The department succeeds to and is vested with all of the duties, powers, purposes, responsibilities, and jurisdiction vested in the Department of Natural Resources or the Director of Natural Resources and exercised by the following divisions of the Department of Natural Resources: Forestry; Mines and Geology; Oil and Gas; and Soil Conservation.

Wherever any reference is made to the Department of Natural Resources or to the Director of Natural Resources pertaining to a duty, power, purpose, responsibility, or jurisdiction transferred to the Department of Conservation by this section, it shall be deemed to be a reference to, and to mean, the Department of Conservation or to the Director of Conservation, as the case may be.