§ 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.