128 forestry Quarterly. 



A National Forestry Congress, similar to the one in 1906, will 

 be held in Ottawa next January. This was decided, on the sug- 

 gestion of the Premier, by the delegates to the sixteenth annual 

 meeting of the Canadian Forestry x\ssociation. 



The Lieutenant-Governors of all the Provinces, members of 

 Parliament and of the Senate, prominent lumbermen, and in fact 

 everybody who is prominently identified and in sympathy with 

 forestry, will be invited by the Premier to attend the congress, 

 at which matters pertaining to the preservation of the forests 

 will be discussed. 



Prior to deciding on holding the convention, the delegates 

 waited on the government and submitted resolutions covering 

 such matters as the extension of forest areas, more care in de- 

 ciding what lands shall be opened for settlement, free distribu- 

 tion of young trees, and that appointments in the forestry service 

 be based on capability and experience. 



During the past year, much progress has been made in the 

 province of British Columbia in connection with minimizing fire 

 risks through the disposal of slash resulting from lumbering 

 operations. In 19 13, according to the Provincial Forest Branch, 

 about 20,000 acres of lumbering slash were burned in that prov- 

 ince, and a much larger area would have been burned had it 

 not been for an extremely wet autumn. On the Coast and in the 

 Interior, several experimental areas were burned by the Forest 

 Branch, which, also, in co-operation with the Department of Pub- 

 lic Works', burned a great many miles of slash along public roads. 

 Such inflammable debris constitutes a serious fire menace as long 

 as it is allowed to remain undisposed of. 



The Forest Branch, in co-operation with private land owners, 

 secured the burning of quantities of slash created by road and 

 railroad construction through private lands. It was a condition 

 of the charter of the railways' now building through the province, 

 aggregating 1,800 miles in length through timbered territory, 

 that where timber is taken from Crown Lands for construction 

 purposes, the slash shall be piled and burned, scattered and 

 burned, or lopped, according to the direction of the forest officers. 

 This was done over an area of nearly a quarter of million acres. 



About one hundred and twenty timber sales are completed or 

 under negotiation with private companies, both lumber and pulp 



