1558 



AMERICAN FORESTRY 



CANADIAN DEPARTMENT 



BY ELLWOOD WILSON 



PRESIDENT, CANADIAN SOCIETY OF FOREST ENGINEERS 



'PHE advisory committee which was ask- 

 ed for by the Minister of Lands and 

 Forests of Quebec to discuss with his 

 Chief Forester a revision of the cutting 

 regulations and also the future forest policy 

 of the Province, held its first meeting in 

 Quebec City aim after a very interesting 

 discussion agreed to certain recommenda- 

 tions to the Minister. The most important 

 of these was that there be appointed a 

 committee which should represent the lum- 

 ber and pulp interests, the settlers' inter- 

 ests, and forestry and that this committee 

 should act in an advisory capacity to the 

 Minister of Lands and Forests and his 

 Department in framing regulations for 

 the use and perpetuation of the forests. 

 It is hoped that if this suggestion is adopt- 

 ed most of the present causes of fric- 

 tion between the lumber interests and the 

 settlers can be eliminated. 



Company, Ltd. The Department of Lands 

 and Forests has been asked to set aside 

 these experimental areas as forest reserves. 



The forest fire situation in New Bruns- 

 wick during the past season was better 

 than in the previous year. So many 

 fires were due to carelessness that 

 October ninth was adopted as "Fire Pre- 

 vention Day" throughout Canada to try and 

 impress on people the necessity for care in 

 preventing all kinds of fires. The total 

 number of fires in New Brunswick's forests 

 for the season were 342 — 70 per cent set 

 by railroads causing 3.5 per cent of the 

 damage ; 7 per cent set by campers causing 

 31.7 per cent of the damage; 11.5 per cent 

 set by settlers causing 44.1 per cent of the 

 damage; 3.5 per cent set by operators caus- 

 ing 7.1 per cent of the damage; 8 per cent 

 set by accidental and incendiary causing 

 13 per cent of the damage. Most of the 

 fires occurred in May and June. The 

 above shows that campers and settlers were 

 the chief contributing causes. Eighteen 

 square miles were burnt with a loss of $154,- 

 155. Thirty-six prosecutions were instituted 

 with 29 convictions. About 70 miles of 

 telephone lines were built co-operatively 

 by the Government and the Bathurst Lum- 

 ber Company and forty more miles will be 

 built to connect with a lookout station. 

 Twenty-six returned soldiers were employ- 

 ed. Four hundred and ninety acres of land 

 belonging to the Bathurst Lumber Com- 

 pany have been set aside as a forest re- 

 serve and experimental cuttings are taking 

 place under a plan worked out by Dr. 

 Howe and in immediate charge of Forester 

 W. M. Robertson. 



The fire season in Quebec has been, from 

 the standpoint of weather, the worst in 

 several years, but the number of fires was 

 not large. Contrary to the experience in 

 New Brunswick, practically no difficulty 

 was had with settlers. The worst fires 

 were caused by dam-keepers and river- 

 drivers of the operators. This is a most 

 curious situation, as these operators are 

 paying the cost of fire protection and are 

 hiring the fire rangers, so that they are not 

 only destroying their own property but it 

 is being done by their own employees. Of 

 course the answer is the lack of an appre- 

 ciation of the necessity of preventing forest 

 fires on the part of some of the managers 

 of woods operations and their failure to 

 enforce the rules of their departments. 

 Often the sub-managers and higher fore- 

 men feel that the fire protection work, in 

 some way, takes away from their authority 

 and interferes with their work, and then 

 too, sometimes they are afraid their men 

 may leave if they are particular about en- 

 forcing the fire regulations. The situation 

 is serious and heads of companies should 

 insist that their own men are controlled 

 and not allowed to set forest fires. 



Mr. S. L. de Carteret, Forester for the 

 Brown Corporation, will now be in charge 

 of all the timberlands of the Brown Cor- 

 poration, with headquarters in Quebec 

 City. Mr. de Carteret was, for several 

 years, engaged in working up a scheme for 

 timberland insurance, which he handled 

 very successfully. 



Mr. L. A. Nix, graduate of Syracuse 

 University, sometime with the U. S. Forest 

 Service, and who served during the war in 

 the Chemical Division at Edgewood Arse- 

 nal, Baltimore, has resigned from the staff 

 of the Forestry Department of the St. 

 Maurice Paper Company and returned to 

 the Laurentide Company for whom he 

 worked before enlisting. 



A very interesting article on the work 

 of the Forestry Department of Syracuse 

 University, appears in the Royal Spanish 

 Society of the Friends of Trees. 



The same kind of work is being done un- 

 der the supervision of Mr. R. W. Lyons 

 on the Vermillion Limit of the Laurentide 



The Canadian Export Paper Company, 

 Ltd., of Montreal, is sending Mr. W. G. 

 Mitchell abroad to make a study of con- 

 ditions in the Pulp and Paper Industry in 

 Scandinavia, Finland and Russia. 



The Aviation Branch of the St. Maurice 

 Forest Protective Association has com- 

 pleted its work for the season and the 

 planes loaned by the Government will be 

 thoroughly overhauled and put in condi- 

 tion for further experimental work next 

 season. Four hundred pictures 8x10 inches, 

 covering 4,000x3,200 feet each, were taken 

 at an altitude of 5,000 feet. The pictures 

 show all kinds of country, settled, villages, 

 swamps, burns, cut-over, regenerating 

 naturally, planted and all sorts of timber 

 types. Those so far developed and print- 

 ed exceed all expectations and it is con- 

 fidently felt that aerial photography will 

 revolutionize timber mapping. The ac- 

 curacy with which areas in various types, 

 burns, water and so forth can be measured, 

 drainage basins determined and topography 

 studied will add much to the value of the 

 work. Those wishing to buy timberlands, 

 or banks, or other corporations loaning 

 money on timberlands can now be sure 

 of what they are getting for their money. 



Alarm is now being felt in Queensland 

 at the very rapid depletion of available 

 timber supplies, particularly softwoods. 

 The Forestry Service is now facing the 

 heavy responsibility of attempting to make 

 good the deliberate dissipation of the for- 

 est asset which has characterized the past. 

 Forest reservations have been set aside 

 and now total 3,700,000 acres, but the task 

 of reforestation has been left so late that 

 it will be many years before its effect will 

 be felt. 



In Norway it is proposed to build a 

 tunnel to carry logs past a large dam built 

 for water power development. This is an 

 interesting way of solving the problem. 



There is practically a complete failure of 

 the white spruce seed crop in the east. The 

 trees in eastern Canada have not seeded 

 for two years and Black Hills and Nor- 

 way spruce seed has had to be used. Like- 

 wise, owing to the rapidly increasing de- 

 mand, the prices of nursery stock have 

 risen tremendously. 



The seaplane purchased by the Brown 

 Corporation, one of two which will be 

 used in mapping their timberlands, was 

 last reported as having flown from New 

 York to Burlington, Vermont. It is ex- 

 pected to arrive at its base on the St. 

 Maurice River shortly. 



The plantations made by Chief Forester 

 G. C. Piche, of the Quebec Forest Service, 

 on the drifting sands at Lachute and Ber- 



