As persons unfamiliar with the history of the Forest Preserve in New York may wonder why the State does not utilize commercially the timber growing on State lands, it may not be inappropriate to conclude this report with a brief explanation of the reasons for the iron-clad restriction placed by the Constitution on the removal of State timber. The reason for this restriction is two-fold: First, it is not apparent that there are enough trained foresters yet available or that the problem of the conservative handling of State forest lands for commercial purposes is yet sufficiently understood to warrant the State in undertaking scientific forestry; and second, the citizens of the State are not confident that if the removal of timber were permitted, the people at large would derive any benefit from it.
1—Lack of Practical Men. At a public meeting held in the American Museum of Natural History in New York under the auspices of this Association on April 25, 1907, Professor Henry S. Graves, then Director of the School of Forestry at Yale University and now Chief Forester of the United States, speaking on the subject of scientific forestry on the State lands in New York, said: "It would be exceedingly difficult at the present time to secure trained men with adequate experience to carry out a plan of successful forestry." That situation with respect to the dearth of practical foresters still exists and promises to continue until relieved either by the more general teaching of forestry in colleges and schools or by a more general training in the field, or both. Another drawback is the lack of systematic study and knowledge of our Forest Preserve. With the exception of Township 40 and adjacent territory, and possibly a few other tracts, little has been done in the direction of examining the land to determine its value, the amount and character of timber, the growth of trees, and the local conditions which are factors in the profitable management of the forests; nor has anything yet been done toward preparing a comprehensive plan for the whole Preserve.
A concrete illustration of the impracticability of scientific forestry under existing conditions is afforded by the experimental forest in Franklin County established under an act of 1898. The hopes entertained in regard to this experiment were well set forth in the message of Governor Black to the Legislature on January 5, 1898. The Governor pictured in graphic terms the desirability of enlarging the Forest Preserve as a health resort and a conserver of the northern New York water-sheds, and referred to the rapid inroads made upon the forests by commercial lumbering, and to the protection which the Constitution extended to State lands. He argued that, properly managed, the State forests might be made productive of a substantial revenue; but, he said, "The Constitution should not be amended until the people have learned prudence instead of waste, and have equipped themselves with knowledge and experience adequate to the care of this great domain. Our conditions here are not like those in Germany and France, but in what respects they differ, few can tell." Then, with a view to the acquisition of this necessary knowledge and experience, he recommended the following plan:
There are students here who have made a careful study of the forests, their capacities and their needs. The number of these gentlemen I understand to be increasing, for through the labors of several of our citizens of great generosity and public spirit, the subject has been studied and discussed, and upon the general ignorance relating to this question there is beginning to be some light. The knowledge necessary to the proper treatment of the woods must come largely through experiment. It cannot be had unless the means of acquiring it are provided. I believe the means can be secured best through the purchase by the State of a tract of ground covered with those trees which are to be the subject of experiment. Such a tract the State could set apart and gain from it the knowledge which will enable it by and by to deal with the millions of acres it has already and will in the meantime acquire. The time will come when the State will sell timber to the lumbermen, spruce to the pulp mills, reap a large revenue for itself and still retain the woods, open to the public, protecting the sources of water, growing and yielding under intelligent cultivation. The management of this experiment should not be subject to the vicissitudes of politics. It should be placed in charge of the Regents, or of the Trustees of Cornell University, or of some similar body not subject to political change. The State should pay such reasonable sum as may be needed to administer the plan. Reports should be made to the Governor and the Legislature annually of progress and results. The income from the tract so acquired should be paid to the State and the land itself should become the absolute property of the State, and a part of the Forest Preserve at the expiration of a period named. I believe such a plan would be soon, if not at once, self-sustaining, for the trees now ready to be cut would produce immediate revenue, and such revenue would be repeated at short intervals. The benefits could be hardly overstated, and in this direction, as in many others, the wisdom of New York entering upon a comparatively new and untried field would be finally approved.
Following Governor Black's recommendation, the Legislature of 1898 enacted a law pursuant to which 30,000 acres of forest land in Townships 23 and 26 in Franklin County were purchased for $165,000 and conveyed to Cornell University for the purposes of a "New York State College of Forestry;" and in the years 1898 to 1902 sums aggregating $110,000 more were appropriated for salaries of the Director and instructors in the College of Forestry and for working capital for improving, maintaining, and administering the College forest. With a view to making the forest self-sustaining, the University on May 5, 1900, made a fifteen-year contract with the Brooklyn Cooperage Company by which it agreed to deliver to the company annually one-fifteenth of the wood and timber standing in the College forest. The details of this contract and the litigation which ensued are not essential to the present statement, but the results of the experiment were highly important; instead of yielding the State a revenue, all of the moneys appropriated were used up except about $9,000 of working capital, while about 3,100 acres of forest land were denuded and only about 440 acres replanted. The results were so obviously disappointing that in 1903 Governor Odell vetoed the appropriation of $10,000 for that year, and since then no appropriation for the College of Forestry has been made except one of $5,000 in 1903, exclusively for the purpose of removing the underbrush and for replanting trees. Soon thereafter (June, 1903) Cornell University discontinued the College of Forestry. In his message to the Legislature in 1904, Governor Odell, speaking of the School of Forestry, said: "Its operations had for their object the substitution of valuable growths for so-called worthless timber, but this has resulted in the practical destruction of all trees upon the lands where the experiment was in progress. No compensating benefits seem possible to the present generation. The preservation of the forests is primarily for the protection of the water supply, and this is not possible through the denudation of the lands. Therefore this school failed of its object, as understood by its founders—a failure which was not due, however, to the work of the University, which followed out the letter and the spirit of the law."
