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Canadian Forestry Journal, Fcbruar};, 1920 



future policy in disposing of Crown timber can- 

 not be soundly planned without. Attention to 

 this is made more necessary because the cutting 

 out of the timber supply of the Southern States, 

 which has been so abnormally speeded up by 

 war and reconstruction needs, will soon subject 

 our western forests to a vastly increased de- 

 mand. 



YOUNG TIMBER SUFFERS. 

 While fires in mature timber are those most 

 noticed, it is the young, growing forest that suf- 

 fers most. Repeated burnings in areas no long- 

 er able to reseed themselves readily, destroy re- 

 production for long periods of years, and result 

 in brush and scrub, where good young timber 

 should be. From the reforestation point of view 

 no duty comes before protection of young 

 growth from fire — that is to say, young growth 

 on true forest land. Obviously, for a Gov- 

 ernment department there is consequently the 

 duty of land classification, so that that which is 

 fit for agriculture, should be separated from that 

 which nature properly devotes to forest repro- 

 duction. And to secure the future crop, forest 

 fire prevention is the supreme duty of all. 



It is upon this that our department has main- 

 ly concentrated hitherto. Through the adoption 

 of up-to-date methods and most modern equip- 

 ment .every effort has been made to establish 

 a high standard of efficiency. The increased 

 cost of everything, makes necessary a corre- 

 sponding increase in the fire tax to 2 cents an 

 acre -cheerfully agreed to by the interests taxed 

 — while the lire patrol system has been strength- 

 ened very considerably by the re-organization of 

 staff, just completed. Prevention of forest fires 

 is not the only matter involved — there is also the 

 vitally important question of using fire to se- 

 cure right reproduction, a question that needs 

 careful and imediate study by the investigation 

 office of the department. 



INSECT DAMAGE. 



Widespread devastation by bark beetles of 

 some of the most valuable timber areas of the 

 Province is taking place in the yellow pine 

 country. Thirty million feet is the estimate of 

 damage done in the Princeton section — no one 

 knows the full extent of the loss. The whole 

 stand of yellow pine in the interior is threatened 

 with extermination. 



STUDY OF DAMAGE. 



Scientific study seems to promise some slight 

 hope of checking the devastation, and a com- 

 bined effort is being made this winter by the 

 department and the timber owners concerned, 

 with the co-operation of the Dominion Ento- 



mologist, to see what can be done in the re- 

 cently attacked area of the Coldwater Valley. 

 More than the loss of timber is at stake there 

 is the loss of industrial activity, commercial busi- 

 ness, public revenue in the sections of the Pro- 

 vince thus affected. The winter's work is con- 

 cerned with cutting and salvaging the infested 

 timber and burning the debris from it, so as to 

 destroy the insects before they migrate to fresh 

 timber in the spring. Provision is being made 

 in the forthcoming estimates for continuing con- 

 trol experiments and everything that the depart- 

 ment can do to hold the devastation in check 

 will be done. Here again is shown the grave 

 necessity of carrying on forest investigation as 

 a maojr function of the department. Insect 

 damage obviously offers a most difficult problem 

 since the cost of control may in some cases be 

 prohibitive; and it is by no means confined to 

 yellow pine. Larch and lodgepole pine in the 

 C. P. R. tie reserves in the Yahk country are 

 known to be infected. The spruce budworm is 

 reported in the Lillooet district and on Van- 

 couver Island, and public attention has been 

 drawn to the damage done in the big timber in 

 Stanley Park. The blister rust is threatening 

 extermination of the eastern white pine. Meas- 

 ures have been taken to prevent its spread west- 

 ward, but we must watch carefully for it here. 



PULP INDUSTRY DEVELOPMENT. 



On the coast the pulp and paper industry is 

 already on an established footing. The vast 

 pulpwood areas of the interior and the north 

 are still untouched. Increasing exhaustion of 

 supply in the Eastern States means, inevitably, 

 development of the pulp industry in interior 

 British Columbia, in the near future. To com- 

 pile information concerning our resources as a 

 necessary function of a forest investigation 

 office. 



FORESTRY IN 1920. 



The collection of a three million dollar forest 

 revenue and the carrying out of current busi- 

 ness, including the organized prevention of for- 

 est fires, is thus only one side of the work the 

 department must carry on in 1920 if it is to 

 discharge its duty properly. Vague theoretical 

 studies are not in question — there is direct 

 necessity for investigation of matters which 

 have a practical bearing on current business and 

 plans for the immediate future. Information 

 is needed as a guide in the use of fire after 

 logging, especially now that the law' provides 

 for a comprehensive scheme of slash disposal all 

 over the province; as a basis of regulations in 



