60 



AMERICAN FORESTRY 



CANADIAN DEPARTMENT 



BY ELLWOOD WILSON 



PRESIDENT, CANADIAN SOCIETY OF FOREST ENGINEERS 



A T a meeting of the Quebec Forest Pro- 

 ^ tective Association held in the Office of 

 the Minister of Lands and Forests in Que- 

 bec, the question of clearing railroad 

 rights-of-way was discussed at length. 

 The Dominion Railway Commission re- 

 quires that all rights-of-way of railroads 

 under their jurisdiction shall be cleaned 

 and kept clean, but on the Government 

 operated roads this rule has not been en- 

 forced. It was recommended that the Do- 

 minion Department of Railways and 

 Canals be asked to carry out this proced- 

 ure which would help materially to lessen 

 the fire risk. There has also been a move 

 on the part of the Government to require 

 holders of leased lands to clear a strip of 

 land 100 feet back from a railroad right- 

 of-way of logging debris, but the question 

 comes up as to whether settlers along the 

 rights-of-way should not also be compelled 

 to clear a like strip, as often as they own 

 lands adjoining and interspersed with 

 those under license, and to clear one with- 

 out clearing the other would be of no use. 

 Railroad fires during the past season were 

 very frequent. The question was also dis- 

 cussed of asking for legislation to com- 

 pel everyone entering the forest to have 

 cither the badge of the licensee or a permit 

 from a fire ranger so that those going in- 

 to the woods would have sense of respon- 

 sibility and also that the fire rangers could 

 keep track of those travelling in their 

 territory. The permits would cost nothing, 

 and there is already a permit for such 

 action in the Provincial Parks. The burn- 

 ing of all debris in the making of log 

 roads, tote roads and colonization roads 

 was also recommended, and also the fixing 

 of minimum terms of imprisonment for in- 

 fractions of certain of the fire laws. At 

 present the maximum and minimum fines 

 are set, and also the maximum terms in 

 prison, but there is no minimum and the 

 justices sometimes let a man off with an 

 hour's or a day's imprisonment, thus mak- 

 ing a travesty of justice. 



At a meeting of the Forestry Advisory 

 Committee it was recommended that the 

 extra length allowed on logs for whi^h no 

 stumpage would be charged, in order to 

 cover brooming of logs in rapids and 

 rocky streams should be, for wood cut 

 four feet to seven in length, two inches, 

 from eight to eleven feet, four inches and 

 twelve feet and up, six inches. Reforesta- 

 tion was also discussed and an important 

 announcement by Mr. Piche, Chief For- 

 ester, of what he proposed to recommend 

 to the Government, was made. 



An interesting report of the Commission 

 of Conservation on butt-rot in balsam will 

 shortly be forthcoming. The commission, 



in co-operation with the Department of 

 Entomology will build a laboratory at the 

 field experiment station of the Laurentide 

 Company, at Lake Edward. 



Price Brothers and Company have en- 

 gaged Lieutenant Vezine as a pilot and 

 are sending him to England to buy two of 

 the latest type flying boats for use in map- 

 ping and exploring their limits next sum- 

 mer. This is the third paper company to 

 undertake the use of aircraft in forestry- 

 work. 



Mr. Jean J. Guay, Assistant Forester of 

 the Spanish River Pulp and Paper Com- 

 pany, is on six months leave of absence 

 and is exploring timber lands in New- 

 foundland. 



Messrs. Arnold Hanssen and G. A. Faulk- 

 ner, will open an office in Montreal the 

 first of the year, and will undertake tim- 

 berland reports, cruises and surveys and 

 other forestry work. Mr. Hanssen is a 

 graduate of the University of Norway, the 

 Kongsburg Forestry School in Norway, 

 the Yale Forest School, and has been 

 with the Laurentide Company since 1912. 

 He served with credit in a hospital unit in 

 France during the war. Mr. Faulkner is 

 a graduate of the University of Maine, 

 and has been some months with the Lau- 

 rentide Company. 



