(a) The department shall make investigations of the natural mining industry and commercial resources of the state and shall take such measures as it may deem best suited to promote the conservation and development of such resources.

(b) The department shall have the care of the state parks and other recreational areas now owned or to be acquired by the state.

(c) Repealed.

(d) The department shall make such examination, survey, and mapping of the geology, mineralogy, and topography of the state, including their industrial and economic utilization, as it may consider necessary.

(e) The department shall make an investigation of the water supply and water power of the state with recommendations and plans for promoting their more profitable use and shall take such measures as it may consider necessary to promote their development.

(f) The department shall make investigations of existing conditions of trade, commerce, and industry in the state, paying particular attention to the causes which may hinder or encourage their growth, and may devise and recommend such plans as may be considered best suited to promote the development of their interests.

(g) The department may take such other measures as it may deem advisable to obtain and make public a more complete knowledge of the state and its resources, and it is authorized to cooperate with other departments and agencies of the state in obtaining and making public such information. It shall be the duty of the department to arrange and classify the facts derived from its investigations so as to provide a general source of information in regard to the state, its advantages, and its resources.

(h) The department shall prepare a report to be submitted by the Governor to each General Assembly, showing the nature and progress of the department.

(i) The department shall from time to time prepare for publication reports and statements, with illustrations, maps, and other descriptions which adequately set forth the natural and material resources of the state and its industrial and commercial development, with a view toward furnishing information to educate the people regarding the material advantages of the state, to encourage and foster the existing industries, and to present inducements for investments in new enterprises. Such reports and information shall be published and distributed as the department may direct, at the expense of the state, as other public documents.

(j) It is the intent and purpose, in creating the Department of Natural Resources, that the department shall confer with, cooperate with, and work in harmony with the Department of Industry, Trade, and Tourism on all new activities of the Department of Natural Resources.

(k) The department shall without any fee therefor accept applications for certification of environmentally sensitive conservation use property as provided for in Code Section 48-5-7.4 and shall certify property to local boards of tax assessors as meeting or not meeting the criteria of such Code section.