THE USE OF AIRCRAFT IN FORESTRY 



BY ELLWOOD WILSON 



OFTEN, in years gone by, when trying to make maps 

 of the immense tracts of forest land in Canada with 

 the thermometer at 50 below zero or the black flies 

 and mosquitoes eating one alive, the writer wished for a 

 balloon. The labor required to get supplies into the 

 woods, the hardships to be overcome, the toil required to 

 map a few square miles of rough, heavily timbered coun- 

 try and the amounts expended seemed so out of propor- 



FOREST PHOTOGRAPHED FROM THE AIR 



1 Woods Depot. 2 Lake. 3 Dam. 4 Booms. 5 Log Road. 6 Logs 

 left on shore of lake. 7 White and Yellow Birch, few conifers. 

 * Stand of Conifers. Shadow of hill. 



tion to the results obtained. One party of ten men used 

 to do 50 square miles a month at a cost of about fifteen 

 to sixteen dollars per square mile, and we mapped 2,800 

 square miles. Then the timber estimates had to be made, 

 which involved tramping through the woods, calipering 

 and estimating the trees and trying to find accurately the 

 dividing lines between types. 



Now the dream has come true and in Canada with its 

 myriad lakes, the flying boat, equipped with the Eastman 

 K-l aerial camera, just a glorified motor-driven "kodak," 

 is doing in hours what it took months to do on the ground. 



Thanks to the generosity and broad-mindedness of the 

 Minister of Naval Affairs, Mr. C. C. Ballantyne, who 

 loaned two HS2L flying boats, and the Hon. Jules Allard, 

 ex-Minister of Lands and Forests of Quebec, and the 

 St. Maurice Forest Protective Association, who together 



subscribed $12,000 for the work, the writer was enabled 

 to try experiments in spotting forest fires and making 

 photographic maps of the forest. 



The two seaplanes were assembled at the Station at 

 Halifax and flown across Nova Scotia, New Brunswick 

 and Northern Maine to Lac a la Tortue, Quebec, by 

 Lieutenant Stuart Graham, of the British Navy. These 

 two trips of 750 miles each were made without any 

 mishap whatever. Unfortunately by this time the worst 

 of the forest fire season was over so that there were 

 only two opportunities to see forest fires. It was found 

 that they could be seen at a distance of twenty to thirty 

 miles and that by flying to them one could see just the 

 state of affairs. In one case we saw the men who had 

 lighted a fire. The moral value of the planes in fire 



&:t 





PART OF ST. MAURICE RIVER, QUEBEC 



1 Logs in boom and loose in river. 2 Skating rink. t-Lumber piled 

 in yard. 4 Saw mill, Belgo Canadian Company. 5 Bridge. 6 Con- 

 crete Road. 7 Railroad. 



prevention is something to be considered, for if people 

 find that they can be seen from a flying machine setting 

 fires they will be less apt to be careless in the woods. 

 Then, too, never knowing just when a plane may appear, 

 or from what direction, incendiaries will most certainly 

 become less numerous. 



A small gasoline pump, which can easily be carried by 

 two men, with 1,500 feet of i^-inch hose was constantly 

 in readiness at the station to take to a fire if needed. 



