190 FIFTEENTH ANNUAL REPORT OF THE 



the provision that timber shall neither be sold, removed, nor destroyed is 

 a provision that in the abstract runs counter to all their ideas. The interests 

 referred to, scenic beauty and the regulation of water flow, they know 

 can be secured as well or better at the same time that the timber resources 

 are used. 



There is furthermore one remarkable word in the constitutional pro- 

 vision that strikes the forester forcibly. It is specified that the forest 

 preserve shall be maintained perpetually not only as forest but as wild 

 forest land. This word " wild " again has had various interpretations. 

 To the forester, it conveys an idea that is pleasing or the reverse, according 

 to the association in which it is used. Wilderness in a sense that a country 

 is too distant, rough or inclement for civilized men to occupy permanently, 

 is an idea that has standing, that appeals to all active and sturdy men. 

 But wilderness that is merely sentimental, the withdrawal of great areas 

 of land from the common and natural uses to maintain a wilderness that 

 is merely romantic is an idea which, to professional foresters, makes no 

 appeal. It may be possible, indeed, that that is what New York State 

 really wants of its forest preserve, but that is not what many at least have 

 supposed. It was thought rather, that New York in acquiring its magnifi- 

 cent forest preserve, was in alliance with the great forestry movement of 

 the country at large, was leading the way among the States in a move- 

 ment approved by civilized and progressive countries through the history 

 of mankind — State ownership of large tracts of permanent forest, on the 

 highlands, particularly, thus securing their permanence, for their various 

 uses — scenery, sport and the maintenance of water flow, no doubt — but 

 on the other hand for the production under scientific methods of supplies 

 of timber. 



This in the broad is the forester's view and from the outside its adoption 

 and embodiment would seem to be perfectly easy and simple. That this 

 is not the case, however, very little contact with the elements and forces 

 in the State demonstrates. There is a sort of sacredness attached to the 

 forest preserve. Some men seem not to consider that there might be a 

 public agency devoted solely to its interests, competent to meet and regu- 

 late these forces, working out steadily and wisely the plans that promote 

 the interest of the preserve and of the people as there embodied. 



