122 



Canadian luircstry Journal. March, i(j2n 



The Forestry Problem in Ontario 



By E. J. Zavitz, Provincial Forester 



How the Province Can Take Highest Profits from 50 Million 



Acres of Forest Lands 



A small bt'.i^inninj^;- has been made 

 in tree ])l;intiniT^, but the great pro- 

 vince <»f nnlario has scarcely awak- 

 ened to the real needs of a progressi\'e 

 forest policy. Ontario is still in the 

 |)rimitive stages of exploitation, and 

 is only beginning to feel the pinch of 

 high ^voo{l prices and lack of siii)i)ly. 

 We have not yet begun to consider 

 our forests as producing continuous 

 wood cro])s. 



I present this ])niblcm to you be- 

 cause it is your problem. You ?re 

 joint owners in at least fifty millio i 

 acres of forest lands which can never 

 come under the plow and -can on'y 

 be kept productixe l)y the growing of 

 forest crops. 



The Laurentian plateau, ext' nd'ug 

 from the Ottawa river to the Mani- 

 toba boundary, comprises a potential 

 forest area of fifty million acres, an 

 area larger that that of England and 

 Wales. This vast region of Archean 

 rock formation has here and there 

 pockets of soil which may be suited 

 for agricultur;-, but in the aggregate 

 this area must be managed for forest 

 crops if it is to remain permanently 

 productive. 



As joint owners in this property 

 you are interested in seeing it man- 

 aged so that it will yield a perpetual 

 revenue to ])rotect you from the bur- 

 dens of direct taxation. At present 

 our gross revenue is about one and a 

 half million doPars from this pro- 

 perty. I need only point to the forest 

 revenues of some other countries to 

 indicate the possibilities of futiu-e 

 revenues to be expected from our per- 

 manent forest regions. Previous to 

 the war France had 2,700,000 acres of 

 state forests producing an annual net 

 revenue of about four and a hah' mil- 

 lion dollars, or about $1.7=; per acre. 

 Saxony, with 430,000 acres of state 

 forests, realized an annual net reve- 



nue of $^.30 per acre. Thrrtughout 

 w^estern luiro])e this story can he re- 

 peated of state and municii)al forests 

 ])r()ducing splenclid returns. 



Example in France. 



Many of our experienced lumber- 

 men serving in France were amazed 

 at the w^onderful condition and pro- 

 ductiveness of the French forests. 

 That the timber from the forests of 

 France helped save the situation in 

 the lat ' struggle is now a record of 

 history. 



Do you know the story of these 

 French forests or that of the forests 

 of a large part of central and western 

 Furope? At the end of the i8th cen- 

 tury conditions Avere similar to those 

 to be found in many parts of Ontario 

 today. Great regions of sand wastes 

 — overcut and burned forest areas — 

 this was the story in Central Europe 

 at the time of the French Revolution. 

 You have heard of the reclamation 

 of the sand wastes in France. One 

 area of two million acres known as 

 the Landes, has been reforested dur- 

 ing the last century, and is today 

 covered with a f(^rest valued at one 

 hundred million dollars. Not only 

 ha\'e they been reforesting waste 

 areas, Imt the mutilated forest^ of 

 western liurope during the past cen- 

 tury have been brought up to a high 

 state of productiveness. 



At present we have great sand, 

 areas in Ontario denuded of forest 

 growth and lying waste. In the non- 

 agricultural regions of the Laurentian 

 plateau we are still cutting and burn- 

 ing with little thought of the future. 

 In many parts of this region Avhere 

 definite investigations have been 

 made we find that unregulated cut- 

 ting and burning have left a state of 

 affairs which will cost a large amount 

 of time and monev to restore even to- 



