PULPWOOD FROM BRITISH COLUMBIA 



719 



In this region is located the Pacific Mills, Ltd., plant at 

 Ocean Falls with a capacity of 70,000 tons of newsprint 

 and 15,000 tons of Kraft paper and Kraft pulp per 

 annum, and also the Swanson Bay plant of the Whalen 

 Pulp and Paper Mills, Ltd., with a capacity of 12,000 

 tons of sulphite pulp per annum. These mills obtain 

 their timber largely from leases and timber licenses along 

 these northern inlets and also from the Queen Charlotte 

 Islands. There are a few small independent loggers who 

 sell their output also to the sawmills at Prince Rupert. 

 These natural barriers, bringing about separation 

 into districts, cause a distinct variation of stumpage 

 values between the different 

 regions. Within the Shel- 

 tered Waters area the price 

 for a given class of stump- 

 age is governed largely by 

 towage rates for logs to the 

 Vancouver market. It must 

 be borne in mind however, 

 that in speaking of the mar- 

 ket value of stumpage in 

 British Columbia, only the 

 value of the right to cut the 

 timber is meant. In reality 

 the timber continues to be- 

 long to the government until 

 cut and the royalty paid. 

 To compare the price of 

 British Columbia stumpage 

 with timber in the United 

 States one must add to the 

 purchase price the amount 

 of royalty which will have 

 to be paid on the logs cut, 

 and even then allowance 

 must be made for the saving 

 in carrying charges brought 

 about by the deferred pay- 

 ment of royalties. It would 

 be safe to say that readily 

 loggable hemlock and balsam 

 stumpage in the Sheltered 

 Waters region now brings 

 from $1.00 to $1.25 per thou- 

 sand. On the west coast of Vancouver Island, however, 

 out of the safe towing area, prices of less than half this 

 amount are frequently encountered. Nevertheless, the 

 small investor in pulpwood stumpage usually prefers 

 to stick to the inside coast, where the independent 

 loggers working for both pulp and sawmills are ordi- 

 narily ready buyers of a good logging chance, and the 

 owner of a single good timber limit generally has as 

 much opportunity for profit as the man with half a 

 billion feet. For the same reason the conservative 

 investor has usually kept out of the Northern Coast 

 district, leaving that ground for those who are finan- 

 cially able and willing to put in their own develop- 

 ments and sell the product as finished lumber or pulp. 



Photograph by R. S. Kellogg. 



CANADIAN NEWS 



Newspapers of Australia use large quantities of the newsprint made by 

 British Columbia mills, the rolls shipped being nearly twice as tall as a 

 man. The photograph shows the loading of paper at Powell River, B. C 



Forest fires have become such a serious menace to 

 our national timber resources that the generally low fire 

 risk in British Columbia should be mentioned. Primarily 

 the Provincial Government has instituted an extremely 

 good system of fire protection, which appears to be 

 quite intelligently administered, the fire rangers being 

 given sufficient authority to commandeer available assist- 

 ance needed in fire-fighting. Each ranger, however, has 

 rather too much territory to cover most effectively. The 

 cost of the service is divided between the government 

 and the timber license owners, and all timber licenses 

 and leases are now assessed at two cents per acre. 



The real protection of the 

 British Columbia pulpwood 

 forests is climatic, the rain- 

 fall varying for different dis- 

 tricts and regions, but gen- 

 erally high all along the 

 coast. In the Sheltered 

 Waters region the rainfall 

 varies from about 60 inches 

 to over 100 inches, with 

 nightly heavy fogs in the 

 northerly portions during a 

 large part of the year. South- 

 east Vancouver Island has 

 the lowest rainfall averag- 

 ing about 46 inches, but the 

 west coast has from 70 to 

 118 inches of precipitation 

 each year, the higher records 

 being made nearest the ocean 

 and the lowest inland. The 

 Northern Mainland area is 

 reported to have from 60 to 

 170 inches again decreas- 

 ing further from the coast, 

 while the Queen Charlotte 

 Islands have as low as 40 

 inches per annum. During 

 the summer dry season near- 

 ly every district frequently 

 suffers considerable fire loss, 

 usually adjacent to logging 

 operations from which the 

 fires start, but in many cases the timber is so "pocketed," 

 one tract of several square miles being shut off from 

 another by high mountains, that the risk is a minimum. 

 The growth of the pulp and paper industry in British 

 Columbia was very rapid in the last two years. Chemi- 

 cal wood pulp production in 191 1 was 90 tons, in 1914 

 it had grown to 13,000 tons, in 191 7 to 46,507 tons and 

 in 1919 to the top production of 89,520 tons. 



Mechanical wood pulp production, practically nothing 

 previous to 191 7, was 65,620 tons that year and 99,769 

 tons last year, while the production of paper developed 

 steadily from 45,816 tons in 1913 to 130,809 tons in 1919. 

 Larger productions than these top figures are expected 

 both this year and next. 



PRINT FOR AUSTRALIA 