Mr Justice Chester, of the Supreme Court of the State of New York, in his opinion rendered in June, 1910, in the case of the People of the State of New York against the Brooklyn Cooperage Company and Cornell University,[6] said that there could be no net revenues from the College Forest, as the expenses exceeded the income. He also pointed out how, under the operation of the contract, practically the entire College Forest would be denuded for the benefit of a private industry and not for the promotion of education in forestry. "There is proof in the case," he said, "that 500 acres were sufficient for conducting experiments on the 'clear cutting' system of forestry as distinguished from the 'selection' system."
Notwithstanding the failure of the forest experiment, Governor Odell in 1904 hoped that the Forest School would be continued: "Because," he said in his message, "with the lapse of years, a proper understanding of scientific forestry will become more and more a necessity." What Governor Odell said remains true. But what is needed is not only scientific knowledge but also knowledge of local conditions. A high order of theoretical knowledge was brought to the management of the Cornell tract, but the experiment failed for lack of knowledge of local conditions and business prudence.
2—Lack of Confidence that Benefits will Accrue. The second obstacle to the introduction of scientific forestry upon State lands is the lack of confidence that if the forest products were utilized any benefit would accrue to the people generally. The feeling may be understood in the light of the history of the Forest Preserve. In its beginnings, this was not a deliberately planned institution, but grew up in haphazard fashion, without forethought or system. Once the State owned nearly all the land within the Adirondack wilderness, but prior to 1883 there were no laws which prevented the State from parting with its lands, and large areas were sold to private parties for almost a song—lands which the State has gradually been buying back ever since at constantly increasing prices.[7] In a message to the Legislature in 1882, Governor Cornell called attention to the shortsightedness of this policy, in these words:
By far the greater quantity of land within the Adirondack wilderness proper belongs to the State. Individual ownership is now confined to a few hundred thousand acres. Heretofore it has been the practice of the State, with questionable policy, to sell its wild lands at nominal prices to private parties, who have gone on, in most cases, and cut off the marketable timber where accessible, and then abandoned to the State the clearings, worthless generally for agricultural purposes, thereby escaping the payment of taxes. Forest fires have followed and raged with destructive fury, denuding the mountains and checking the flow of springs and streams that supply the navigable waters to the north and the Hudson river to the southward. Furthermore, many of the lakes, the natural reservoirs of the mountain courses, have been damaged by dams and overflow, so that the shores of those lying within the working timber limits present the effects of irreparable injury.
In 1883 a law was enacted which prohibited the sale of any State lands in the counties of Clinton, Essex, Franklin, Fulton, Hamilton, Herkimer, Lewis, Saratoga, Saint Lawrence, and Warren, and by subsequent acts the counties of Oneida, Washington, Delaware, Greene, Sullivan, and Ulster were added to the list. Prior to that year the State had recovered about 800,000 acres of land which the owners had permitted to be sold for taxes—patches of land scattered here and there without any system or studied continuity. After the passage of the laws forbidding the sale of State lands the value of the lands began rapidly to appreciate, and private parties, desiring to acquire it endeavored to circumvent the law prohibiting the sale by attacking the State's tax titles. With the aid of pliant State officials, these efforts in many cases were successful, the State either parting entirely with its title or, retaining the title to the soil, parting with the title to the timber. In this manner the State lost about 100,000 acres of land. A report made to the Comptroller in 1895 showed that these cancellations were made with disregard of the law and the rights of the State. As the result of all the tax-sale transactions of the State, it has acquired about one-half of its present forest-preserve holdings in the Adirondacks. The other half was acquired by purchase. The first actual appropriation of money for the purchase of land for forest purposes was $10,000 appropriated in 1883 during Grover Cleveland's administration. In 1885 the Forest Preserve was established by law, and since then the building up of the Forest Preserve has proceeded with more intelligence and upon a more definite policy. Up to the present time, the State has spent about $3,800,000 on the purchase of lands for the Adirondack and Catskill forests.