THE ADIRONDACK PROBLEM 57 



In another way also this section increases the danger of fire on State 

 lands. Substantially all of the recent State purchases consist of logged or 

 burned land, containing great quantities of dead and down brush and 

 timber. The removal of these fire traps is now forbidden by Section 7 

 and the danger from fire correspondingly increased. In some cases while gretu 

 quantities of timber are decaying on the ground, green trees are necessarily 

 cut at increased expense to supply the indispensable fuel. Already those who 

 live in villages surrounded by forests owned by the State, must pay excessive 

 prices for firewood brought in from private lands. 



Under this section the development of water power by storage on State 

 land is forbidden because it cannot be done without killing some trees. Thus 

 one of the principal resources of the State is kept unused, without any 

 corresponding benefit to the people. 



Section 7 forces the State to hold lands outside of the "blue line" boundary 

 of the Adirondack Park, which in many cases are far more valuable for 

 cultivation than as forest. It ought to be possible to exchange those small 

 isolated areas of State land, now merely a burden and expense, for land 

 inside the "blue line" which the State really needs for park purposes. 

 Some extension of the "blue line" is required, in order that it may enclose 

 all Adirondack forest lands whose protection is urgently needed for the 

 general welfare. 



When Section 7 of Article 7 was included in the Constitution, there was 

 good reason for doing so. At that time the recent history of the Adirondack 

 Park contained a malodorous series of transactions in which at every turn tke 

 State got the worst of it. Not without cause the people of the State came 

 to believe that the only way to save the Adirondacks from mis-use was to 

 forbid them to be used at all. 



PUBLIC SENTIMENT AROUSED 



The situation today is entirely changed. In my judgment, the people 

 of New York may now safely trust themselves to administer their own forest 

 property with honesty, sagacity, and skill. The State of New York now 

 has a forest department governed by safe standards of public service, and 

 actually accomplishing results of real public value. The supply of trained 

 foresters in the United States is fortunately sufficient to enable the State of 

 New York to build up the necessary force under the direction of the Superin- 

 tendent of Forests. Public sentiment is now generally aroused and informed 

 as to the value of the people's property in the Adirondacks, so that a repetition 

 of the old mismanagement has become impossible. To continue to lock up 

 the Adirondack Park against use will do no good and much harm. 



It is not as well known as it should be that Adirondack land may be, 

 lumbered and the product put to use, not only without injuring the forest, 

 but to the improvement of its condition and value. The public mind has 

 been somewhat confused by the unfortunate experiment on the Cornell lands 

 at Axton. The practice here was directly opposite to that on the Webb and 

 Whitney tracts above referred to. At Axton the logging destroyed the forest 



