Forests of the Oxford House District. N.W.T. 



I in till' :iimii:il report of the Din-.tor of 

 Forestry for 1!»11, re»eiitly Ilubli^heci, an ac- 

 count is fjiveii of work carried on by one of 

 the Dominion fire-rangers, Mr. J. T. Black- 

 ford, in the Oxford Honse district of the 

 ^'orth\\e^t Territories, some distance to the 

 northeast of the present limits of the pro- 

 vinee of Manitoba. This is a district whosro 

 forest conditions are not well known, and 

 the account is therefore reproduced here. — 

 Fd.] 



Mr. J. T. Blackford, an experi- 

 enced woodsman acMiuaiiitcd witli 

 conditiou.s in tlie north, was appoint- 

 ed to explore, estimate and map tlie 

 timber, and act as lire-ranj^'cr in the 

 di.strict surroundin<r Oxford Honse. 



Accompanying; this repoi-t is a 

 sketch-map made Ity .Mr. iihickfdid 

 showinf? the districts wliich lie 

 traversed, and the location of tlie 

 timhered and hurned-ovcr areas. Mr. 

 Bla<'kford travelled sonth from Ox- 

 ford House to Minnihik. Clearwater 

 and Itat lakes, and north and cast 

 from Oxford Honse to Fox and Deer 

 lakes, eoverin«; in all al»i)nl 5.4;i3 

 square miles of coiuitry. 



About \/y]2 sfpiarc miles of this 

 territory still hears nicrcliantahle 

 timl)er; on about '.i,S2\ square miles 

 all the merchantable timber has been 

 destroyed by lire. 



There are abundant evidences that 

 this whole eoiuitry was orijjinally 

 heavily forested with spruce, tam- 

 arack, jack pine, balsam tir. birch 

 and poplar. (>ii the islands, wliich 

 have been naturally protected from 

 fire, are dense stands of trees two to 

 three feet in diameter, and around 

 some of the lakes are blacken. 1 

 stumps two to three feet in «lia' 



A rclialile Indian, between - 

 five and seventy years old. said tl. ' 

 *lonf» akjo there used to be lota "t 

 tine laru'c tiiidtcr. Kvery sw 

 there have been fires, mori* oi 

 lionpr ajjr> (abotit twenty five > 

 there was one terrible tire which r i 

 for many dnNs We could ii' 



the sun, and th.- only way I iouM 

 pet my bn-afh was by ] - n 



piece of tlannd ovi-r my m..,,,.i i t . 

 fire started at Kobin.son Porlatre a- I 

 ran from that .-ast to Oxford l;i 

 and West as far as Deer lake. I'p • , 

 this time there were lot- ■'" ' ■•• : 

 deer by thonsands, bu 

 we have not had nuieh fur nor ha\. 

 I known one deer to 1.. 

 three or four davs p.... . ,. ,. 

 here. Before the fire we saw only 

 an occasional moose, liut now there 

 are lots.* • • • Two su 

 apo we had larpe fires all arou;. . . 

 The Indians say that many of the 

 fires started iidand where there are 

 no people, ami that many <»f theni 

 are caused by York boat njen. The 

 bip fire of twenty five years apo wan 

 started by Indians working on a 

 a York boat.' 



Hunters on their way to the wint- 

 er hunting grounds are carelew with 

 their camp-fires and are resp. 

 for many f»ucst tires. Mr. 

 foril found that in this >: 

 freighters and trappers are very 

 careful. The Indians. " 



leaving camp-tir«'s, .start (•-■. 

 in the Oxford House distrii-t eN.rN 

 seasorj. 



After tire has destroy.. 1 tl 

 iiuil forest tlh-rc is nearly "' 

 dense scconil growth in n^ 

 pine, poplar and bird r m a 



greater propnrtion tliaii tii u 

 iiuil forest. Tl - ■• "i"t 

 wotdd in fifty or 

 a valuable forest it it wvrv ] 



ed from fire. T' '" ' ' 



the tirst tire thei. 



due of dry rejiinoiw wooil. wl 



gether with the 



of th«* youne '• 



a s»M'ond fire . 



Travellinif betwi.-n Kox lake and 

 Ni>rway H' ' 



that dav alter ua> w i ;iu i<> >u- n"» 



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