144 UNITED STATES FOREST POLICY 



This increase in public interest is clearly seen, not only in many 

 journals and periodicals of the time, but in the progress made by 

 various states in forest matters, and in the formation of a number 

 of conservation commissions — state, inter-state, and national. 



STATE CONSERVATION ACTIVITY 



The interest shown by many of the states previous to 1891 has 

 already been noted. ^ In the period following that date, this state 

 activity increased greatly. In New York, where state forests had first 

 been provided for, a law was passed in 1897, authorizing the pur- 

 chase of additional forest lands, and a special agency, the Forest 

 Reserve Board, was established to carry this into execution.* Under 

 this law about $3,500,000 has been spent, and in 1907 over 1,500,000 

 acres had been added to the State Forest Reserve.* In 1900, Minne- 

 sota enacted a law providing for state forest reserves. In 1902, Massa- 

 chusetts acquired three state parks and placed a trained forester in 

 charge. The next year, Indiana appropriated to buy a small state 

 reservation, and in 1906, Maryland had four small reservations, gifts 

 from private individuals. 



Pennsylvania was one of the first states to undertake the purchase 

 of public forests. As a result of a persistent propaganda by the 

 Pennsylvania Forestry Association, a commission of inquiry was 

 instituted in 1887, and another in 1893. The legislature in 1895 

 provided for a Commissioner of Forestry, and two years later passed 

 an act providing for the purchase of state forest reservations. In 

 1908, nearly a million acres had been bought up under this law, and 

 the state was fast working out a system of efficient management.^ 



Wisconsin provided in 1897 for a forestry commission to draw up 

 a plan for the protection and utilization of the forest resources of 

 the state, and in 1905, the legislature passed a law setting aside all 



2 Cross Reference, pp. 33, 34, 96, 97. 



3 Fernow, "History of Forestry," 426. 



4 In 1894, a constitutional convention of New York adopted an article forever 

 prohibiting the cutting of trees on state lands, and the people ratified this action. 

 This has of course prevented the state from using these lands in a rational, business- 

 like way, and renders them valuable merely as a pleasure ground for wealthy 

 New Yorkers. {Proceedings, Am. Forestry Assoc, 1894-95-96, 32, 101: Outlook, 

 100, 729.) 



5 Report, Pa. Commissioner of Forestry, 1901-02, 11. 



