460 



Canadian fores/rp Journal, November. 1919 



Granted lands and shall be marked with a dif- 

 ferent mark. 



Skids, roads, bridges, camps, hovels.- No 

 spruce, white or red pine shall be used as skids 

 or in the building of roads or bridges where 

 other species are available. Where soft wood 

 must be used fir must be taken in preference 

 to spruce. Penalty, $7.50 per thousand feet.) 



Trees wholly killed by spruce bud worm or 

 fire must be yarded and browed separately from 

 living trees in order to obtain the two-thirds 

 rate of stumpage; otherwise the full rate will 



be charged. , • ir n ah 



Lodged and burned trees and windfalls. -All 



lodged trees, all spruce and white and red pine 

 necessarily cut out of roads, yards, landings, 

 etc., and any dead, burnt or blown down trees 

 suitable for lumber shall be taken out. (Penalty 

 $7.50 per thousand feet.) 



Protect young growth. — All reasonable care 

 must be taken to prevent injury to young spruce 

 trees below the diameter limit. 



Game protection.- Scalers are sworn to re- 

 port all violations of the Game Laws coming 

 under their notice. 



E. E. Smith, Minister of Lands and Mines 



Crown Land Office, 1st Oct.. 1919. 



QUEBEC LOGGING SLASH A GREAT MENACE 



By Henry Sorgius, Manager, 

 St. Maurice Forest Protective Association. 



The fire season of 1919 was without doubt sible to extinguish it without the aid of rain, 

 the driest season we have experienced in the St. The men have no chance whatever to work ori 

 Maurice Valley of Quebec since the formation account of the tree tops lying on the ground 

 f the St Maurice Forest Protective Associa- and the speed with which the fire travels in this 

 f ' ^In fact old bushmen of this region claim debris renders the work more or less dangerous. 

 tha"t' not since 35 years have they had such The writer is convinced that if it had not 

 drought accompanied with heavy winds. been for the loggmg slash neither one of these 

 S far our records show that 1 60 fires have fires would have caused any damage or expense 

 occurred in our territory; of these two got away as the rangers could easily extinguish said fires 

 from us and burned over large areas. One was at the time that they were discovered, if they 

 caused by a locomotive throwing sparks and had started in any other place than among the 

 the other was caused by dam-keepers. Both loggmg debris _ 

 fires were reached by our rangers before they Out of the 160 fires which have occurred, 57 

 had made any headway. The one at Vandry per cent of these were caused by the railroad 

 when rangers discovered same was about 25 and 10 per cent by the employees of the dif- 

 feet square and they could not handle it on ferent companies such as log drivers, dam keep- 

 account of the debris caused by lumbering and ers and explorers, not one fire was caused by 

 the heavy winds prevailmg at that moment. The the settlers, which goes to prove that the best 

 assistance of 12 men was obtained inside of 30 method to be used in forest protection is the 

 minutes but when they reached the scene of educational campaign, as shown by our work 

 the fire the area burned over was more than a done throughout the settled districts which has 

 mile and early the next morning we had more been crowned by success, 

 than two hundred men at the fire, but extm- 

 guishing it was almost impossible on account of 

 the logging slash. We could only delay the fire 

 until rain came. This fire burned about Z5 

 square miles, practically all m cut-over land^ 

 The second fire was discovered when it had 



The writer would strongly suggest that the 

 only method to be used to save our valuable 

 forests is to prevent fires and this can be done 

 in our territory by educating the people travel- 

 ling through our forest and also by having the 

 railway right of way and a strip adjoining this 

 onlV bur nTd'ove^ about "an acre and before 30 right of way properly cleaned every year, 

 miiiutes a crew of about 60 men was at the The bushman can be educated to prevent 



scene and we had over 200 men at the fire 

 early the next morning but, as in the previous- 

 mentioned fire, we could only delay the pro- 

 gress until rain came on account of the exist- 

 ing logging debris and the heavy winds pre- 

 vailing at that moment. This fire burned over 

 land. It is a known fact that when a fire once 

 gets started in logging slash it is almost impos- 



forest fires as easily as the settler, but this means 

 a little work, time, money and co-operation. 



The writer would suggest that all railways 

 traversing timbered sections should burn oil in- 

 stead of coal. 



The laws in regard to forest protection of this 

 province are as good as we want them in as far 

 as the St. Maurice Valley is concerned. 



