SEAPLANES IN FOREST MAPPING 3 



on even keel, the latter qualities being very useful for photography. 

 The ideal equipment for forestry work over large areas would be two 

 light machines for patrol and one HS2L for taking help to fires and for 

 photography and reconnaissance. For a machine for all purposes one 

 of about half the weight of the HS2L with two engines and extra gas 

 tanks might be the best. The two machines flew (1, 000 miles during 

 the season, 1,500 to get them on the job and 4,."')00 in ijatrol, reconnais- 

 sance, and photographic mapping. 



It may interest the profession to give a brief descri]nioii of how our 

 forests look from the air, and what can be seen by a flier. The forests 

 of the St. Maurice Valley are mainly of the hardwood-softwood or 

 softwood-hardwood type, with some areas of softwood, spruce, and 

 fir alone, and of pure jack jjine. There are black s])ruce swamps, 

 swamps without tree growth, burns, some of which are restocking, and 

 lumbered areas. With the exception of the lumbered areas, all these 

 types can be easily distinguished from the air and the lines of demarca- 

 tion can be seen and sketched in with an accuracy and ease absolutely 

 unattainable on the ground. It is, as every forester knows, often 

 extremely difficult to say where one type leaves oiT and another begins, 

 but this is not the case from the air. For rapid reconnaissance work, 

 the best map available of a country can be taken into the air and the 

 types sketched on, using lakes or other prominent features as units of 

 measurements for areas, that is, a certain type may be as wide as a 

 certain lake and five times its width in length. 



In regard to distinguishing difterent si)ecies from ihe air, pine can 

 times spruce can be difi:'erentiated from balsam by the difference in 

 color, the black spruce of the swamps is readily recognizable. Pure 

 jack pine stands have a distinct color and appearance. Uircli can be 

 distinguished from jjoplar, elms are readily recognized, as are maples. 

 Of course when the leaves are turning in the autumn the recognition 

 of different species is very easy, and the tamaracs are noticeable. After 

 the leaves are off the white birches are quite distinct from the other 

 hardwoods, and the maples and beeches show up distinctly. 



The boundaries of burns are easily seen and where re])roduction 

 has commenced the amount and ajjproximate height can be easily 

 estimated, even when it is coming up under a thin stand of poplar and 

 white birch. One can tell whether the young trees are three feet or 

 six feet high. 



From my exirerience I should say that a forester could get a better 

 idea of fifty square miles of unknown territory in two hours' flying 

 than be could after two weeks sjjeiu on tlie ground. Let me warn my 



