Our Forest Reserve Problem 



(Paper read at Annual Convention of Manitoba Horticultural and Forestry 

 Association, Winnipeg, February, 1912.) 



By J. R. Dickson, M.S.F. 



This subject, namely 'Our Forest 

 Eeserve Problem,' is a very large 

 and broad subject, with many and 

 diverse ramifications and interrela- 

 tions. 



Let us see if we can outline some 

 of the more important factors in 

 what I have termed our Forest Re- 

 serve Problem. In the first place it 

 is a complex problem. The great 

 ultimate object which the Forestry 

 Branch has in view in every piece of 

 work undertaken on the forest re- 

 serves is a 'Normal Forest.' And 

 when one says 'Normal Forest' every 

 simon-pure forester has at once a 

 picture before his mind, a forest 

 where every acre is fully stocked 

 with tall, clean, straight, thrifty 

 trees, of the most valuable species 

 which that climate and soil will 

 grow. A 'normal forest' is a piece 

 of land producing the largese quant- 

 ity of the most valuable timber pos- 

 sible, in the shortest possible time. 



But that ideal must remain for- 

 ever unsatisfied. No forester has 

 ever yet been, or ever will be, able 

 to say: 'There, that is the most 

 which that acre can produce.' Even 

 in that famous forest of the City of 

 Zurich — the Sihlwald — which has 

 been producing its crops for a thou- 

 sand years, the quantity and quality 

 is still improving. Its revenue re- 

 turn last year was some twelve dol- 

 lars per acre. 



A normal forest, then, on each re- 

 serve is what we are after, and to 

 secure it we have only to surmount 

 the tAvin d'lifieulties of protection 

 and reproduction, for that other ter- 

 rible bogie of the private timber 

 owner — tJie taxation question — does 

 not concern us as yet on the forest 

 reserves, and perhaps never will. 



Forest Protection. 



AVhen I say 'Protection,' you 

 think instinctively of fire and the 

 fire-hazard ; and rightly so, for the 

 damage done each year in our for- 

 ests by insects, fungi and wind is us- 

 ually insignificant when compared 

 with the fire loss. To secure real 

 protection which protects is the very 

 first essential and basis upon which 

 all further forestry work must rest. 

 For whether we consider mature 

 timber, or reforestation work, it is 

 very clear that to start forest man- 

 agement would be a mere absurdity 

 so long as the investment were even 

 liable to be burned up. 



At every forestry convention in 

 Canada up to the present this vexed 

 initial problem of fire protection has 

 received almost sole attention and 

 discussion. No doubt much good re- 

 sulted from these conventions, but 

 the evil still flourishes and the great 

 careless public looks on in good-na- 

 tured tolerance. 



Outside of more or less indirect as- 

 sistance from legislation and educa- 

 tion there are in America to-day two 

 general direct schemes for combat- 

 ting the fire danger; these are tlie 

 warden system and the patrol sys- 

 tem. The former, in use by many of 

 the United States up till recently, 

 was found too inelastic to answer 

 the purpose, and is now rapidly be- 

 ing discarded or modified. 



Fire Prevention. 



The principal of prevention and 

 its elastic adaptability are the two 

 things which make the patrol system 

 so efficient, for in fire-fighting the 

 proverbial ounce of prevehtion is 

 worth a ton of cure. I take issue 



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