1492 



AMERICAN FORESTRY 



CANADIAN DEPARTMENT 



BY ELLWOOD WILSON 



PRESIDENT, CANADIAN SOCIETY OF FOREST ENGINEERS 



nPHOSE interested in industries which 

 use trees as their raw material in Cana- 

 da are taking active steps to conserve and 

 better utilize the existing supplies. On the 

 14th of October there will meet in Quebec 

 a joint Committee of the Woodlands Sec- 

 tion of the Canadian Pulp and Paper Asso- 

 ciation and the Quebec Limit Holders' 

 Association to discuss recommendations to 

 the Quebec Government for a change in the 

 cutting regulations and legislation leading 

 to compulsory reforestation. All the im 

 portant lumbering and pulp and paper in- 

 dustries in Quebec, Ontario and the Mari- 

 time Provinces will be represented. The 

 discussion will occupy a day and on the 

 morning of the fifteenth a committee of 

 the conference will have an interview with 

 the Minister of Lands and Forests. Hon. 

 Mr. Mercier, to present their views and 

 make recommendations. It is hoped that 

 by mutual discussion and co-operation the 

 government and the wood using indus- 

 tries may work together for the protection, 

 proper utilization and perpetuation of the 

 forests. This getting together of wood- 

 users, foresters and the government should 

 have the best of results. 



The report of the results of the expedi- 

 tion headed by Captain Daniel Owen, which 

 explored Laborador timberlands by aero- 

 plane, is very interesting and it is hoped 

 that more details than were embodied in the 

 newspaper dispatches may soon be forth- 

 coming. There is no question whatever 

 that such an expedition could have done 

 nothing in the time taken without aerial 

 transport, but we are anxious to know what 

 landing places were used for aeroplanes, 

 and, if the number of photographs, said by 

 the press reports to have been taken, 300,- 

 000, is correct. It has been the experience 

 of those who have visited Laborador that 

 the timber was sinall and was confined en- 

 tirely to the river valleys, the hills being 

 either bare or covered with stunted spruce. 

 Volume tables worked up for Laborador 

 spruce show the timber somewhat shorter 

 and smaller, on the average, than that of 

 the territory west of Quebec. 



That aerial transportation is ideal for 

 reconnaissance and even for more detailed 

 estimation of forest lands is beyond a 

 shadow of doubt. The writer has made a 

 reconnaissance of over 1,500 square miles 

 from the air and each flight over a country 

 develops one's ability to see more detail 

 and estimate more closely. Sitting in a 

 plane with a map one can mark the areas 

 burnt, those in different types of timber, 

 those which are restocking, etc. The height 

 of the stands can be estimated and a rough 



approximation of the proportion of soft- 

 wood to hardwood in the crown cover. At 

 three thousand to four thousand feet, job- 

 bers' camps and dams can be seen and 

 marked on the map. the drainage of a 

 country and the contour studied and the 

 way in which logs can be taken out of a 

 certain district. A woodlands manager 

 could easily, in a few flights, lay out his 

 winter's operations without difficulty and to 

 far better advantage than in the office. 



Where, as in Quebec and Ontario, log- 

 ging is carried out at long distances from 

 civilization, often from one to two hun- 

 dred miles, and where rail transportation 

 seldom takes one nearer than 30 or 40 

 miles, planes would be invaluable for travel 

 to and from the operations, especially for 

 the higher e.xecutives who now seldom see 

 anything of woods operations. With a 

 plane a tour of all the operations could be 

 made in two or three days. In case of 

 serious accidents in the woods, injured men 

 could be brought out quickly and as com- 

 fortably as if in bed. 



The detection and reporting of forest fires 

 is very easy, and during the past season a 

 Johnson gasoline fire pump and 1,500 feet of 

 hose was always ready to be transported 

 to the scene of a fire. In the St. Maurice 

 Valley there is almost always a lake within 

 two to three miles of a fire, on which a land- 

 ing could be made. .\s our experience 

 shows that fires nearly always occur on 

 lakes or rivers, the only routes of travel, the 

 planes could almost always reach them. With 

 settlers, campers and lierry pickers, the al- 

 most daily presence of planes over their 

 operations is the strongest kind of deter- 

 rent for carelessness or wilful setting of 

 fires. I think it is safe to say that the 

 seaplane or aeroplane with pontoons will be 

 one of the most important aids to fire pro- 

 tection and forestry work that has so far 

 been developed. 



Mr. G. C. Piche, Chief Forester of Que- 

 bec, held a conference of the Managers of 

 the Quebec Forest Protective Association 

 on October 20, at the government nursery 

 at Berthierville, and a visit was made to 

 his plantations on the drifting sands at 

 Lachute. 



A party of about twenty of the Senators 

 of the Dominion Parliament made a visit 

 to the industries in the St. Maurice V^alley 

 and inspected the nurseries and planta- 

 tions of the Laurentide Company. Senators 

 White and Bostock, who are directors of 

 the Canadian Forestry Association, were 

 especially interested. 



Dr. Hewitt, head of the Dominion Ento- 

 mological branch ; Professor Swaine, of the 



same branch, and Clyde Leavitt, forester 

 to the Commission of Conservation, visited 

 the co-operative Forest Experiment Sta- 

 tion of the Cominission and the Laurentide 

 Company, at Lac Edward, Quebec. Mr. 

 Leavitt made the trip from Grand Mere 

 to Lake Edward in a seaplane. 



Mr. H. G. Schanche, Forester to the 

 Abitibi Pulp and Paper Company, has com- 

 menced work on a map and estimate of 

 their limits and is breaking up ten acres 

 for a forest nursery. Mr. Mills, late of the 

 staff of the Commission of Conservation, 

 has joined his staff. 



Lieut.-Col. George Chahoon, Jr., i>resi- 

 dent of the Laurentide Company, and Mr. 

 H. Biermans, president of the Belgo- 

 Canadian Pulp and Paper Company, made 

 flights in the seaplane and expressed them- 

 selves as being much pleased w-ith the ma- 

 chine and convinced of its practical value. 



Robson Black, secretary, Canadian For- 

 estry Association, is leaving for a trip 

 through the west to address meetings of 

 the Canadian Creditmen's Association. Mr. 

 Black is doing splendid work for forestry 

 along the most practical lines and is rapid- 

 ly educating the public to the necessity for 

 properly using our forest resources. 



Mr. A. D. Gilmour, forester of the Anglo- 

 Newfoundland Development Company, is 

 pushing rapidly a map and estimate of his 

 company's limits and is also handling their 

 logging operations. Base maps, showing 

 lakes and rivers is already completed. 



.'\fter a 750-mile trip on horseback, 

 through the interior of British Columbia, 

 M. A. Grainger, chief forester, reports the 

 fires during the past season the worst since 

 1910. 



That England with an area of less than 

 the State of New York is planning to in- 

 vest $17,000,000 in a ten-year campaign to 

 reforest '250,000 acres of land, inspires 

 Dean Hugh P. Baker, of the New York 

 State College of Forestry, at Syracuse, to 

 comment on the need in New York State 

 of particularly noting England's condi- 

 tion and her plans. Great Britain will 

 replace for future commercial use the 

 timber used in I'>ance during the war 

 by this expenditure of many millions, 

 while Dean Baker points out. New York 

 has difficulty even in putting through a 

 plan of co-operation with lumbermen and 

 other private holders for steps toward the 

 growth of timber for the future. He sees 

 in all this a need for a definite forest pol- 

 icy for his state as well as for the nation. 



