Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1912-05-31
FRIDAY, MAY 81, 1919.
STATEWIDE CAMPAIGN TO
PRESERVE FORESTS.
II Citizens Efforts Can Ac-
complish It.

Residents of every part of New York
State are backing vigorous campaign
for the saving of the Adirondack forests.
Clifford Pinchot made a trip into the
Adirondacks, accompanied by Overton
Price and several State officials last
summer. Mr.. Pinchot's findings and
recommendation have been printed and
generally distributed, as a means for
helping the passage of the Roosevelt
Jones bill which was introduced by the
State Conservation Commission on jan
uary Is. This bill, Senate No. 80, As
sembly No. 100, contains the suggestions
and recommendation made by Mr..
Pinchot.
The gallant features of the present
situation in the Adirondack region is
thus stated by an officer of the Camp
Fire club, an organization backing the
citizens movement:
1.-The Adirondack Preserve consists
of all the lands in twelve Adirondack
counties and includes $500, 900 acres.
Of this the State owns 1900 900 acres.
The remainder is owned by lumber COM
panies, associations and individuals.
Practically all this land is useless for
any other purpose than to grow trees.
The tree growth upon it, however, rem
ders so many and such important SER
vices that no similar forest area in the
United States is of such high value to
so many people.
''In this section the fire menace is
great because of the present destruc-
tive methods of numbering. In 1903
over ATS, 900 acres, and in 1908 over
346, 600 acres were burned. No other
forest area of equal Importance has
been similarly devastated by fires as
the Adirondacks.
Destructive numbering on private
lands is a public injury. The present
methods, if allowed to continue, will
result in practically the destruction of
all the Adirondack timber lands held for
numbering purposes. And in the end
the State will be forced to take over
these lands and replant them at great
expense"
Mr.. Pinchot, as a result of his exami-
nation of conditions made large num-
Der of recommendations, of which the
following are the most important:
l. Additional fire wardens, forest
rangers and fire lookout stations.
2. State control and regulation of
numbering on private lands.
3. A constitutional amendment per.
hitting the management of State for
ests, in accordance with the principles
of scientific forestry.
Recommendations l and are pro-
vided for in the Roosevelt Jones bill. A
separate bill has been introduced into
the Legislature providing for the amend
ment to the State Constitution.
Mr.. Pinchot emphatically condemns
those persons, who by their carelessness
cause great losses in the Adirondack
woods by fires which with the exercise
of little care might be prevented. He
says:
But not all the Adirondack lumber
ing concerns are controlled by men of
good will. A peculiarly aggravated
case of needless and constituencies van
dalism is supplied by a Brooklyn COM
pany, a subsidiary concern of the trust.
The logging done by this company is
more destructive than any other with
which | am acquainted in the Eastern
States, and the damage by fires for
which its carelessness is said to be re-
sponsible will cost the people of New
York large sums of money and long
years of time to repair. When request
ed by the Conservation Commission to
take simple and necessary precautions
against fire, it peremptorily refused to
do so. The Brooklyn company controls
by ownership and lease 1913, 600 acres in
the Adirondacks. Unless this organi-
cation is restrained by the strong arm
of the State, every acre of that land
will be despoiled of its forest growth
and swept clean by fire. In my judg-
ment, to destroy in this fashion forests
whose destruction hurts the State is as
much mark of bad citizenship as for q
man in town to set fire to his own house.
There is no more moral right in the one
case than in the other, and the time is
rapidly approaching when there will be
no more legal right, either
After Mr.. Pinchot had gone through
the entire Adirondack forest section and