Regulating Gutting in British Columbia 



A. V. Gilbert, B. C. Forest Service, Tete Jaune Cache, B.C. 



It has occurred to me that some of the 

 readers of the Canadian Forestry Journal 

 woula be interested to hear of the suc- 

 cess which has attended the efforts of the 

 recently organized Forest Branch of Brit- 

 ish Columbia with regard to the regula- 

 tion of the cutting of timber on Crown 



MB. CABL RIORDON. 



Mr. Carl Riordon, Vice-President 

 and Managing Director of the Rior- 

 don Pulp and Paper Co., has been 

 elected President of the newly form- 

 ed Canadian Pulp and Paper Asso- 

 ciation. Mr. Riordon has been for 

 many years a member of the Cana- 

 dian Forestry Association, and up 

 till this year was a Director when 

 he resigned, feeling that some per- 

 son who could give more time should 

 be elected. Mr. Riordon has taken 

 a deep interest in the cause of forest 

 conservation. He read a valuable 

 paper at the 1909 Convention, and 

 it is confidently expected that the 

 Association will have the advantage 

 of his counsel on future occasions. 



lands for construction purposes being car- 

 ried on by the Grand Trunk Pacific Rail- 

 way Company. 



The proper clearing and burning of de- 

 bris on the rightofway, which is under the 

 supervision of the divisional fire-warden of 

 each district, has been carefully looked 

 after, but as this has always been in- 

 sisted upon there is little difficulty in hav- 

 ing it carried out. On the other hand an 

 innovation, which proved a slight stum- 

 bling-block at first, was the demand of the 

 Forest Branch that where any timber for 

 construction purposes is being taken out 

 the tops shall be lopped and all brush 

 shall be piled according to the directions 

 of the local forest officer, who will also 

 supervise the burning of this debris at the 

 proper time, this latter expense to be borne 

 by the Government This is, I believe, the 

 first instance in Canada, where railway 

 contractors have been required to adopt 

 such measures. 



The most extensive cutting being done 

 in any localized centres is in connection 

 with the taking out of ties and bridge 

 timber. The fact that this work is let by 

 contract would explain why some slight 

 difficulty was encountered at first by the 

 forest officers. 



When the railway company wishes to cut 

 on any certain piece of land they must 

 first apply to the local forest officer who 

 examines this land and reports to the head 

 office at Victoria, where the application 

 is finally passed upon, and if accepted a 

 ;»otinit to cut is granted. On each permit 

 tlie following instructions are given special 

 emphasis: 'All tops shall be lopped and 

 j>iled with all other slash and debris re- 

 sulting from logging operations in compact 

 j»ilos, and shall be so piled that when burn- 

 ed no damage will result to the remaining 

 standing timber.' The railway company 

 did not mention this specifically in the 

 contracts which they let but the contracts 

 stated that all cutting be done according 

 to the directions of the forest officers. 

 Naturally any of the contractors who did 

 not inform themselves as to the regulations 

 of the British Columbia Forest Branch 

 were a little loath to undertaken work 

 which meant a direct loss to their profits. 

 As the contractor usually sub-lets the con- 

 tract and probably the sub-contractor in 

 turn sub-lets it again, it gave more oppor- 

 tunity for misunderstandings to occur and 

 in this way some delay occurred in the 

 starting of the brush piling. However on 

 the matter being taken up with the rail- 



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