FOREST MANAGEMENT 



By FRANK L. MOORE of Watertown, N. Y. 

 President Empire State Forest Products Association 



NATIONS, as they pass from one 

 decade to the next, have a mys- 

 terious way of imposing new 

 and added obligations upon each suc- 

 ceeding generation. It has been so from 

 the beginning and will be so until the 

 end. In measuring time from the be- 

 ginning it is comparatively but a few 

 years since the Pilgrims landed at Ply- 

 mouth Rock. Amazed at the richness 

 and vastness of the natural resources of 

 the country that lay before them, they 

 little realized that in a few short years 

 human hands and human ingenuity 

 would be called upon to control and 

 regulate those same resources from 

 which they carved out the foundation 

 of the richest nation in the world. 



To maintain the supremacy of our 

 Empire State we must bend every effort 

 to see that the vast natural resources 

 which lie within our boundaries are so 

 regulated and managed as to produce 

 the greatest amount of good for the 

 greatest number of people. 



The two great problems in this State 

 which confront us today are the prac- 

 tical management of our forest lands, 

 and the regulation and control of flood 

 waters. Reforest the land surrounding 

 the head-waters of our streams and na- 

 ture will do much to assist in regulating 

 their flow. 



As this is a Forestry meeting, I shall 

 endeavor to confine myself strictly to 

 the first problem, and that is, Forest 

 Management. For two centuries man 

 has been felling the forests of America 

 to make fields and to produce certain 

 articles manufactured from this timber. 



This State owns today 1,663,000 acres 

 of wild forest lands. Of this acreage, 

 according to the Superintendent of 

 Forests, there is available for reforesta- 

 tion about 125,000 acres. Of the bal- 

 ance, about 60,000 acres are water and 



the rest either virgin forest or partially 

 cut-over lands. 



Has it ever occurred to you that this 

 property was purchased by levying 

 taxes, of which you and I have paid 

 our proportion, and that we are de- 

 prived by the Constitution of this State 

 from receiving any return upon that in- 

 vestment? Is that Conservation? NO 

 it is Confiscation. You and I would 

 not tolerate that for a moment in any 

 enterprise in which we might be inter- 

 ested and we shall not solve the problem 

 by shunning it. 



Why should not the people, the real 

 owners of this vast estate, arise and de- 

 mand that its management be ad- 

 ministered so as to increase its value, 

 and at the same time yield annually a 

 revenue of millions of dollars? If this 

 is accomplished a direct tax will be un- 

 heard of. I am opposed to the State, 

 which means you and I, when we pay 

 our taxes, appropriating any more 

 money for the purchase of forest lands 

 under our present Constitution. In- 

 stead of allowing a maturing and ripe 

 crop to rot, the Constitution should be 

 so amended as to permit, under the 

 direct supervision of trained foresters, 

 the cutting of matured and down 

 timber. 



The great objection that is raised to 

 amending section 7 of article 7 of the 

 New York State Constitution to permit 

 the above, is that succeeding administra- 

 tions will sooner or later use it for 

 political purposes or for political re- 

 wards. To avoid this and to safeguard 

 it in every possible way, I would sug- 

 gest the appointment of an advisory 

 board to act in conjunction with the 

 Commissioner in direct charge of our 

 State forests ; also that the actual work 

 of cutting and removing the timber be 

 under the direct supervision of an ad- 



