 The new department also included a Division of Parks, which was made senior to the State Council of Parks that had been established in 1924 to oversee New York's state parks and historic sites outside of the Forest Preserve.The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation was created in 1970 by legislation symbolically signed on the first Earth Day by then-Governor Nelson Rockefeller.The new department was charged with the functions of the former Conservation Department, in addition to the duties of several programs previously part of the state's Department of Health and other commissions; several brand-new offices were created as well.