lUnstratcd Canadian Forestry Magazine, December, 1^20 



563 



Where do We Stand in Timber? 



j4n interview with Senator William C. ^dwards, 

 Chairman of the Committee of Forests of the Commission of Conservation 



Few in Canada have done as much 

 •personal exploration of forest areas east 

 of the Rockies, or have put under way so 

 many investigations of the whereabouts 

 and quality of commercial timber stands, 

 as Senator Edwards, President of W. 

 C. Edwards & Co., Ltd., Ottawa, the 

 long-established lumber corporation re- 

 cently absorbed by the Riordon Company 

 Ltd. Twenty-five years ag'o, Senator 

 Edwards. repeatedly sounded a warning: 

 to the Canachan people regarding the 

 persistent over-estimate of Canada's 

 timber resources. At the time, and since, 

 Senator Edwards has been accused of 

 deep pessimism by those who seemingly 

 prefer to hold their heads in a purple 

 cloud of illusion even though their feet 

 carry them to the edge of a precipice. 

 The common cry of "inexhaustible tim- 

 ber resources" received little but protest 

 from Senator Edwards many years be- 

 fore any of the provincial governments 

 had considered making accurate inven- 

 tories of their timber supplies. 



'T am not one," said Senator Edwards 

 to the editor of the Canadian Forestry 

 Magazine, "who knows so little about 

 actual conditions as to predict a timber 

 famine within the .immediate future. 

 Forest exhaustion is not at hand in tlie 

 sense that our mills in Eastern Canada 

 will be obliged to shut down next year 

 or the year after, because of a failing- 

 supply of logs. I am (|uitc deiinitc. how- 

 ever, wlien T prophes\- tliat within liftcen 

 years, Eastern Canada will be drawing 

 the bulk of its sawn lunilur from llrili^li 

 Columbia and will \)v J>a\iiig l^r it 

 through the nose on arrouiil nf high 

 freight rates. 1 lie rt lUsunuT, nol tlu- 

 lumberman or tlir limit holder, is the 

 man who will pa\ the j)rice of forest 

 exhaustion. 



■■'riie plain I'art ot' the mallrr i^ lliat 

 the cutting ol' tiniinT liuiii^ Iia^ lirrn <i > 

 much more rapid than an\ new growth 

 could olTset, and ox^t and ahoxe ilu' 

 waste of the limit tln-oni'li iniudicii ni-- 



cutting forest fires have been permitted 

 to strip thousands of square miles of our 

 most valuable timber. 



"In addition to complete fire protec- 

 tion wdiich is the corner stone of any 

 scheme of forest conservation, what 

 would you suggest to counteract the pre- 

 sent decline of the country's timber 

 assets?" Senator Edwards was asked. 



"T have almost given up considering a 

 remedy," he replied, "as long as the 

 mass of the Canadian people look upon 

 their natural resources as the 'greatest 

 on earth' and the degree of exploitation 

 to date as a mere trifling percentage of 

 what can be .undertaken in future — I say. 

 as long as this point of view persists (and 

 it is common to the lumberman as to the 

 man on the street) it seems quite un- 

 likely that any public authority will take 

 remedial steps in the presence of this 

 absurdly cheerful outlook. I have not 

 very much hope, therefore in face of the 

 fictitious convictions of the Canadian 

 citizen that any scheme of conservation 

 will be put under way. To one in mv 

 position, who knows by firsthantl evid- 

 ence the true condition of the forest re- 

 sources east of the Rockies, and who sees 

 the present everincreasing tendency to 

 over-exploit our timber areas, it appears 

 that we must pursue our happy wav until 

 disaster is upon us. Then we will have 

 no alternative excej^t to satisfy our dailv 

 timber requirements by paying the bill 

 of the British Columbia salesman." 



"The only remed\ for timber land de- 

 pletion is to guage the cut by the ability 

 ol that particular timber area to sustain 

 pioduction. 1 mean that we should onlv 

 I ut the mature and diseased timber." 



" That means a rise in the cost of 

 logging and belter prices for the lumber 

 product '" 



"huw ilablx . Mow nnich bi'tier that is 

 than lo turn tlu- greater part of our 

 I dominion into a barren useless waste? 

 I f one were to consider the distance from 

 coast to coast and the amount of agri- 



