PROGRESS IN STATE FORESTRY The rapid depletion and threatened exhaustion of the timber supply in the more thickly populated sections of the East has prompted several of the states to initiate action looking toward the conservation of their timber resources.

As far back as 1880, a forestry commission was appointed in New Hampshire to formulate a forest policy for the State.

Vermont took similar action two years later, followed within the next few years by many of the northeastern and lake states.
These commissions were mainly boards of inquiry, for the purpose of gathering reliable information upon which to report, with recommendations, for the adoption of a state forest policy.

As a result of the inquiries, forestry departments were established in a number of states.

The report of the New York Commission of 1884 resulted in forest legislation, in 1885, creating a forestry department and providing for the acquisition of state forests.
Liberal appropriations were made from time to time for this purpose, until now the state forests embrace nearly 2,000,000 acres, the largest of any single state.
New York state forests were created, especially, for the protection of the Adirondack and Catskill regions as great camping and hunting grounds, and not for timber production.