FORESTRY AND RECREATION IN THE PALISADES 



INTERSTATE PARK 



BY GEORGE W. PERKINS, PRESIDENT 



COMMISSIONERS OF THE PALISADES INTERSTATE PARK, STATE OF NEW YORK 



FORESTRY has come to have a new meaning. Hap- 

 pily, no longer is the conception of American 

 forestry limited to the commercial production of 

 lumber. As Dean Hugh P. Baker, of the New York 



State College of Forestry, _^___ 



has recently remarked, the 

 broader conception of for- 

 estry must ultimately em- 

 brace the social uses of 

 forest domains for the 

 health and recreational 

 benefits they can yield. 

 This ideal of forestry 

 is one not new to the 

 Commissioners of the Pali- 

 sades Interstate Park, for 

 they have, in their admin- 

 istration of this public 

 park, applied, in a practi- 

 cal manner, the very heart 

 of this broad and deeper 

 meaning. The conservation movement, as an organized 

 effort to preserve for economic and other reasons the 

 natural resources, was new when the trap rock interests 



Mr. George W. Perkins, the author of this article, has 

 for more than twenty years been the president of the 

 New York State Commissioners of the Palisades Inter- 

 state Park. Despite his great interest in politics, finance 

 and social endeavor, Mr. Perkins has personally directed 

 the acquisition and utilization of the Palisades Park area. 

 In this development he has, in addition to his own gener- 

 ous donations to the work, raised millions of dollars 

 from private sources, to carry this interesting project 

 forward. 



Mr. Perkins' description of the use of various lands 

 is a timely one and will provoke much thought in forestry 

 circles. It will be remembered that it was Mr. Perkins 

 who supported Mr. Roosevelt, who gave such an impetus 

 to the whole conservation movement. Editor. 



began to destroy the historic and ancient headlands, 

 which for twelve miles adorn the west shore of the 

 Hudson River from Fort Lee, opposite 129th Street, 

 New York, to Piermont, N. Y. A writer, in Puck, many 



years ago said that if the 

 Sphynx was situated on 

 the west shore ot the 

 Hudson, the stone interests 

 would not have hesitated to 

 blast it to pieces to sell it 

 by the yard ! Had it not 

 been for the interest of a 

 group of people, these 

 rocky embattlements, which 

 are said by naturalists to 

 have attained the ripe old 

 age of thirty million years 

 (and for all that still look 

 young and hardy!), would 

 have been reduced to the 

 squalid docks, factories and 

 dwellings which, on the south side of it, present such 

 an ugly contrast to the region north, which was saved. It 

 will always be said, to the lasting credit of the late 





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A PATH OX THE PALISADES 



Juit ten minutes from Broadway yes, unbelievable as this sounds, it is true and the region is becoming a familiar one to the people of New 

 York. The Park offers varied opportunities to the pleasure seeker strenuous exercise or the quiet enjoyment of all that there is of beauty. 



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