18 < (\' ADI AN FORESTRY ASSOCIATION. 



FOREST FIRES IN BRITISH COLUMBIA. 

 PROFESSOR R. W. BROCK, QUEEN'S UNIVERSITY, KINGSTON, ONT. 



I appreciate very highly the honour conferred upon me by the Forestry Associa- 

 tion in inviting me to attend the annual meeting at Quebec, and to present a paper 

 on forest fires in British Columbia. It is with regret that I find it impossible to do 

 either. I should have liked to have contributed my mite toward furthering the good 

 work of this association and to have assisted in emphasizing the seriousness of the 

 question of forest fires. It is a subject important in all our forest areas, but particu- 

 larly so in British Columbia, for here the forest represents such a large public asset, 

 and the natural conditions render it so liable to destructive fires. 



Much as I would have liked to have given this subject adequate treatment, and 

 to have taken part in its discussion, stress of other work compels me to confine myself 

 to. a few random notes. 



Any one travelling through the province is at once struck by the beauty and value 

 of the timber, and no less by the terrible havoc wrought upon it by forest fires. Bri- 

 tish Columbia consists of a belt of alpine country, in the centre of which is a rela- 

 tively narrow strip of dissected plateau-like country. The province as a whole may 

 be said to be forest-clad, but the growth of trees is more luxuriant on the western 

 slopes of the mountain ranges, and the interior plateau contains wide stretches of 

 open grass-covered hills and valleys. The higher mountain ranges rise above the tree 

 line and merchantable timber is confined to the valleys and up the mountain sides to 

 a limited height. Many of the smaller valleys are too steep- and narrow to furnish 

 valuable timber or much of any kind. 



In any country where nature deals bountifully in respect to a product we are very 

 apt to consider such natural wealth inexhaustible, but it is unnecessary here to call 

 attention to the fact that forest wealth is in the strictest sense limited. While British 

 Columbia has in the aggregate a vast supply of timber, it is apparent when one con- 

 that she can ill afford to pay the heavy, almost annual tax levied by the forest fire, 

 siders the inroads that will be made upon it with the increased markets of the future 



To make matters worse, on account of the rugged, mountainous character of the 

 country, the only timber that is available and that has an immediate market value 

 is that which is near transportation, and for the same reason a great deal of such 

 transportation must be along artificial lines, that are necessarily very slowly de- 

 veloped, yet it is in precisely such localities, near transportation, that the bulk of the 

 fires rage. I have not figures to show what percentage of such favourably located 

 timber is actually destroyed and what percentage actually harvested, but I do know 

 that the percentage lost must be appallingly large, and that unless active steps are 

 taken to prevent this destruction only a relatively small amount of the timber now 

 standing will ever reach the market. 



The natural conditions are favourable for fires. The interior plateau is a notably 

 dry belt, and during the long summer months everything is dried to the inflamma- 

 bility of kindling. Over a large area of British Columbia the precipitation is erratic. 

 Several wet summers induce a luxuriant growth of vegetation, including a rich growth 

 jf moss. Then comes a dry season, when for perhaps three months the strong Bri- 

 tish Columbia sun scorches uninterruptedly, drying the whole undergrowth and moss 

 to tinder. A large proportion of the forest growth is resinous. The configuration of 

 the country and the regular air currents create a powerful and most effective draught. 

 Fhere is, however, one good feature, the fire is usually confined to the valley or moun- 

 f ain slope on which it starts, though if there be a low pass at the head of the valley 



