Canadian Forestry. Journal, March, 1919 117 



utilizing these inferior species to operate with- Besides all classes are interested in such a 



in the province, thus profitably utilizing material proceeding. The lumberman in order that he 



which is at present going to waste. may know whether or not he has somewhere else 



..^ , ~, . r \ 1 7 '^° ^^^^ when he has exhausted his present hold- 



Second: The estimate of the annua growth j^^^. ^^^ ^^^^^ ^^^^^^^ -^ -^ ^^ -^^ -^^^^^^^ ^^ 



will determine whether or not the annual cut can j^„^^ ^^^^^jy ^j^^^ ^^^ -^^ ^^^^^^. ^^^ -^^^^^^^^ -^ 



be increased, or whether to perpetuate the in- p^^lic securities to know what guarantees his 



dustry. restrictions should be placed on certain ^onds; and. finally the people of the country in 



species to regulate the cut. ^^j^^ ^^^^ ^^^,-^^^ ^^^ ^^^^^^ ^^^^^^ ^^^^ ^^^^, 



"Third: The information on soils will permit may be enabled to check with a jealous eye the 



of directing settlement to districts offering the means being taken to preserve to posterity their 



greatest prospect of success, and withholding national heritage. 



non-agricultural land from settlement, thus pro- From an address given before the Canadian For- 



tecting both the future settler and the licensee." estry Association at Montreal, January 29, 1919. 



WASTING THE PRAIRIE PROVINCE FORESTS 



For years, the Canadian Forestry Association and the Commission of Conservation 

 have strongly urged that the prairie provinces of this Dominion deserved better treatment 

 than to have their forest possessions rapidly depreciated by unregulated exploitation. 



The time has now arrived when in the midst of a national programme for organizing 

 the country's wealth-producing powers, the continued sacrifice of the West's own timber 

 supply can hardly be permitted to continue. 



When the Dominion Forestry Branch was first organized, the Dominion Government's 

 obvious intention was to give the then "Superintendent of Forestry" supervision of licensed 

 timber berths. This has become a dead letter. The timber berths are operated by the 

 "Timber and Grazing Branch" of the Department of Interior, and on these large areas 

 (approximately 6,680 square miles") there is little, if any, attempt to impose those 

 forestry regulations which alone can maintain these areas as sources of timber supply. 



THE DOMINION FORESTRY BRANCH IS A FOREST CONSERVATION DEPART- 

 MENT, by which the Dominion Government, as controller of the timber resources in the 

 prairie provinces and the "railway belt" of British Columbia, seeks to protect and improve 

 the Forest Reserves amounting to 25,000,000 acres. Note the anomaly! While the 

 Forestry Branch institutes measures of conservation on its own limited domain, creates 

 forest nurseries and plants millions of trees, the most valuable bodies of public-owned 

 timber in the West are without any regulation whatever. The principles of conservative 

 lumbering are not observed, because the commercial operator has no need to observe them. 



In other words, the Dominion Forestry Branch with its field staff of technical men, is 

 debarred from the forest where it should operate. It practices Forestry on the least valu- 

 able areas. The really valuable part of the timber resources of Manitoba, Saskatchewan 

 and Alberta is outside its jurisdiction. 



What is the remedy? 



Give the Dominion Forestry Branch supervision of logging operations on the licensed 

 timber berths now handled by the Timber and Grazing Branch. It is a simple formula, 

 easily filled by the Minister of the Interior in whose progressive spirit the Forestry Journal 

 has full confidence. 



*Timber licenses in 



Manitoba 1,241 square miles 



Saskatchewan 1,672 square miles 



Alberta 2,027 square miles 



Also 651 square miles under permit to portable sawmills, cordwood operators, etc. 



