1. (a) The commission shall give advice, assistance, and cooperation as may be practicable to private landowners and promote, so far as it may be able, a proper appreciation in this state among all classes of the population of the benefits to be derived from forest culture, preservation, and use.
2. (b) The commission may take reasonable and practicable measures to prevent and suppress forest fires and other influences harmful to forest growth and may expend monies from the Special State Forestry Fund and other funds accruing to the commission as may be necessary to implement such purposes and to provide such systems of control as the commission may establish, either independently or in cooperation with the federal government and other agencies, public or private.
3. (c) The commission shall be the sole cooperating agency in joint work in the promotion and development of forestry and other matters and interests devolving upon it by law, among all classes of land ownership in the state, in which both the state and the federal government may have financial or administrative participation.

4. (d)

   1. (1) The commission, for the purpose of establishing, developing, and maintaining state forests, sites for offices or facilities, tower sites, and other areas necessary for its efficient operation, may acquire land by donation, purchase, condemnation, or lease, and for these purposes may expend such funds available to the commission and not otherwise obligated and may enter into agreements with the federal government or other agencies and private landowners for acquiring by lease, purchase, or otherwise such lands as the commission deems desirable or necessary.
   2. (2) When lands are acquired or leased under this section, the commission may expend any funds available to the commission and not otherwise obligated for the management, development, and utilization of such lands, to sell or otherwise dispose of products from such lands, to have sole charge of all state forests and other lands that have been acquired hereunder, and to adopt rules for the management, administration, occupancy, and use of property in state forests and lands acquired by the commission.
   3. (3) The commission may sell, exchange, or lease lands under its jurisdiction when in its judgment it is advantageous to the state to do so in the orderly development and management of state forests and other designated areas. Any sale or lease of lands by the commission is subject to Article 3 of Chapter 15 of Title 9, except for the sale or lease of land that has an appraised or assessed value not exceeding fifty thousand ($50,000).
5. (e) The commission may employ such officers, assistants, and employees as may be necessary and, as to individuals employed wholly or in part in carrying out the provisions of cooperative agreements with the federal government or other agencies, may use the contributions or receipts derived from the United States or from any private or philanthropic source to pay the compensation of these individuals.

(Acts 1969, No. 764, p. 1354, §5; Act 2026-402, §1.)