These rules are usually set by a forestry board or commission and cover such things as reforestation, logging methods, road construction, and other activities that may affect water quality, wildlife, or forest management. Some state forest agencies, such as Maryland, Michigan, New York, and Washington, also have multi-million dollar recreation programs, including campgrounds and hiking trails. These additional duties muddy fiscal comparisons. Pennsylvania, for example, doesn't report the costs of managing its state forests separately from its fire protection costs. Other states that do report state forest costs probably don't include much of the overhead attributable to managing the state forests.
Averages can also be misleading when applied to state forests.
When Alaska's 21.5 million acres are excluded, the average state owns just over 725,000 acres. State trust lands are described in detail in the article on page 36, so this article will focus on fire and other issues. Until around the turn of the century, most states ignored forest fires. States may have also believed that fires were strictly a local concern. It took no action in 1887 when the town of Marshfield, Wisconsin, burnt to the ground in a forest fire.