Conservation Commission tiZ 



methods do not mean denudation of the Adirondacks, or destruc- 

 tion of the forest cover. This annual growth of 250,000,000 

 feet is approximately one-quarter the entire lumber cut of the 

 State. It represents the amount that would be secured by clear 

 cutting each year approximately 25,000 acres of land. If cut 

 into inch boards there would be sufficient lumber to build a board 

 walk 160 feet wide from Albany to Buffalo. 



The discussion preliminary to the establishment of the Forest 

 Preserve indicates that its purpose was to provide for a future 

 supply of timber, and to serve as a protection to the headwaters 

 of streams, also for resort and recreation purposes; but all these 

 ends could be accomplished, and at the same time the growth of 

 the timber be utilized. The present constitution, however, prac- 

 tically prevents any use of this great area. Article VII, section 7, 

 of the State Constitution, reads as follows: 



"All lands now owned or hereafter acquired constituting 

 the forest preserve, as now denned by law, shall be forever 

 kept as wild forest lands, they shall not be leased, sold or 

 exchanged, or taken by any corporation, public or private, 

 nor shall the timber thereon be sold, removed or destroyed." 



During the two decades since that provision was adopted im- 

 portant economic, industrial and administrative changes have 

 taken place. At that time there was but a slight appreciation of 

 the importance of scientific forestry; there was not a single 

 American school of forestry, and probably not more than five pro- 

 fessional foresters in the whole country. The forests were then 

 generally considered as something the maximum quantity of which 

 was fixed and not capable of reproduction or increase by growth. 

 The area included has increased from 720,744 acres to more than 

 1,800,000 acres; our population has grown from 6,000,000 to 

 9,000,000 people. It is, therefore, apparent that the prohibition 

 was made at a time when there was but 40 per cent, of the present 

 area, 60 per cent, of the present population, and when the quan- 

 tity of material affected was but a small part of the whole. How- 

 ever, at the present time, the timber on State land is a large por- 

 tion of our total forest resources. It is estimated that the amount 

 of standing timber in the Forest Preserve counties in 1894 was 

 3 