The experimental cutting of the Com- 

 mission of Conservation in co-operation 

 with the logging and forestry divisions of 

 the Laurentide Company is progressing 

 favorably. 9458 13j4 foot logs, and 114 

 cords of nine foot logs have been cut to 

 date and the slash burnt. Growth and 

 volume studies are being carried out on 

 the trees felled. The Quebec Government 

 has been asked to set the operating area 

 of this experiment aside as a forest re- 

 serve so that the results of the work can 

 be studied continuously. 



The new Farmer's Party in Ontario 

 have taken over the reins of Government, 

 and have put a plank in their platform for 

 conservation and use of their forest re- 

 sources. It is hoped that they will take 

 this matter to heart and really give On- 

 tario a good forestry policy. The Cana- 

 dian Forestry Association has, for a long 

 time, advocated the placing of all the 

 Province timberland under the Forestry 

 Branch, instead of having, as at present a 

 separate non-technical branch to handle 

 the work. Fire protection also needs to 

 be made more efficient by the entire elimi- 

 nation of the patronage evil. 



Messrs. Leavitt, Craig and Wilson at- 

 tended the meeting in Syracuse where Col- 

 onel Graves spoke on his revised forest 

 policy. After the meeting Ellwood Wil- 

 son and Lieutenant Graham, in charge of 



the aviation work of the St. Maurice For- 

 est Protective Association, went to Roch- 

 ester to discuss the subject of aerial pho- 

 tography with the Folmer and Schwing 

 Division of the Eastman Kodak Company 

 and their experts. The Eastman Com- 

 pany have done remarkable work in build- 

 ing aerial cameras, and in simplifying their 

 operation, and they are now paying special 

 attention to forestry work. With their as- 

 sistance it is hoped to perfect the photo- 

 graphic end of this important work. A 

 special study is being made of the inter- 

 pretation of forest photographs and some 

 progress is being made. It is too early 

 yet to say just what can be read from these 

 pictures about the stands of timber. Maps 

 already made from them check up very 

 accurately with ground work and give in- 

 finitely more detail and better ideas about 

 a country. Burns are clearly defined, re- 

 production on burns shows plainly, lakes, 

 Creeks, swamps and rivers show up well, 

 portages and log roads where not too much 

 overhung with trees are quite plain, and 

 even when overhung can often be traced 

 on the map. It is easy to distinguish be- 

 tween some species of hardwoods. The 

 line of study at present being followed is 

 the intensive study on the ground of lands 

 which have been photographed. "Close ups" 

 will be taken at low altitudes of areas 

 which appear typical on the prints and 

 panchromatic films with filters in order to 

 get better color values. 



In Canada, as in the United States, the 

 problem of forest reconnaissance in order 

 to determine the amount and location of 

 available timber supplies is becoming more 

 and more urgent. The Province of Nova 

 Scotia was the first to take up the matter 

 and under Dr. Fernow the work was com- 

 pleted. The Commission of Conservation, 

 in co-operation with the Province of 

 British Columbia, has made a rough re- 

 connaissance and estimate for that Pro- 

 vince, and has commenced the work in 

 Ontario. New Brunswick has made great 

 progress in mapping and estimating its 

 Crown Timberlands, Much work has beer, 

 done in Quebec by the Government and by 

 private companies, but all over the Domin- 

 ion much remains to be done in order to 

 have a sufficiently accurate inventory for 

 practical purposes. The position which 

 Canada has taken in the newsprint industry 

 makes it imperative to know how long 

 our present supplies will last and what is 

 coming on for the future. Aerial photo- 

 graphy offers the best and most rapid, as 

 well as the cheapest means of doing this 

 work over the huge areas which have never 

 been mapped or on others only partially 

 mapped. In co-operation with the De- 

 partment of Naval Affairs, and the Quebec 

 Department of Lands and Forests, the 

 Laurentide Company will attempt to map 

 photographically 5,000 square miles of tim- 

 ber lands belonging to the Province of 

 Quebec during the coming summer. 



