CANADIAN DEPARTMENT 



By ELLWOOD WILSON 



The Forestry Department of Ontario has 

 decided to make an aerial reconnaissance 

 of its unexplored northern territory dur- 

 ing the coming season and wiH spend at 

 least 300 hours in sketching and photo- 

 graphing the timber resources of this little 

 known region. More than anything else 

 we have needed some accurate estimate 

 of the timbered areas and the relative 

 amount of timber on them and this will 

 give some definite information on which 

 a sound policy can be based. So much 

 guessing has been done and so little ac- 

 curate data has been at hand for timber 

 estimates that the public have not known 

 who to believe, the man who said our re- 

 sources were inexhaustible or the man who 

 said that we are on the verge of a timber 

 famine. The amount of flying mentioned 

 above should pretty well cover Northern 

 Ontario during the coming season. Much 

 credit is due Mr. Zavitz for his progres- 

 siveness and courage in trying out this 

 new method on a large scale. 



The Forestry Division, of the Laurentide 

 Company, Ltd., has just succeeded in work- 

 ing out a method for getting the density of 

 stocking of timbered areas from aerial 

 photographs and can now get a much bet- 

 ter and more accurate estimate of timber 

 from these pictures than can be obtained 

 from the ordinary ground cruise and do it 

 in a fraction of the time and at much less 

 expense. It has also worked out the way 

 in which logs lie in a boom and can get 

 a close estimate of the number which lie 

 in a holding boom from an aerial photo- 

 graph. 



Mr. F. J. D. Barnjum, of Annapolis 

 Royal, Nova Scotia, who is working for 

 better forestry in Canada, has just added 

 to his offer to farmers who plant trees in 

 that Province, a number of prizes in his en- 

 deavor to encourage reforestation of land 

 suited for growing trees. This is a very 

 public spirited offer and should do a lot 

 of good in interesting people in forestry 

 and fire protection. 



The Canadian Forestry Association has 

 asked the Governments of the Dominion 

 and the Provinces to increase their grants, 

 which have been given ever since the As- 

 sociation was founded. No better use cgnld 

 possibly be made of Government money 

 than to aid the Association's propaganda 

 for better fire protection and better log- 

 ging methods and for planting. The Asso- 

 ciation has been the means of arousing 

 public opinion in Canada for the above 

 objects and has now behind it a solid 

 body of disinterested opinion which will be 

 of great help to all the Governments in 

 framing .sound and sane forestry policies. 



The session of the Quebec Legislature, 

 lately prorogued, has done splendid work 

 in amending and amplifying the forest fire 

 laws. The suggestions for these laws came 

 from Mr. G. C. Piche, Chief Forester. Ac- 

 cording to the new law, if a fire starts on 

 a man's land and spreads to adjoining 

 property, he is assumed to have set it and 

 is responsible for damage caused unless 

 he can prove his innocence. 



No saw-mill can be established with- 

 within a mile of any timber limit or any 

 Crown Land without the written consent 

 of the Minister of Lands and Forests. 

 There is a penalty of ten dollars per day 

 and the judge can order the mill demol- 

 ished. Any person who does not take the 

 necessary measures to prevent a fire from 

 spreading from his land to another proper- 

 ty is liable to a fine of from $25 to $2,500. 

 Persons who pile lumber, logs, pulpwood 

 along a railway line must after it is re- 

 moved clear up any debris left. All per- 

 sons wishing to travel in the woods, when- 

 ever the situation warrants it, in the dis- 

 cretion of the Minister, shall be obliged 

 to obtain a permit from the local fire- 

 ranger. No charge will be made for this. 

 Any person who is duly employed for the 

 protection of forests from fire, may, in 

 the course of his duty, enter upon and 

 cross over any lands. Laws have also 

 been passed in regard to bonuses for re- 

 forestation and for the establishment of 

 Municipal Forests, but unfortunatly these 

 are only permissory, and no amounts are 

 fixed as bonoises. The 'laws only say 

 "which the Lieutenant-Governor-in-Coun- 

 cil may be pleased to fix or to authorize." 

 If one may criticize the situation in Que- 

 bec at all, one would say that the laws re- 

 lating to forests are as good as any in the 

 country and in many respects far ahead 

 of other sections of this continent, but 

 that the enforcement of them is, to say 

 the least of it, rather lax. This is due to 

 two things, lack of sufficient personnel of 

 proper training, and the other the general 

 disrespect of certain laws, forest and game 

 laws for instance, common to all new 

 countries. 



The summer meeting of the Woodlands 

 Section of the Canadian Pulp and Paper 

 .\ssociation will be held in the second week 

 in July and will consist of a trip, prob- 

 ably by automobiles, through the Adiron- 

 dacks. The tentative program is a visit 

 to the plantations of the Delaware and 

 Hudson Railway near Plattsburg, the New 

 York State plantations and nurseries at 

 Lake Qear, Saranac Inn and Saratoga, 

 the operations of the Emporium Forestry 



Company at Conifer, New York, and the 

 lookout station at Chestertown, New York. 

 The trip will occupy nearly a week and will 

 be very interesting and instructive. 



The Conservator of Forests for Western 

 Australia, Mr. C. E. Lane-Poole, has ow- 

 ing to difficulties with his Government over 

 timber concessions, resigned his office and 

 will go to Papua, New Guinea, to report 

 on its forest resources. He was a delegate 

 to the Imperial Forestry Conference and i> 

 a very able man and will be a great los^ 

 to .'\ustralia. His leaving is much regret- 

 ted. He was a graduate of the Forest 

 School at Nancy, France and had done 

 good work in South Africa. He is suc- 

 ceeded by R. A. Gibson, Forest Conserv- 

 ator from India. 



A shipment of seven hundred pounds of 

 Douglas Fir seed has been sent by the 

 Dominion Forestry Branch to Great Bri- 

 tain for use in its reforestation scheme. 

 This completes a shipment of 4,000 pound- 

 of Douglas Fir, 3,000 of Sitka spruce and 

 100 of Western Hemlock. 



The first issue of the Empire Forestry 

 Journal has just been received and is a 

 very creditable publication. For the first 

 year it will be issued three times a year. 



It is announced that already twelve coun- 

 ties have taken advantage of the plan of 

 the Ontario Government for assisting muni- 

 cipal forests. These counties have ac- 

 quired blocks of non-agricultural land from 

 100 to 1,000 acres and these will, in co- 

 operation with the Forestry Service, be 

 reforested. 



The Dominion Forestry Branch, will prob- 

 ably for the fiYst time in forest protection 

 history, displace a number of its ground pa- 

 trolmen and use airplanes. By arrangement 

 with the Air Board, five F 3 machines, each 

 with a carrying capacity of seven men 

 and pilot, will be employed under Col. 

 Stevenson, District Inspector of Forest Re- 

 serves. The work in spotting and reaching 

 forest fires last season was so successful 

 that the work is being much extended. 



British Columbia will also use seaplanes 

 in its fire protection work this season and 

 many experiments will be tried, such as 

 transportation of higher departmental offi- 

 cials to large fires, also expert fire fighters, 

 transferring fire fighters from one fire to 

 another, etc. 



The nursery of the Dominion Forest 

 Service will ship seedlings and cuttings for 

 shelter belt planting in larger quantities 

 than ever before, this year. Up to date 

 sixty million trees have been sent out. 



