160 



KEPORT OF ONTARIO GAME 



No. 52 



time some 20,000 square miles on which considerable belts of pine, esti- 

 mated at about nine billion feet and valued at some $90,000,000, exist, 

 have been removed from settlement and declared forest reserves, and by 

 this means, also, not only has it been in certain instances possible to pro- 

 vide a haven for wild creatures and birds from the hunter, but also to 

 safeguard the headwaters of many important rivers and streams. The 

 areas of the principal reserves and the headwaters of the chief rivers 

 occurring in them are approximately as follows: 



In the Interim Report of this Commission attention was called to 

 the great potential value of these reserves in regard to the game re- 

 sources of the Province, and it is not to be doubted that as the years roll 

 on and the wilder and remoter portions of the Province are opened up 

 this fact will become more widely recognized and appreciated. At the 

 present time the Algonquin National Park is the only actual game re- 

 serve of the Province, being, in fact, a game reserve and not a forest 

 reserve, but in the past at least a measure of protection w^ould seem to 

 have been afforded the game in most of the reserves owing to the fact 

 that the carrying of firearms therein has been discouraged, and it would 

 appear to require but the passing of an Order-in-Council to render the 

 carrying of firearms in all reserves illegal. It is sincerely to be hoped 

 not only that such action will be taken without delay, but also that all 

 the provincial forest reserves will be declared game reserves in the strict- 

 est sense, to include all varieties of game and fur-bearing animals, and, 

 further, that this feature will be introduced at the time of the creation 

 of any new forest reserves in the future. The importance to the Pro- 

 vince, indeed, of the policy of forest reserves is so vast and far-reaching 

 in its effects from so many points of view besides that of game that it is 

 to be hoped that further additions to the provincial reserves will be made 

 in the north country into which the railways are now penetrating. 



In a previous section it has been noted that the placing of a forest 

 area under reserve does not remove from it the danger of fire, and that 

 where fire succeeds in penetrating into a reserve much of the material 

 and potential value of it is destroyed. Valuable timber will be consumed 



