822 



AMERICAN FORESTRY 



An honest and able administration of 

 such a law in New York at present, if 

 it escapes cu:h legal garbling, would 

 successtully prevent the cutting of 

 classes of timber not intended by the 

 Constitution. 



But the greatest difficulty remains. 

 Fire killed timber, if it stanis in larg2 

 enough areas, can be profitably logged. 

 Large conflagrations create such con- 

 ditions. Every few years there will oc- 

 cur periods of drought which will 

 create a fire hazard in the Adirondacks 

 that will tax the utmost resources of 

 the best production system to cope with. 

 There are many irresponsible persons 

 in such regions who would probably 

 be tempted to set fire to the woods at 

 such times, since the result would be to 

 stimulate industry and provide them 

 with openings for employment during 

 the following winter. Deliberate in- 

 cendiarism occurring in thinly popu- 

 lated regions is a difficult problem to 

 cope with. The incendiary is usually 

 able to escape detection. Here again, 

 a vigilant and thorough protection force 

 might prevent such results. 



But in adopting this provision the 

 State of New York would be deliber- 

 ately creating an extra moral fire haz- 

 ard which more than offsets the pos- 

 sible advantage of salvaging dead tim- 

 ber. If the Constitutional Convention 

 believes that it cannot trust the State 

 forest administration to properly con- 

 trol the cutting of green timber to pre- 

 vent damage to the forest, it would be 

 unwise to burden the same administra- 

 tion with the heavy responsibility of a 



"dead and down" timber clause. The 

 Convention should either permit regu- 

 lated cutting of both live and dead tim- 

 ber or prevent it altogether. 



The prejudice against permitting cut- 

 ting of green timber is deeply ingrained 

 in the minds of New York citizens, due 

 to distrust of her politicians. The sit- 

 uation demands the complete elimina- 

 tion of politics from the management 

 of the State forest lands. Should the 

 convention be able to accomplish this, 

 they need no longer hesitate to permit 

 cutting. On the Minnesota National 

 Forest, the timber around the shores of 

 the lakes and other points accessible to 

 the public is preserved and protected 

 although the Forest Service has the 

 technical right to cut and remove it. 

 Areas of especial value can be so clas- 

 sified, and preserved in their primitive 

 condition. The remaining areas, unac- 

 cessible to the public, can be logged by 

 methods which preserve the forest 

 cover, secure reproduction and prevent 

 waste from decay. These methods 

 have been fully demonstrated on the 

 National Forests. Must New York, 

 through timidity, close her eyes to pro- 

 gress, and either lock up her forest re- 

 sources, or imperil them with ill con- 

 sidered half measures? Now is the 

 time for the State to establish a sane 

 and orderly administration which will 

 bring the Adirondack forests to a plane 

 equal to that of the wonderful Black 

 Forest of Germany, which, while serv- 

 ing as the recreation ground for the 

 entire region, supports hundreds of vil- 

 lages and thousands of persons depen- 

 dent entirely on the forest industries 

 for their existence. 



$10,000,000 MORE FOR FOREST RESERVES 



ON WEDNESDAY, September 

 22, members of the American 

 Forestry Association and dele- 

 gates of various Forestry Socie- 

 ties, Boards of Trade, Chambers of 

 Commerce and other organizations of 

 the New England and Southern Appa- 

 lachian States will appear before Secre- 

 tary of Agriculture Houston at 



Washington in conference. They will 

 ask the Secretary to recommend to 

 Congress the passage of a bill providing 

 for an appropriation of $10,000,000 to 

 be expended at the rate of $2,000,000 a 

 year for five years in the purchase, 

 under the Weeks Act, of more Forest 

 Reserves in New England and in the 

 Southern Appalachians. 



