THE 



VOL. VI. 



OCTOBER, 1900. 



No. 10. 



ADIRONDACK FORESTRY PROBLEMS.* 



BY B. E. FERNO\V, 

 Director of the New York State College of Forestry. 



The main and fundamental question 

 connected with the Adirondack Mountain 

 forest, the problem of ownership, has 

 been practically settled by various acts of 

 the Legislature, namely, in 1885, when 

 the State determined to retain the lands 

 which it then owned and to administer 

 them through a Forest Commission ; in 

 1890, when the first act authorizing 

 the purchase of additional lands was 

 signed by a Democratic governor, with 

 the memorandum affixed that the act w r as 

 good but inadequate; and finally, in 1897, 

 when the Legislature and a Republican 

 governor constituted the Forest Preserve 

 Board and determined to acquire for the 

 State by purchase or otherwise control of 

 the entire region within an outline com- 

 prising three million acres, more or less, 

 or as much thereof as might appear de- 

 sirable. 



Thus the State of New York recognized 

 as a duty of the State and a fixed and 

 firmly established State policy the pro- 

 tection of its most important watershed 

 and of the forest cover thereon ; it recog- 

 nized that in State ownership lay the only 

 practicable assurance of its conservation. 



The acquisition of lands has proceeded 

 cautiously and slowly. Unfortunately the 

 State did not embrace the opportunity of 

 acquiring these lands at a low price when 

 it existed, and delay has had three unde- 

 sirable consequences : first, to raise prices ; 

 second, to allow a further decrease of vir- 



* Read at the meeting of the American For- 

 estry Association in New York, June 25th. 



gin forests and their deterioration by 

 wasteful logging, and third, to allow pri- 

 vate individuals and clubs to buy up 

 large tracts for game preserves. While, 

 at first sight, the passing of lands into con- 

 servative private ownership does not ap- 

 pear objectionable, inasmuch as a conser- 

 vative treatment of the forest cover may as 

 a rule be expected from such owners, 

 there is no absolute assurance of the con- 

 tinuance of such conservative treatment. 

 Besides, not only would public ownership 

 of the whole give more satisfaction to the 

 people at large, but in administering it the 

 State would be benefited by a consolida- 

 tion of its property. Even now the State 

 would not make a mistake, financially or 

 otherwise, if it were to settle the owner- 

 ship question at once, and acquire without 

 further delay the balance of what it in- 

 tends finally to own. 



The second problem is that of the ad- 

 ministration of the property. At first a 

 forest commission of three unpaid commis- 

 sioners was charged with the " care, cus- 

 tody, control and superintendence of the 

 forest preserve," and the law declared that 

 " it shall be the duty of the commission to 

 maintain and protect the forests now on the 

 forest preserve, and to promote as far as 

 practicable the further growth of forests 

 thereon"; also, that the commission 

 should "have charge of the public inter- 

 ests of the State with regard to forests 

 and tree planting, and especially with ref- 

 erence to forest fires in every part of the 

 State." 



