§16-20-2. Timber on reserved lots not to be injured.

(a) The lots reserved for timber are for the common benefit of the lessees of the other lots; but no timber shall be cut down, injured or destroyed as long as there is sufficient on the other lots, which the Commissioner of the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources is to determine; but the lessees must in no case cut down, injure or destroy such timber without permission from said commissioner, which may be given on such terms as he may think proper, having due regard to the interest of the township or district.

(b) Any person who, without authority, cuts down, boxes, injures or destroys any tree on school lands shall forfeit and pay for every such tree the sum of $25.00, to be recovered before any court having jurisdiction in the name of the county board of education for the school located in the township in which such lands are located, or the school district in which such lands are located.

(c) All fines and forfeitures under this section shall be paid into the Treasury and added to the credit of the permanent Sixteenth Section Fund of the township.

(School Code 1927, §§637-639; Code 1940, T. 52, §§561-563.)