A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 759 



forest conservationists, who were trying to get Congress to allow the 

 practice of forestry on the Federal forest reserves, had the same qualms. 

 They were much inclined to have the job of administration turned over 

 to the Army, on the ground that only so could a professional spirit 

 and a reasonable expectation of honesty be assured. That the 

 citizens of New York should feel less distruct concerning what might 

 happen if their own civil servants should be entrusted with the busi- 

 ness of selling the State's timber, or any part of it, was hardly to be 

 expected. 



NEW YORK'S DECISION FOR THE ADIRONDACKS 



But besides these negative reasons against opening the Adirondack 

 forest to timber cutting, there was a powerful positive one. The 

 State was making up its own mind on what it wanted done and not 

 done. Early in the year 1890 the Governor of New York had placed 

 before the legislature the need for consolidating the State's scattered 

 holdings and had suggested that steps be taken to work out a plan 

 for a compact State park in the Adirondacks, from 50 to 70 miles 

 square. Thereupon the legislature directed the Forest Commission 

 to take the whole matter under consideration and make a report on 

 it. Public opinion rallied strongly behind the proposal. It soon 

 became evident that what the people of the State of New York 

 chiefly wanted was to have the Adirondack wilderness, with its 

 mountains, lakes, and woods, kept and maintained as a great recrea- 

 tion area, and that the public was inclined to regard timber utilization 

 of any kind as conflicting with this purpose. 



Governor Flower's term of office brought a showdown. He 

 advocated a policy designed to obtain from the State's holdings a 

 substantial revenue through sales of timber and through leasing 

 sites desirable for private residences and camps. The legislature, in 

 carrying out his recommendations, wiped out of existence the old 

 Forest Commission, set up a new commission of temporary character 

 with provision that after 5 years its powers and duties should pass to 

 the State department of agriculture, established the Adirondack 

 Park, authorized the sale of lands outside the park with use of the 

 proceeds for the purchase of lands within the park, and permitted the 

 Forest Commissioners to 



sell any spruce and tamarack timber which is not less than 12 inches in dia- 

 meter at a height of 3 feet above the ground, standing in any part of the 

 forest preserve, and poplar timber of such size as the Forest Commission may 

 determine 



and to lease within the Adirondack Park tracts of 5 acres or less 

 for the erection of camps or cottages; these proceeds also to go into 

 the land purchase fund. 



Governor Flower thought that in time the State should be able to 

 derive a large portion of its revenues from its forest properties. But 

 he had greatly mistaken the public temper. The criticism and pro- 

 test took organized form, and upon the convening, in 1894, of a con- 

 vention to revise the State constitution it brought about the incorpo- 

 ration in that instrument of an absolute prohibition of any cutting 

 of timber from the State lands, or of any leasing of these lands. 



The plans for selling timber from the New York Forest Preserve 

 drew sharp fire not only from those who were against utilizing the 



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