Canadian Forestry Journal, May, ip20. 



fW 261 



when a strip outside the Grand Trunk 

 right-of-way through Algonquin Park was 

 thoroughly cleared of inflammable debris, 

 through co-operation between the provin- 

 cial government and the railway company. 

 The notable reduction in railway fire 

 damage in that territorj^ is sufficient wit- 

 ness of the efficacy of the work. 



DOMINION LANDS. 



Throughout the period of the war. the 

 technical work of the Dominion Forestry 

 Branch was greatly handicapped through 

 enlistments for overseas servcie. During 

 the past year, however, this situation has 

 undergone much improvement, though the 

 Branch still finds it impossible to secure 

 a sufficient number of trained foreseters 

 to meet its requirements. Only a com- 

 paratively small num-ber of men will be 

 graduating this year from Canadian for- 

 est schools, so it will be at least another 

 year, or perhaps more, before new men 

 trained in forestry will be available in 

 anything like adequate numbers to meet 

 the pressing demands of the situation. 



Since the beginning of the war, no ad- 

 ditions have been made to the Dominion 

 forest reserves. Additional large area,'^ 

 have been found, upon careful examina- 

 tion, to be unstiitable for agriculture anc' 

 to be chiefly valuable for permanent tim- 

 ber production. The early inclusion of 

 these areas within permanent forest re- 

 serves, by Act of Parliament, is highly de- 

 sirable, in the public interest. 



Settlers' clearing fires have alwavs con- 

 stituted a source of serious fire danger to 

 the Dominion forest reserves. T" Mani- 

 toba, Saskatchewan and British Columbia 

 there is provincial legislation providing 

 for the regulation of such fires under tht 

 permit system-, which is also giving ad 

 mirable results in all the eastern forest 

 provinces. In Manitoba, and in the Rail- 

 way Belt of British Columbia, this legis- 

 lation is effective as to Dominion lands, 

 because of co-operation between the pro- 

 vincial authorities and the officials of the 

 Dominion Forestry Branch, under which 

 the latter have authority as officers of the 

 province to enforce the legislation. Ir 

 Saskatchewan, while the fundamental leg- 

 islation is in existence, co-operation be- 

 tween the two organizations is lacking, as 

 a result of which Dominion lands hav 

 suffered unnecessarily from fire, in terri- 

 tory where no adequate provincial fores' 

 protective agency is locally available. In 

 Alberta, on the other hand, there is no 

 such legislation, and Dominion forest 

 lands continue to suffer from unrcgulatec' 

 clearing fires. 



The Dominion forest products labora- 

 tories at Montreal, maintained by the Do 

 minion Govenmicnt, through the Forestry 

 Branch, in co-operation with McGill Uni- 

 versity, have in the past rendered most 



valuable services of a public charactei 

 During the period of the war, much work 

 of a most valuable character was perforrt?-- 

 ed in connection with the production of 

 explosives. The peace time activities of 

 these laboratories are calculated to prove 

 of the greatest value to the lumbering and 

 pulp- and paper industries. As a result 

 however, of war conditions, coupled with 

 an inadequate salary scale, the work of 

 these laboratories has been greatly dis- 

 organized through the loss of personnel. 

 It is greatly to be hoped that the reclassi- 

 fication of the Dominion Civil Service 

 now under way, may render it possible 

 for these laboratories to be re-organized 

 on an adequate basis, and thus to resume 

 and increase their great usefulness to the 

 people of Canada. The branch laborator}, 

 at Vancouver, maintained in co-opepratior 

 with the University of British Columbia 

 has also done valuable work, and should 

 be contniued. 



BRITISH COLUMBIA. 



The outstanding development of the 

 \-ear in British Columbia has been *hp re 

 organization of the Forest Branch. The 

 re-arrangement of the personnel, and the 

 revision of procedure, both in the head 

 office and in the field, will result in great- 

 ly increased effficiency and will make i' 

 possible for the branch to fulfill its func 

 tion of serving the public in a more ado- 

 Quate way than ever before. 



The return from overseas service of 

 quite a number of foresters who were for- 

 merlj^ on the field and office staff, coupled 

 with new accessions from- other sources 

 have made the reorganization possible. An 

 important incident has been an upware' 

 revision of the entire salary scale, which 

 will go far toward making it possible tc 

 attract and retain the best men. The 

 salary scale now established sets the pace 

 for all other governmental forestry or 

 ganizations throughout Canada. 



Legislation has been enacted which pro- 

 vides for the compulsory disposal of log- 

 ging slash in accordance with the direc- 

 tions of the local forest officer. In case of 

 lands contributing to the forest protection 

 fund, the cost of such work is sharec' 

 equally between this fund and the timbei 

 owner. Partly as a result of this legisla- 

 tion, approximately 120,000 acres of slash 

 has been burned during the past year. The 

 great bulk of this was in the Coast dis- 

 trict, where broadcast burning is the rule 

 and where the additional cost involved in 

 slash burning is comparatively low. in 

 many cases being practically negligible 

 In the Interior, there were three slash 

 burning operations, totalling 1.87.") acres 

 which were burned at an additional cos 

 of 84 cents per acre. 



The past year has been a bad one for 

 forest fires, the total number reported be- 



