The department shall prepare a map setting forth the boundaries of purchase areas, and it shall prepare data relating to the forest conditions within these areas. In the preparation of the map and data the department shall be guided by, but not limited to, a report prepared and submitted to the Legislature by the California Forestry Study Committee provided for in Chapter 1086, Statutes of 1943. The department shall make the necessary surveys, examinations, appraisals, inventories, and title searches and obtain other pertinent data and information bearing on tracts of forest land offered for sale for state forest purposes.