Dominion Forestry Branch Work 



The Director of Forestrj', now has a per- 

 manent staff of thirty-eight in the head 

 office of the Forestry Branch at Ottawa. 

 Eight of these are technically trained forest- 

 ers engaged either in administrative work or 

 in the preparation of Branch bulletins. Now 

 that the fire season has come to a close, the 

 tedious work of checking fire-rangers' diaries 

 is practically over. Fortunately many of 

 the rangers possess the gift of brevity to a 

 remarkable degree as well as considerable 

 versatility in phraseology, which makes 

 even their diaries interesting in places. One 

 ranger, evidently Irish, reports having 

 'canaped on an island with twenty other 

 Indians.' In another place he 'broke camp 

 at God's Lak^in the morning and made 

 HeU's Gate by night.' 



The Reserves being actively administered 

 by the Forestry Branch have had a most 

 successful year. On the sixteen Reserves in 

 the four western provinces, from which com- 

 plete returns have come in for the fire season 

 from April to September, inclusive, the area 

 burnt over this year amounted to only.06 per 

 cent of the total area. The mature timber 

 burnt covered hardly fifty acres, or approxi- 

 mately .0002 per cent of the total area of 

 these Reserves, the loss being but a few 

 hundred dollars. The chief loss was the 

 partial destruction of about 2,700 acres of 



}roung timber, which was, however, potential- 

 y valuable. A great part of the area burnt 

 on these Reserves consisted of grass lands 

 around the shores of sloughs, or natural 

 meadows, settlers and campers being re- 

 sponsible for most of the fires. That these 

 fires were, in the great majority of cases, 

 extinguished before reaching the timber and 

 that too, with a total extra cost of little 

 over $200.00, reflects great credit on the 

 administration of these Reserves. 



The fire-record in the Fire Districts out- 

 side the Reserves, has been even more remark- 

 able, for there the Fire Rangers are not aided 

 in the fighting of fire by trail, telephone 

 line, lookout station, or fire-guard. Ther? 

 are eleven of these Districts each in charge of 

 a chidf Fire Ranger and it is to the initiative 

 of these men tnat much of the season's 

 success is due, the total estimatecl damage 

 done to merchantable timber by the several 

 hundred fires reported being less than $1,(X)0. 

 Co-operation m firo-protection has been 

 secured from the campers, packers and 

 Indians, to whose carelessness with camp- 

 fires many of the fires of other years were 

 due. The Chief Ranger in northern Mani- 



toba was recently at Norway House when 

 treaty money was being paid to between 

 800 and 900 Indians. He writes: 'The Chief 

 and councillors assured me that they stood 

 firm for the protection of the timber.' The 

 fire rangers in this district, many of whom 

 are Indians, average 16^ miles, by canoe, 

 each day rain or shine, not excluding Sunday. 

 That patrol work alone can be made effect- 

 ual when conscienciously performed, is 

 shown from the fact that in the Coast Fir 

 Ranging District, in British Columbia of 

 the 124 potential forest fires occurring in the 

 period from Apiil to August, only one ex- 

 ceeded ten acres in extent before being 

 extinguished by the Rangers, who, in only 

 four cases, had to call in extra assistance. 



Of the eight forest survey parties doing 

 reconnaissance work in western Canada this 

 Summer, all but two have completed their 

 work, as a result of which it is not unlikely 

 that substantial additions will be made next 

 year to the areas now included in Dominion 

 Forest Reserves. 



Mr. Melrose examined approximately 

 1,800 square miles of forested land situated 

 north of Battleford, and consisting principally 

 of low sand and gravel ridges with numerous 

 sloughs which towards the north gave place 

 to muskeg. The poplar type covered 40 

 j)or cent, of the area giving place to white 

 spruce on th? better drained soils, spruce 

 being the ultimate type. Few of the trees 

 have attained full growth for almost the en- 

 tire area has been burnt over in the last 75 

 years and on over 100 square miles, as a re- 

 sult of repeated fires, tree-growth has been 

 entirely wiped out. 



Mr. Connell, who had charge of a party 

 in the Pasquia Hill region north of the Por- 

 cupine Reserve in eastern Saskatchewan, 

 examined over three thousand square miles 

 of country most of which was hilly and cov- 

 ered with boulder-clay (consisting mostly of 

 boulders), making it unfitted for agriculture 

 but very suitable for forestry purposes. 

 There are some fine stands of poplar and 

 spruce although fire had done great damage 

 here, too. 



Mr. Roberts, in charge of a party operat- 

 ing northwest of Prince Albert, examined 

 about eighteen hundred square miles of 

 hilly or rolling sand-lands containing tlio 

 head- waters of several large rivers flowing 

 towards Hudson Bay. The growth is 

 mostly young poplar and spruce which, if 

 protected from fire, will soon be providing 

 timber to the settlers in that region. G.E.B. 



165 



