Section 1802. Forest Powers and Duties.--The Department of Forests and Waters shall have the power, and its duty shall be:
(a) With the approval of the State Forest Commission, to acquire, in the name of the Commonwealth, by purchase, gift, lease, or condemnation, and hold as State forests, subject to the conditions of any such lease, and subject to such reservations, if any, of mineral rights, stumpage rights, rights of way, or other encumbrances, as the department and the State Forest Commission deem to be consistent with such holding, any lands, including tax delinquent lands, which, in the judgment of the department, the Commonwealth should hold, manage, control, protect, maintain, utilize, and regulate, as State forests or for reforestation, and adding to and extending the existing State forests for the purpose of lessening soil erosion and silting up of reservoirs; control the flow of streams and extinguish interior holdings; or for the establishment and maintenance of fire observation towers and stations, and such adjoining lands as may be deemed necessary to control, maintain, and develop such towers and stations, and to furnish access to them. The purchase price of any such lands shall not exceed ten dollars per acre, except such as are acquired for fire observation tower and station purposes, except for the price paid for lands approved by the State Forest Commission as essential to consolidate existing State forest lands in the interest of sound and economical management practices by eliminating interior holdings and marginal tracts which are deeply indented into State forests, which shall not exceed one hundred dollars per acre and which moneys shall come only from a restricted receipts fund, resulting from the sale of State forest land as provided for in sections 1 through 5 of the act of May 5, 1921 (P.L.418), entitled "An act authorizing the State Forest Commission to exchange or sell certain portions of the State forest land, and providing for the procedure." The amount expended for the acquisition of lands for State forest purposes, in any annual appropriation period, shall not exceed the appropriation for that purpose for such period, and the amount expended for other land acquisitions shall not exceed appropriations made for such purposes, except as hereinbefore provided;
(1802 amended, Dec. 10, 1970, P.L.917, No.290)
Compiler's Note: Section 19 of Act 275 of 1970 provided that Article XVIII is repealed and section 1 of Act 290 of 1970 amended section 1802(a). The text is still carried because the amendment is effective under section 72 of the Statutory Construction Act, then in force, now 1 Pa.C.S. § 1952 (relating to effect of separate amendments on code provisions enacted by same General Assembly).