N.Y. Environmental Conservation Law § 9-0501: Power to acquire reforestation areas; prohibition against compensation or gratuity

§ 9-0501. Power to acquire reforestation areas; prohibition against

compensation or gratuity.

1. In order to provide for the acquisition of lands outside of the

Adirondack park and the Catskill park as defined by subdivisions 1 and 2

of section 9-0101, which are adapted for reforestation and the

establishment and maintenance thereon of forests for watershed

protection, the production of timber and other forest products, and for

recreation and kindred purposes, the department may acquire in the name

of the state, by gift, purchase or appropriation, reforestation areas

which shall consist respectively of not less than five hundred acres of

contiguous lands, which shall be forever devoted to the planting, growth

and harvesting of such trees as shall be deemed by the commissioner best

suited for the lands to be reforested. Lands divided only by highway,

railroad, transmission line, telephone line, telegraph line, pipe line

or other rights of way or only by canals or streams shall be deemed to

be contiguous within the meaning of this section. Plantations and other

forests thereon shall be established, managed and protected under his

supervision pursuant to such provisions of law as shall from time to

time be established or to such rules and regulations as may be

prescribed by him.

2. No officer or any other person acting for the department in

securing options for the purchase of lands acquired or to be acquired

under provisions of this title 5 shall directly or indirectly receive or

accept from a vendor of lands acquired or to be acquired by the state as

herein provided any commission, compensation or gratuity, and no town or

county officer shall receive any compensation for services rendered to

the department in connection with such acquisition.