FOREST, FISH AND GAME COMMISSIONER. 3 5 



Lands Contracted For, Not Yet Conveyed 



Adirondack Preserve 24 , 648 



Catskill Preserve 19 , 295 



43-943 



Total acreage owned and contracted for 1 , 655 , 760 



In former reports we have laid much stress on the importance of our 

 forests and especially on the necessity for their preservation and proper 

 use. As timber in the country decreases, its value increases and its impor- 

 tance as a conservator of water supply more clearly appears. Many things 

 have transpired during the year just closed to especially call our attention 

 more pointedly, than ever before, to these matters. 



During the year 1908, two notable conferences were held at Washington, 

 presided over by the President of the United States. These conferences 

 were attended by nearly all the Governors of the States, members of the 

 Supreme Court of the United States, Cabinet officers, United States Senators, 

 and members of Congress, presidents of colleges, agricultural and forestry 

 schools, engineers, representatives of scientific societies, and many others, 

 among whom were such notable personages as Mr. J.J. Hill and Mr. Andrew 

 Carnegie. The facts produced and discussed by learned men at those 

 conferences attracted the attention and startled the whole citizenship of 

 this Republic. Through discussion had there, the reports on facts collected 

 by the National Conservation Commission, by the efforts of its members and 

 State departments, all who read have been made aware of the importance 

 and value of our national resources. The people are becoming cognizant 

 of the ominous conditions prevalent on every hand, the rapid diminution, 

 the threatened shortage and the disastrous results that invariably follow the 

 destruction of a country's forests. 



Then, too, during the last summer and autumn, a long protracted drought 

 prevailed. The water in many streams dried up, fires sprang up everywhere 

 as by magic, the timber growth on forest land, in spite of the most strenuous 

 efforts to protect it, was destroyed and millions of dollars worth of woodland 

 property was devastated. Hardly a State, or county in any State, escaped 

 without some loss. In the Catskill and Adirondack regions more than 

 $800,000 worth of damage was done, with a large resulting injury to refor- 



