History of the Forest 299 



work. Their most important work for the first few years 

 was to keep the needs of forestry before the people. This 

 they did very successfully, and out of it came the policy 

 of permanent forest reserves. The first reservations 

 were made by the Dominion Minister of the Interior 

 in 1895, in the Riding and Turtle Mountains, a thinly 

 timbered district of Manitoba. Several others were 

 added in the same way, and in 1906 they were confirmed 

 by Act of Parliament and placed under the Superintendent 

 of Forestry. Some ten or twelve million acres have been 

 set aside in this way, but the Forestry Branch has never 

 been given funds adequately to handle them. 



Ontario followed suit with reservations of some twelve 

 million acres, and Quebec has followed the same policy 

 on a less extensive scale. British Columbia had wasted 

 a large portion of her forest area, but in 1909 reserved the 

 remainder and started the movement which resulted in a 

 very active forestry branch a few years later. 



It is only in the past two or three years that much at- 

 tention has been paid to the management of these areas 

 along forestry lines, but the movement is now progressing 

 rapidly. The various provinces, especially British Co- 

 lumbia, are forging ahead, and the Dominion Service is 

 developing rapidly. 



In addition to this work of the Provinces and Dominion 

 government, the Canadian Pacific Railway has inaugu- 

 rated a very active forest policy and now employs more 

 foresters than any other institution except the United 

 States government. Several of the large paper companies 

 are also practicing conservative lumbering and employ- 

 ing foresters. 



