British Columbia Forest \A/ork. 



Bird's Eye View of Conditions in the Pacific Province. 



Mr. H. E. MacMillan, Chief Forester of 

 British Columbia writes as follows: — 



* Following up your excellent system of 

 securing information from the different 

 forest organizations each month I am send- 

 ing herewith a short synopsis of our work 

 this last month. You will probably re- 

 ceive information as to different details of 

 our work from other members of our staff, 

 therefore, I shall only refer shortly to gen- 

 eral policies. 



*I have just returned from a series of 

 meetings which have been held by the 

 Minister of Lands to discuss with the lum- 

 bermen and timber owners of the Province 

 an equitable system which might be adopt- 

 ed for the increase of the rates of royalty 

 charged on timber cut from Crown land. 

 It is purposed to increase the rate of 

 royalty as it is believed that the timber 

 now being logged is worth more to the 

 public than the 50c royalty now collected. 



'Many different systems of increasing 

 royalty were brought forward by the lum- 

 bermen, among them being the grading of 

 the timber and the increase of the rate on 

 the high grades and the collection of the 

 royalty as a percentage of the value of the 

 timber sold. At these meetings oppor- 

 tunity was taken to discuss with the lum- 

 bermen the fire protection work of the 

 Forest Branch and arrangements were 

 made to have the timber owners of the 

 Province appoint advisory committees who 

 would work with the Forest Branch in 

 improving and supervising the fire pro- 

 tective work. 



'The past fire season has been most suc- 

 cessful. The Forest Branch has had at 

 work 41.5 men in addition to 60 men who 

 are employed by the railroads under the 

 supervision of the Forest Branch. The 

 expenditure for patrol has been over $200,- 

 000, the highest expenses per month being 

 about $50,000. Arrangements were made 

 for the employment of 100 extra men 

 through the fire season, but owing to the 

 weather it was not necessary to call out 

 this emergency force. Thirty-seven boats 

 were used by the Forest Branch in fire 

 protection this summer. 



'Improvement work is being carried on 

 throughout the Province and at the pre- 

 sent moment nearly 600 miles of telephone 

 line are under construction and 1,200 miles 

 of trail. Most of this is being paid for 

 from the fire protection fund; in some 

 cases lumbermen are contributing towards 

 the cost of work which is being carried 

 on by the Forest Branch. The most not- 

 able fire protection improvement under 



construction is the cable telephone line 

 connected with the heavily timbered is- 

 lands between Vancouver Island and the 

 mainland north of Vancouver in which dis- 

 trict is at present the heaviest timber cut 

 in Canada, the output over a small area 

 being about one billion feet per year, also 

 a telephone line which has been construct- 

 ed to a lookout point on the summit of 

 Mount Baker near Cranbrook; this line 

 reaches an altitude of 7,200 feet and is 

 believed to be the highest telephone point 

 in Canada. From its terminus may be se- 

 cured a view of an area of over 2,000 

 square miles in the water-sheds of the Co- 

 lumbia, Kootenay and St. Mary rivers. A 

 lookout will be stationed at this point 

 throughout the fire season and will be able 

 to send to the office of the District For- 

 ester at Cranbrook first intimation of any 

 fires occuring in the most valuable timber 

 holdings of the Crows Nest District. 



*A complete system of trails and look- 

 out points connected with telephone is be- 

 ing completed in the irrigation districts 

 around the Okanagan Lake; this system 

 will be perfected this fall and should pre- 

 vent any further fires in the important 

 watersheds in this region. 



'Arrangements have recently been made 

 whereby the Forest Branch undertakes the 

 inspection of lands before they are open 

 for settlement in order that timbered and 

 non-agricultural lands may be kept in re- 

 serve for forest purposes. About a dozen 

 parties are now in the field engaged at this 

 work. All lapsed timber licenses and 

 leases are examined by the Forest Branch 

 before action is taken towards their dis- 

 position and all areas on which there is 

 merchantable timber or which are unfit 

 for agriculture are reserved for forest 

 purposes. Field examinations have recent- 

 ly been made of the watershed of Sey- 

 mour and Capilano Creeks north of Van- 

 couver, from which Vancouver and sur- 

 rounding municipalities derive their water, 

 and recommendations have been made that 

 the forested watersheds of these creeks be 

 set ui)art as forest reserve. 



'The fire season which is now about over 

 in the Province has resulted very favor- 

 ably. There are about 1,800 miles of rail- 

 roa<l under construction through timbered 

 land in the Province. Construction was 

 carried on clearing right of way and work- 

 ing in the timber through the summer and 

 although a large number of fires were 

 started they were all extinguished by for- 

 est officers before any damage resulted. 

 The total area burned over by fires start- 



155 



