402 



Canadian Forcslr}) Journal, October, 1919 



viding ahead a series of cuttings within definite 

 periods and locations, and enforcing measures 

 essential to the maintenance of permanent 

 communities. The logging and milling opera- 

 tions can be carried out as at present under 

 timber-sales contracts. 



Lumber companies which operate on a large 

 scale naturally are interested especially m the 

 distant national or even international markets 

 and, as a rule, pay little attention to the local 

 needs. That this policy works to the disad- 

 vantage of local development is shown by the 

 experience of many co-operative agricultural 

 organizations, fruit and orange-growing associa- 

 tions, etc., which, although surrounded by 

 public and private forests, find it difficult to 

 secure box material for packing purposes except 

 at very high prices. The government would be 

 able to ameliorate this condition. 



The railroads of the country now under gov- 

 ernment control are using in the neighborhood 

 of six billion feet annually. Our army and 

 n&vy also use large quantities of wood. Much 

 of this demand could be supplied from the 

 national forests. If the public forests can 

 satisfy the government needs efficiently and 

 economically, and at the same time broaden 

 the opportunities of the people and provide 

 conditions for permanent forest communities, 

 it would be contrary to the national interests if 

 they were not used for that purpose. Such use 

 will merely serve as an illustration of how the 



forests in private hands can also be handled 

 so as to widen, instead of gradually to narrow, 

 the opportunities of labor in the industry. 



Towns that Stick. 



The basis for each forest community would 

 be the area within whose radius an annual cut 

 may be permanently maintained. A sawmill 

 suitably located within the area and contin- 

 uously supplied with timber from the growth 

 on land tributary to it would form the basis of 

 a sawmill community which could remain per- 

 manently in one location. The logging camps 

 which may have to change from time to time 

 would still form a part of the entire forest com- 

 munity organization. The lumberjacks who are 

 now in France engaged in logging and milling 

 operations on government and private forests 

 would be admirably fitted for similar logging 

 operations on the national forests. Possibly a 

 great deal of the logging equipment which is the 

 property of the United States Government may 

 be available upon the termination of the war 

 for this purpose. 



The shortage of pulp and paper in this coun- 

 try and the presence of a large supply of pulp 

 timber available on the national forests opens 

 another way for meeting the unemployment 

 problem. The pulp industry, more than the 

 sawmill town, provides opportunities for creat- 

 ing large village communities with healthful 

 social life. 



LOSS OF LIFE THROUGH FOREST FIRES 



W. M. Graham, commissioner of Indian Af- 

 fairs, has received a report from the Onion 

 Lake district, and has been informed that eight 

 Indians were burned to death, and fifteen 

 others injured, some of them seriously. The 

 report indicates that the sufferers are recover- 

 ing with the attention which has been given 

 them. Supplies are being rushed to destitute 

 Indians whose homes were destroyed by the 

 forest fires. 



The party who made the trip to Cold Lake 

 and Onion Lake in the reports sent to the 

 commissioner, state that the fire sprang up so 

 suddenly that the victims had no chance for 

 their lives, being caught in the burning inferno 

 without a hope of getting out. The injured 



managed to rush to a little lake nearby and 

 jumped in the water to put out the fire which 

 had already started to consume their clothes. 

 Even in the water the flames did their deadly 

 work, for they swept close and those unfortun- 

 ates who were near the shore in shallow water 

 had to dip under to avoid being burned. One 

 of the Indians in the water who had been badly 

 burned before reaching the lake nearly perished 

 but was assisted by a young girl, who kept roll- 

 ing him in the water. 



Supplies have reached the sufferers and at 

 present they are well cared for. More supplies 

 are being sent to them, special delivery being 

 effected by hiring farmers of the district to haul 

 the necessities on the overland trail. 



