The tract is a total of about 40,000 acres, shown plainly 

 enough by the mountain contours on sheets of the United States 

 topographical survey — Milbrook and Copake in New York, Shef- 

 field and Cornwall in Massachusetts and Connecticut. It is im- 

 possible to put these four sheets together and escape the signifi- 

 cance of this mountain mass. [See map ojyposite page 6.] 



The area is divided into 20,000 acres in Massachusetts, 11,000 

 in Connecticut, and 9,000 in New York. The New York area 

 is not of any value by itself, but the western slopes are neces- 

 sary to afford adequate fire protection, and it is plainly impos- 

 sible for one of the three states alone to realize the potential 

 value of its share in the whole. 



The location of the proposed reservation makes the problem 

 somewhat difficult, because it is obvious that the greater part 

 of the public to use such a park will come from New York, while 

 the greater cost of acquisition and development must fall on 

 Connecticut and Massachusetts. There are at present no funds 

 available in Connecticut, either private or public, for land pur- 

 chase. Massachusetts has a forest purchase program, but vnW 

 normally proceed with more central areas first, and is limited 

 to $5. Connecticut has power, if the funds are available to 

 acquire forest land at $8 or less and parks at any figure re- 

 quired, plus the power of domain for park purposes. It is not 

 at all unlikely that Massachusetts and Connecticut will appro- 

 priate special funds for the Taconic Forest project, but neither 

 state is ready to appropriate large sums for use in another state, 

 or within its own borders for the use of the people of another 

 state. It is therefore necessary that private initiative supply 

 at least part of the funds necessary to insure the co-operation 

 of the three states. 



There is another superficial obstacle to complete co-opera- 

 tion by the three states in the varying policies to date of each 

 state. Massachusetts has no state parks — the Mt. Everett State 

 Reservation (800 acres within the Taconic tract) is actually a 

 state park, but is not so termed. Connecticut distinguishes 

 sharply between park and forest, and conceives the primary 

 purpose of the forest to be economic, including the growing and 

 harvesting of timber crops, while in New York the park and 

 forest theories are combined in such a way that the park use 

 predominates. The Taconic Forest, lying in three states, might 

 well be developed in such a way that each state would handle 

 its own product in timber, but with close co-operation in the 

 recreational features, and with certain areas reserved for park 

 purposes purely — including all the brooks, lakes and lookouts. 

 Eventually there should be a development of parkways con- 

 necting the park areas. 



78 



