FOREST, FISH AND GAME COMMISSIONER. igi 



In outlining definite policies, it seems wise to go slowly and carefully, 

 laying out only what can surely be done, conserving all elements in the 

 situation for the uses to which they may be put. If sentiment is the force 

 that is accumulating the forest preserve, let sentiment go on doing its 

 really good and far-reaching work. If the prohibition of cutting, though 

 illogical in itself, is y e t saving a stock of timber to be the basis of future 

 business activity, a stock of timber which has increased in value at such 

 a rate as to yield a handsome return on the money invested, by all means, 

 let us in the main, preserve the good that is in that policy. However, 

 encouragement to hope that at no very distant day the forest preserve of 

 New York State may come to be managed fully and logically as a forest 

 property, for all the uses which it may be made to subserve, is afforded 

 by the achievement of the U. S. Forest Service in managing the national 

 forests in the West, a problem as difficult in its circumstances and one 

 hundred times as large as our town. 



With this very brief treatment, the matter must rest for the present. 

 There are certain things that clearly need to be done at once and they are 

 perhaps enough to outline for the present. They are as follows: 



1. Adequate protection from fire of the forest preserve along with 

 other forest property in the region. 



2. The survey and demarkation of the boundaries of the State land, 

 and along with that the development of a map system to the basis of 

 future operations. 



3. The prosecution of some fundamental studies of a svlvicultural 

 nature, designed to yield information that must be at the basis of any ade- 

 quate and sound system of management. 



4. The training and knitting together of a force of men ample to 

 protect the forest for the present and ready when the time comes to assume 

 larger responsibility. 



5. It does seem that with the present force and fire protection system, 

 opportunity to cut and market dead, down and fire-killed timber could 

 be accorded safely and to advantage. 



