use of the state reserves. The 

 Constitution reads as follows (Section 7 

 of Article 7) : " The lands of the state, 

 now owned or hereafter acquired, con- 

 stituting the forest preserve as now fixed 

 by law, shall be forever kept as wild for- 

 est lands. They shall not be leased, sold 



» 1,825,833 acres, in 6,850 parcels. Report of 

 the New York Conservation Commission, Janu- 

 ary 1, 1914. 



221 



