New York State Conservation Commission Railroad Fire Map

A three-member Forest Commission was established in 1885 (Chapter 283) to maintain and protect land in the Catskill and Adirondack mountains to be designated as a State forest preserve and to protect public interests in the State relating to forests, tree planting, and forest fires. The Forest Ranger force, known initially as Wardens, was established in the same year to protect the newly created Forest Preserve. In 1909, forest fire control was placed under the authority of the Forest, Fish and Game Commission. In 1911, when the Conservation Commission absorbed the Forest, Fish and Game Commission, the initial title of the force was replaced with the title Forest Rangers.

This map of the Adirondack Forest and Adjoining Territory indicates the location and extent of fires caused by locomotives during the year 1913. The laws of 1912 (Chapter 444) gave the Conservation Commission power to create fire districts and to appoint forest rangers to oversee each district. District forest rangers were given the power to sub-divide their districts as the public interests required and to employ additional forest rangers as necessary to patrol these areas. Forest rangers were required to report to the district forest ranger every fire that started or burned within their assigned region. Rangers were required to report the cause of each fire, extent and character of the land damaged, and the means used for fighting the fire. With the continued use of coal burning engines, locomotives were blamed in 1913 for causing sixty fires in the Adirondacks that destroyed over two hundred acres.

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