AMERICAN FORESTRY 



173 



CANADIAN DEPARTMENT 



BY ELLWOOD WILSON 

 PRESIDENT CANADIAN SOCIETY OF FOREST ENGINEERS 



HP HE outlook for further progress in the 

 utilization of forest resources in 

 Canada and for better fire protection is 

 bright. The public consciousness is be- 

 coming awakened to what Mr. Lane-Poole, 

 Chief Forester for West Australia, calls 

 the slogan of the "Sustained Yield." The 

 public in Canada are asking what is being 

 done to see that their forests shall be kept 

 in a productive condition for all time and 

 that the extremely important industries 

 which are dependent on them, shall be as- 

 sured of a sufficient supply of raw material 

 for all time to come. The ipulp and paper 

 industry has reached very large proportions 

 in Eastern Canada and is rapidly develop- 

 ing in the West. Located, as the mills 

 are, far away from other centers of popu- 

 lation and often in the wilderness, they 

 must make their own towns, and many of 

 these from 2000 to 8000 in population have 

 grown up and are thriving. They are all 

 dependent upon sustained yield from our 

 forests and we must see that these towns 

 are protected and will not be abandoned in 

 from 35 to 60 years by the burning or over- 

 cutting of the woodlands. Fire protection 

 has improved very markedly in the last 

 five years but is far from satisfactory as 

 yet. On the Dominion Forest Reserves it 

 is good, in British Columbia it is fair, in 

 Ontario there is much need for improve- 

 ment, in Quebec it is good, in New Bruns- 

 wick good and in Nova Scotia poor. One 

 of the worst things with which Canada has 

 to contend is the situation on the Canadian 

 National Railway lines which are operated 

 by the government. Those sections which 

 do not come under the jurisdiction of the 

 Dominion Railway Commission continue to 

 set fires from year to year and appeals to 

 the Department of Railways have not met 

 with the response which one would exipect 

 from officials whose duty it is to look after 

 the interests of government property. 

 Thousands of cords of pulpwood which 

 should have supplied these roads with ton- 

 nage for years have been carelessly burnt 

 and the time has come when the public 

 must force some action looking to the 

 removal of this menace. 



Little definite information is as yet at 

 hand about the location and condition of 

 the forests. The areas are so large 

 and so difficult of access that very little 

 even of reconnaissance has been done and 

 accurate maps are almost lacking. The 

 use of the aerial photography has been 

 demonstrated to be practical and sufficient- 

 ly accurate for determining areas in tim- 

 ber, areas burnt, drainage, areas cut over, 

 etc., and the Dominion Forest Branch, the 



Commission of Conservation, the Provinces 

 of Quebec, British Columbia and Ontario, 

 are all going to do this work in co-opera- 

 tion with the Air Board next season. 

 Three private paper companies will also 

 carry on this work and inside of a very 

 few years we shall be able to state with 

 considerable accuracy where our timber 

 is located, and the areas and conditions of 

 stocking, with much other valuable infor- 

 mation. Once the question of supplies, 

 that is the amount of our forest capital, 

 is determined we will be able to say defi- 

 nitely how long our timber will last and 

 we can then make definite plans for proper 

 management. To go on longer with the 

 present fire loss and the absolutely plan- 

 less method of timber exploitation is little 

 short of criminal. 



At a meeting held recently with the 

 Premier of Quebec by the Quebec Limit 

 Holders' Association, the question of a 

 diameter limit cutting regulation was dis- 

 cussed. For years Quebec has been re- 

 quiring a diameter limit in its cutting regu- 

 lations but it was uniform over the whole 

 Province which, when we consider that 

 the Province extends from latitude 45 to 

 latitude 56, is absurd. The diameter limit 

 was imposed under the theory that small 

 trees were necessarily young trees and if 

 left in the woods would grow up and 

 form the next crop. This has been dem- 

 onstrated to be absolutely untrue, as most 

 of the smaller trees are suppressed and in 

 reality older than the larger ones and 

 with the large ones removed they do not 

 recover but only cumber the ground and 

 more often than not blow down. The 

 diameter limit has made us feel secure and 

 still gives a false sense of security. Over 

 many large areas, if the government diame- 

 ter limits are strictly observed, practically 

 no timber can be cut. The government has 

 decided that where permission is asked 

 government forest inspectors will look over 

 the ground and if, in their judgment, cut- 

 ting undersize would not be harmful, per- 

 mission is given. While good in theory 

 this method can easily lead to trouble. It 

 opens the door to graft, there are not 

 sufficient inspectors to do the work prop- 

 erly or to see that their orders are prop- 

 erly carried out. It would seem as if the 

 only way to handle this until the govern- 

 ment has sufficient trained men for the 

 work, would be to establish a system of 

 zone diameter limits which would be fixed 

 according to the size of the timber. Un- 

 der the system of permits to cut under 

 size the inspectors often lack sufficient ex- 

 perience or judgment to decide such ques- 



tions and sometimes do not know the dif- 

 ference between white and black or red 

 stpruce which have different regulations 

 for cutting. It seems as if the best way 

 to handle the matter would be by some 

 system of clear cutting in strips or areas 

 small enough to be seeded in from the 

 sides. 



However, the greatest menace at pres- 

 ent to the future of Quebec's forests is the 

 way the cutting is done and the fire dan- 

 ger from the slash left in the woods. For 

 the most part the areas to be cut are 

 chosen from year to year by men who 

 are not familiar with the ground and who 

 lack technical knowledge. Their only idea 

 is "Where can the logs be cut and deliver- 

 ed the cheapest?" The jobber system has 

 been responsible for enormous wastes, but 

 owing to the high prices asked by jobbers 

 and the realization of how their lands have 

 been butchered this will gradually disap- 

 pear and cutting will be done by company 

 camps. Heretofore the cuttings have been 

 in the best timber and only the best and 

 most accessible of that has been taken, so 

 that year by year hauls have become longer, 

 costs of operation higher and the areas 

 still to be cut poorer. It is high time that 

 intelligent plans were made for logging, 

 not for one year ahead but for the next 

 ten years. 



The debris from cutting is a serious 

 fire hazard. When areas cut over each 

 year were small and scattered this did not 

 matter so much, but with the large in- 

 crease in the number of pulp and paper 

 mills and the increased demands on the 

 forests, the cut-over areas are assuming 

 large proportions and are getting nearer to- 

 gether. Experience has shown that nearly 

 all the serious fires are on cut-over or 

 burnt-over lands and such fires are always 

 the most difficult to extinguish and do, the 

 most damage. Should a very dry sea- 

 son with high winds come some disas- 

 trous fires might occur destroying large 

 areas of valuable timber. The only in- 

 surance we can have against fires of this 

 character is to dispose of the debris at 

 the time of cutting by burning. Two ob- 

 jections have been raised to this method 

 the first that of cast and the second that 

 such burning would kill a lot of the young 

 growth. The first objection is not valid 

 if all operators are compelled to so dis- 

 pose of their debris, as the burden would 

 fall on the customer. It is also said that 

 if one Province imposed such a restriction 

 it would put operators in that section at 

 a disadvantage with their competitors in 

 (Continued on page 177) 



