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Canadian Forestry Journal, A^ril, ip20. 169 



Canada 's Job in Handling Forests 



b\) Dr. C. D. Howe 

 Acting Dean, Faculty of Forestry, University of Toronto 



A Keen and Accurate View oj a 

 Pressing National Problem 



The land area of Canada is approxi 

 mately 3.5 million square miles. Our 

 iirst point to consider is what pro- 

 portion of this enormous extent of 

 country is covered with trees and 

 what proportion of the tree covered 

 area is today actually bearing saw 

 logs or pulpwood. By referring to 

 the map, we first notice the area in 

 the far north designated as Barren 



Lands. This area includes at least 

 one half million square miles, a region 

 in which the climatic conditions are 

 too inhospitable for trees, and often 



even for the more lowly plants. 



South of the Barren Lands there is 

 a very sparsely wooded transconti- 

 nental belt containing about 700,000 



square miles. This is the "Little 



Stick region," with real trees only 



along the water courses. It will never 



materially contribute to our suj^ply 



of saw logs or pulpwood, although 



the scattered local patches of forest 



will always be valuable to explorers. 



fur traders, and we hope some day 



to the mining interests which may 



develop there. This is the region also 



that we hope some day may be cover- 

 ed with flowinp- herds of reindeer. Let 



me say in passing t,hat no one is more 



interested in the proposal to raise 



reindeer in this region than the for- 

 ester. The fundamental conception 



of his profession is that every acre 



of land should be producing some- 

 thing of value, and only the crop to 



which it is best adapted. A forester 



docs not wish any area to be covered 



with trees, if it will give a l)etter 



financial return to its owner in some 



other cro]:). There is no antagonism 



between the forester and the farmer. 



The forester lK\gins where the farmer 



leaves ofif. The slogan of the forester 

 is: Make the loafing acre work. 



The dark section roughly approximates the area of 

 commercially-valuable timber in the Dominion. 



As you know, the western part of 

 the Dominion is mountainous. It is 

 so mountainous that at least 200,000 

 square miles are above tree line — too 

 cold and too high for trees. As you 

 also know, the prairie-plains region 

 of Canada covers about 200,000 

 square miles. ^^^e don't know just 

 why this region is treeless. There 

 are many opinions, but very little 

 exact knowledge on the subject. 

 Since, however, this great area is on 

 the whole agricultural, or at least 

 capable of becoming agricultural, the 

 forester rejoices that it is treeless. 



Our Barren Lands. 



If we add these areas of treeless re- 

 gions, as given above, wr fiml that 

 1.600,000 square miles are incapable 

 iA jiroducing ct^miniercial forests. 

 Over 40 per cent of the land area of 

 Canada is either too cold, too high, 

 or too dry to produce saw logs or 

 even pulpwood. Phis is :i fact that is 



