The Fire Season in British Columbia^ 



The Vancouver News- Advertiser re- 

 cently had a very appreciative article 

 of the work of Mr. H. R. MacMillan 

 and the British Columbia Forest 

 Branch of which the following is a 

 condensation : 



The forest fire damage of 1913 is the 

 smallest in the history of this province. 

 While the weather is responsible for a 

 share of the credit, it is the efficiency and 

 the organization of the Forest Branch 

 which has been the big factor of this 

 splendid record. 



The Forest Branch has a staff which, in- 

 cluding forest guards and patrolmen on 

 duty, numbered 415 during the summer. 

 Thirty rangers and 280 guards protected 

 the forests from the fire, while eleven dis- 

 trict foresters and twenty-three forest 

 assistants were largely occupied with these 

 duties. Fifty-one of this staff of 415 were 

 railway patrolmen, part of whose wages 

 are refunded to the Government by the 

 railroads, and in addition there were about 

 sixty railway employees who were employ- 

 ed on patrol duty. 



Telephone Lines. 



The enormous area of merchantable tim- 

 ber which this small army was able to 

 supervise was practically honeycombed 

 with a system of telephones and look-out 

 stations. The telephones are built by the 

 forest branch for protection in places 

 where it is certain that commercial lines 

 will not be established in the near future. 

 The majority of the lines are tree lines, 

 poles being eliminated as far as possible 

 on account of expense. The work is car- 

 ried out under the supervision of expert 

 linemen, but a large part of the labour is 

 supplied by forest guards. 



There are two classes of telephone line 

 for fire protection. One is a long line built 

 from some central point through heavily 

 timbered country such as a river valley. 

 The object of this class is to make quick 

 communication with headquarters possible, 

 so that assistance and supplies can be sent 

 at the shortest notice. 



The second class of telephone line is that 

 built from some headquarters of the fire 

 patrol service to a look-out point command- 

 ing an extensive view of timbered country. 



Of these the Mount Baker Look-Out Sta- 

 tion is perhaps the most interesting. In 

 this station, at an elevation of over 7,000 

 feet, the Forest Branch has the honor of 

 having the highest telephone line in Can- 

 ada. From this station a view is possible 



in every direction of over thirty miles, and 

 a fire in any part of that area can be im- 

 mediately reported directly to the District 

 Forester at Cranbrook. 



The B. X. Mountain Look-Out Station, 

 in the Vernon district, commands the 

 largest single body of licence timber in the 

 district, and fires can be reported directly 

 to the District Forester at Vernon. The 

 Vernon City Council showed their apprecia- 

 tion of this project by voting $300 contri- 

 bution towards it. 



Trail Building. 



The policy of the Forest Branch in trail 

 building is firstly to open up important' 

 bodies of timber both for patrol and to 

 make them accessible in case of fire; and 

 secondly to connect up existing trails or 

 roads so as to allow round trip patrol. 

 Whenever horses are available, horse trails 

 are built. Heavy grading and rock work 

 are avoided wherever possible, but, on the 

 other hand, excessive grades are also 

 avoided, the idea being to obtain as great 

 a distance as possible of practicable trail 

 for the money. The trails are, as a rule, 

 built by small crews working under the 

 direction of a Forest Guard or Forest 

 Eanger. Made somewhat roughly at first, 

 they will be improved each year by the 

 Forest Guards during patrol and slack 

 times. In no case does the Forest Branch 

 build a trail where it is probable that one 

 will be built soon by other interests for 

 other purposes. 



Slash Burning. 



The chief slash burning carried on in 

 the province so far has been done in rail- 

 way construction, where all the debris is 

 piled in the centre and burned clean. In 

 addition, all those railroads under con- 

 struction have been required to pile all 

 slash resulting from the cutting of ties, 

 bridge timber and other construction tim- 

 ber. This work has been carried on by the 

 G. T. P., C. N. R. and P. G. E., etc., under 

 the direct supervision of officers of the 

 Forest Branch, with results on the whole 

 very gratifying. 



Less has been done in this direction by 

 loggers, but, nevertheless, an encouraging 

 start has been made. The Forest Branch 

 has used every opportunity to encourage 

 loggers to dispose of rheir slash with the 

 result that mis year over 15,000 acres of 

 slash were burned by private parties. It 

 is confidently expected that a much larger 

 amount will be burned next year, because 

 this was an unsually wet season and the 

 slash, therefore, difficult to burn. 



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