18 



Canadian Forestry Journal, January, 1920 



FORESTRY AND IRRIGATION INTERDEPENDENT 



Natural Storage Provided by Tree Growth 



Absolutely Essential in the Canadian 



West. 



The following information regarding forestry 

 and irrigation is taken from an address before 

 tl->e Winnipeg Rotary Club by Mr. Robson Black, 

 Secretary of the Canadian Forestry Associa- 

 tion. In view of the fact that the Western Can- 

 ada Irrigation Association at its annual conven- 

 tion, drafted a resolution to th egovernment 

 urging compulsory tree planting by the farm- 

 ers on the western prairies, and suggesting a 

 small tax, which would be remitted when the 

 trees were set out, it is of interest. 



The Dominion Government is spending an- 

 nually more than $700,000 on the protection 

 and administration of western forests, and the 

 wood resources of the three prairie provinces 

 outside of the Dominion forest reserves 

 are in a state of progressive deterioration. 

 Eighty per cent of the west's original inheritance 

 of splendid forests have been destroyed by fires. 



TIMBER GROWING PROFITABLE. 



Over one-third of the province of Saskatch- 

 ewan, and half of Alberta are adapted by nature 

 to the profitable growing of timber, and in view 

 of the experiences of the eastern provinces, and 

 European countries, offer possibilities that might 

 rival profits from grain. The day of forest 

 butchery must cease and scientific management 

 and replantinc; be introduced. The European 

 practice which regards the timber tract as a 

 source of permanent crop should be adapted to 

 Canadian conditions. 



Whilst such a large portion of the prairie 

 province is non-arable, forestry must be prac- 

 ticed unless these vast areas are to hang as 

 ^ millstones about the necks of the grain pro- 

 ducers. Forests must be grown as a cheap 

 source of timber and to establish in northern 

 localities pulp and paper mills, when the ex- 

 hausted limits of the east force the paper in- 

 dustries to take up manufacturing in the north 

 of the prairie provinces. This constitutes one 

 of the strongest hopes of industrial develop- 

 ment in these provinces. So scarce has spruce 

 become that any province containing tracts in 



commercial quantities can attract industries to 

 it and turn wildernesses into thriving industrial 

 centres. 



The great development of the past few years 

 along the lines of irrigation, and the demand 

 for further extensions must not be overlooked 

 in the pleas for scientific forestculture. Irriga- 

 tion projects in the western provinces are all 

 hinged upon the management of the provincial 

 forest areas. Without the natural storage pro- 

 vided by abundant tree growth at the sources of 

 the streams, the distribution of water to the 

 millions of acres in the dry belt is an enterprise 

 of almost prohibitive cost. 



At many of the meetings of the Canadian 

 Forestry Association in the western provinces 

 during October, the following telegram from 

 Col. J. S. Dennis, Chief Commissioner of the 

 Department of Colonization and Development 

 of the Canadian Pacific Railway, was read. Col. 

 Dennis, who is an ex-president of the Forestry 

 Association, and also may well be called "The 

 Father of Canadian Irrigation," sent the mes- 

 sage at the Secretary's request: 



"The destruction of timber on the eastern 

 slope of the Rocky Mountains and on other 

 drainage areas in the west through fire is a 

 serious menace to the successful operation of 

 existing irrigation systems or their extension 

 in southern Alberta or southern Saskatchewan 

 and in the continued supply of water m drain- 

 age channels for stock watering. This is due 

 to the fact that when timber and underbrush 

 on drainage areas are destroyed the run-off 

 from these areas is lost through floods with in- 

 cidental damage, at periods of the year when 

 it should be given off slowly to be of use for 

 irrigation or stock watering. 



"In my opinion one of the most important 

 matters in the west to-day is to make every 

 effort to prevent destruction of timber on our 

 timbered areas through forest fires." 



This he has followed up by the following 

 article: 



