Canadian Forestry Journal, September, 1919 



375 



FOREST FIRE LOSSES IN THE WEST 



(Covering 1919 Season to end of June.) 



Owing to a most unfortunate combination 

 of adverse factors, the present fire season gives 

 promise of being one of the most disastrous 

 which has been encountered since the Dominion 

 Forestry Branch was estabHshed twenty years 

 ago. 



In the first place there was very little snow 

 last winter and when this disappeared early in 

 April it was followed by an abnormal period of 

 drought and continuous, high, variable winds, 

 which in some parts, and more particularly in 

 southern and central Alberta, has continued up 

 to the present time. Coincident also with this 

 failure of precipitation, the water in the lakes 

 and streams has never before, in the memory 

 of old settlers, been so low as during the past 

 spring and early summer. 



1. — Forest Reserves. 

 A. — Manitoba. The first serious fires to at- 

 tack or threaten the forest reserves broke out 

 along the east side of the Porcupine Forest Re- 

 serve in Manitoba early in May. These ap- 

 pear to have been settlers' clearing fires that by 

 accident or design got beyond control and re- 

 sulted in very heavy loss of merchantable tim- 

 ber in licensed berts and of young growth out- 

 side. In the other Manitoba reserves no fires 

 of serious magnitude have as yet occurred, al- 

 though the danger has been acute and many 

 small fires have been fought and extinguished. 

 A factor which increased the difficulty of pro- 

 tecting the reserves is that the labor famine 

 during the past two or three years has made 

 it almost impossible to maintain the boundary 

 fireguards as efficiently as is necessary. 



B Saskatchewan During the latter half of 

 May extensive and serious fires raged through- 

 out northern Saskatchewan and did great dam- 

 age to the forest reserves. It is now believed, 

 however, that the loss is not so great as at first 

 feared, but so far the forest officers have been 

 busy in patrolling and in fighting incipient fires 

 that definite reports are still awaited. The 

 reserves south of Prince Albert appear to have 

 escaped any considerable injury this year up 

 to date. The most noteworthy cause of the 

 widespread fires in northern Saskatchewan ap- 

 pears to have been the unregulated use of fire 

 by settlers, in clearing their lands. The ex- 

 cellent "Forest Fire Act" of Saskatchewan is in 



this regard largely a "dead letter" because as 

 yet the Provincial Government has made no 

 organized provision for requiring the settler to 

 secure a fire permit before setting out fire. It 

 is to be hoped that this important section of 

 the Act will hereafter be enforced. 



In summing up the general situation in Sas- 

 katchewan, the District Inspector says in an in- 

 terim report dated June 1 1 th : "Starting about a 

 month ago one was, in travelling about the coun- 

 try, amazed at the number of land and meadow 

 clearing fires set out and apparently running 

 at will along the southern boundary of our re- 

 serves and fire ranging districts from one side 

 of the province to the other. These fires dur- 

 ing the last three weeks swept north almost 

 in a solid line into the reserves and ranging dis- 

 tricts. With the extreme weather conditions at 

 the time all efforts to check them were futile. 

 The loss on the reserves and fire ranging dis- 

 tricts cannot at the moment be even guessed at, 

 but it is certain that it is large. Every one of 

 the northern reserves was to a large, but un- 

 known extent, burned over. However, I am of 

 the opinion that when we have had an oppor- 

 tunity to map in the burned areas these will 

 probably not be as large as at present is feared." 



C- -Alberta — Coming next to Alberta we are 

 confronted with an exceedingly grave condition 

 of affairs. By the middle of May the reserves 

 in southern and central Alberta had become 

 dry as tinder, and indeed the fire situation gen- 

 erally throughout Alberta became extremely ser- 

 ious. By careful patrolling and good fortune 

 the Crowsnest forest was kept free of fire until 

 early in June when a destructive fire which 

 killed at least fifteen million feet of valuable 

 timber, broke out in the Porcupine hills. This 

 fire was finally extinguished after a three weeks' 

 fight. 



Perhaps the worst fire so far reported on any 

 of the reserves is the Sheep Creek fire in the 

 Bow River Forest. This tremendously destruc- 

 tive conflagration originated through the care- 

 lessness of a railway laborer who failed to pro- 

 perly extinguish a hre made to boil a pot of 

 tea. It escaped into the Lineham Lumber Com- 

 pany's slash on May 22nd and continued lo 

 spread until about July 1 5th. in spite of every 

 ( ConliiuicJ on page 382) 



