DIVISION OF TIMBER JVIANAGEfCNT 

 FOREST ftESOURCES INVENTORY 



Under this program 26,025 square miles of photography was done, 

 3,176 square miles of planimetric mapping, 9,500 square miles of photo 

 mapping and 9,790 square miles of field cruising during 1955-56. 



Since the organization of Forest Resources Inventory in 19A-6 the 

 objective in the inventory program has been increased from 125,000 square 

 miles to 300,000 square miles. To date the following has been completed, 

 Aerial Photography 2^3,563 square miles; Planimetric Mapping 241, BI5 square 

 miles; Photo I^fepping 20,500 square miles; Field work 117,239 square miles, 

 with private companies supplying inventories in BO, 000 square miles, this 

 making the publication of final reports on 16 districts possible. 



During the year cull studies were carried on in Geraldton, 

 Kapuskasing, Swastika, Tweed and Lindsay District. 



STAND IMPROVEMENT 1956 



Following the policy to improve stands which may secure financial 

 returns in a short time, the work in 1955-56 was conducted in Southern 

 Ontario, and here, again, on good and easily accessible sites only. 



\Ie aimed at doing the work on a rather small area, but thoroughly, 

 primarily to train a sufficient number of labourers for any future expansion, 

 and to cover the types of improvement work which have a future in the 

 existing condition. 



Along that line, yellow birch seedlings were released from competi- 

 tive vegetation on some cut-overs.. Valuable white pine, white spruce, jack 

 pine, and red pine stands or young growth, were cleaned and thinned out to 

 stimulate quality growth; salvage operations, by cutting scattered old white 

 pine trees which were affected by blister rust and damaged by fire, were 

 combined with the release of white pine regeneration and ribes eradication. 

 Woods operations were continued in marginal stands at Petawawa with a view 

 to promoting natural regeneration of valuable species. In two Districts, 



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