Canadian Forestrx Journal, June, 1920. 



297 



Is the Forest Safe for Trees ? 



By Dr. C. D. Howe 



Now let us turn to the cut-over 

 lands which have not been burned 

 since the logging operations. Surely 

 these are safe places for trees because 

 they have escaped destruction by 

 fire. However, let us inquire into 

 the situation, using as a basis the re- 

 sults of an investigation being car- 

 ried on by the Commission of Con- 

 servation on cut-over pulpwood lands 

 in the River Rouge and St. Maurice 

 Valley in Quebec. The original for- 

 est in the St. Maurcie Valley was 

 dominated by white pine, scattering 

 giant trees from three to six feet in 

 diameter and from lOO to 500 feet 

 high, towering 50 to 75 feet above 

 the associated birch, maple, spruce 

 and balsam. The region was first 

 lumbered for pine between 60 and 70 

 years ago, and the lumbering was 

 continued down to 35 years ago. 

 Judging from the stumps still left, the 

 number of trees ran from 5 to 30 per 

 acre. 



A Riddance of Pines. 



Today one sees only an odd pine 

 in that region, on bluffs and ridges 

 inaccessible to the logger ; and this is 

 a region that has yielded enormous 

 quantities of pine logs. The trees 

 have gone from the forest, and, more 

 important still, they have left no 

 young behind them to take their 

 places. I mean, under the general 

 forest cover. There are scattered 

 young trees along the lake shores, in 

 old logging roads, and in other open 

 places, but iii the deep forest I could 

 count all the young pines I saw in 

 two summers' work on the fingers of 

 my two hands, and yet old pine 

 stumps are everywhere. The forest 

 has been treated in such a manner 

 that the white pine has been crowd- 

 ed out. In order to prosper, it de- 

 mands plenty of overhead light. Th • 

 openings in the forest made by the 

 removal of the pine filled in with 

 hardwoods ; by overshading, the lat- 

 ter stifled the light-needing yc^ung 

 pine trees before they could get a 



real start in life. This region has 

 been a very unsafe place for the 

 second generation of the pine. We 

 do not know yet how general this 

 condition is. We hope to know 

 some time, as our investigations pro- 

 gress, but, if this condition does ex- 

 tend throughout the unburned old 

 pine lands in eastern Canada, the 

 position of the white pine becomes 

 serious. I have already demonstrat- 

 ed what is happening to white pine 

 burned. If we put its position on 

 these two classes of areas together, 

 that is. on the burned and unburned 

 lands, it will be seen that the main- 

 tenance of the white pine in our for- 

 ests is, indeed, at a very critical 

 point. 



What Examination Shows. 

 During the past two summers the 

 Commission's investigators of the 

 condition of affairs on the cut-over 

 lands ha\'e actually counted the small 

 spruce and balsam trees on 300 

 acres. By the strip method a timber 

 cruise usually covers five per cent, of 

 the area. • On this basis, our forest 

 regeneration survey, conducted in 

 ])ractically the same manner as a 

 timber cruise, represents a five per 

 cent, cruise of 6,000 acres, or about 

 nine scpiare miles of cut-over lands. 

 These areas were, as a rule cut twice 

 in the earlier days of lumbering for 

 s])ruce saw logs, since they ha\c V^een 

 cut over twice, and some of them 

 three times, for pulpwood. Let us- 



now turn to these cut-over lands and 

 see if they are to remain continuous- 

 ly ])roductive in terms of spruce 

 saw-logs, or. folK>wing more closely 

 my theme, to find if, untler the j^res- 

 ent logging methods, the forest is a 

 safe place for spruce trees. 



