New York's
Forest Preserve is all the land owned by the state within the
Adirondack and
Catskill parks, managed by its
Department of Environmental Conservation. These properties are required to be kept "forever wild" by Article 14 of the state constitution, and thus enjoy the highest degree of protection of wild lands in any state. It is thus necessary to
amend the New York State Constitution in order to transfer any of these lands to another owner or
lessee. Currently there are more than 2.6 million acres of Forest Preserve in the Adirondacks and in the Catskills.