Canadian Forestry Journal, April, ig20. 



189 



Why British Columbia Needs a Forest School 



by Captain H. R. Christie, M. C. Victoria, B.C. 



Education has proved the l)est na- 

 tional investment. It is the stabilizer 

 of society. The countries and the 

 peoples which have best stood the 

 terrific strains of war and peace are 

 those which foster education. It is 

 the searchlight of industry. The na- 

 tions foremost in the world today are 

 those which study science and apply 

 it. 



An educational policy from an eco- 

 nomic standpoint should be based 

 primarily on the conservation — or in 

 other words, the wise utilization — of 

 natural resources. These, in British 

 Coltimbia, are chiefly forests, miner- 

 als, agricultural land and fisheries. 

 The University of British Columbia 

 has well-established faculties in agri- 

 culture and mining. There is every 

 reason also for the provision of a 

 factilty of forestry. 



Put the Scientist at Work Here ! 



The forests are probably the most 

 valuable natural resources in British 

 Columbia. They form the largest 

 single source of Crown revenue. Brit- 

 ish Columbia has been likened to -1 

 great timber farm. The simile is 

 good. The bulk of the land area is 

 forested and is more stiitable for 

 groA\ang timber than any other crop. 

 Over a large part of the province con- 

 ditions for timber growth arc more 

 favorable than elsewhere in Canada 

 Great quantities of timber have been 

 destroyed by fire, as in other pro- 

 vinces, but there still remains a stand 

 estimated at three hundred and fifty 

 billion board feet (tf saw timber 

 which is half the total stand (^f saw 

 timber credited to Canada. In addi- 

 tion, there are over sixty million acres 

 of young forest growing up. A crop 

 like that deserves some study. 



The province has a dominating in- 

 terest in this great wealth. Tinilicr 

 licenses and leases sold in the jjast 



yield revenue in the form of ground 

 rent and royalty. Timber sale licenses 

 of the present yield an additional re- 

 venue, called stumpage. Timber 

 licenses carry title to the timber, but 

 not to the land. That remains the 

 property of the Crown. The great 

 bulk of forest land in B.C. is owned 

 by the Crown. Even on most Crown- 

 granted land royalty is payable on 

 timber cut and sold. Assets carry 

 obligations. Provision for forest edu- 

 cation is an obvious responsibility of 

 the biggest timber owner in Canada 

 — the province of British Columbia. 

 Train Canadians at Home! 



Forest administration in British 

 Columbia, as elsewhere in Canada, is 

 handicapped by shortage of foresters. 

 British Columbia, lacking a forest 

 school, has been, and still is, depen- 

 dent on outside universities. These 

 were drained by the war, and will 

 have few graduates in forestry during 

 the next two or three years. There is 

 a great deal of investigative work re- 

 quiring attention. Examples are : 

 Studies of growth and yield, repro- 

 duction, regeneration, slash disposal, 

 reconnaissance, etc., etc. Men with a 

 university training are needed for this 

 work. The logical source for them 

 would be the under-graduates and 

 graduates of the Faculty of Forestry. 

 University of British Columbia. 



The approaching exhaustion of the 

 virgin timber stands of eastern and 

 southern North America is already 

 reilected by the accelerated demand 

 on the Pacific northwest. \\ist as 

 are the Avestern forests, they are no 

 more inexhaustible than were those 

 of the east. The time to practice con- 

 servation is before — not after. A diag- 

 nosis for the living is better than a 

 post mortem for the dead. The time 

 for a forest school in British Columbia 

 is now. 



