April 25, 1938 – Proposed Constitutional Amendment – State of New York No. 82, Int. 82, IN CONVENTION –
April 25, 1938 Introduced by Mr. OSBORNE – read twice and ordered printed, and when printed to be committed to the Committee on Conservation of the Natural Resources of the State.
PROPOSED CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT to amend section seven of article seven of the Constitution, in relation to the forest preserve The delegates of the People of the State of New York, in Convention assembled, do propose as follows:
Section 1. Section seven of article seven of the constitution is hereby amended to read as follows: 7. The lands of the state, now owned or hereafter acquired constitution the forest preserve as now fixed by law, shall be forever kept as wild forest lands. They shall not be leased, sold or exchanged, or be taken by any corporation, public or private, nit shall the timber thereon be sold removed or destroyed. [ Nothing contained in this section shall prevent the state from constructing a state highway in Franklin County to Long lake in Hamilton county and thence to Old Forge in Herkimer county by way of Blue Mountain lake and Raquette lake, and nothing shall prevent the state from constructing a state highway in Essex county from Wilmington to the top of Whiteface mountain.]
…construction and maintenance of reservoirs for municipal water supply…
Nothing contained in this section shall be construed to prevent the enactment by the legislature of separate laws, each applying to a single project, providing, at the expense of the state for the construction within the forest preserve of such recreational facilities as are not inconsistent with the general wild forest character of the forest preserve, and the making of necessary clearings of timber thereof. Such facilities will be maintained for the benefit of all the people, without discrimination, and by a public authority and not by a lessee, or contractor, and with the public monies of the state, a county or a town, or by two or more of them; but the latter restriction shall not prevent the collection of reasonable charges for the facilities afforded, to be applied solely to operating expenses, maintenance and repairs. Nor shall anything contained in this section be construed to prevent any measures necessary to protect the forest preserve against fire, nor to prohibit the making of and maintenance of paths, camp-sites and camping facilities designed to render the forest preserve more accessible and useful to the public, including the necessary clearings of timber therefor, not to prevent the widening, straightening or improvement of existing public road in the forest preserve.
…Nothing herein contained shall prevent the state from constructing, completing and maintaining any highway heretofore specifically authorized by constitutional amendment.