The Value of Forests 



ii 



Athabaska and Peace River valleys. South of the Atha- 

 baska River and west of the McLeod River the land is 

 generally low-lying and of good quality, and again to the 

 north around Grouard, Sturgeon Lake, and Grande Prairie ; 

 but between these two tracts intrudes the area of elevated, 

 broken, and poor land described. 



"A resum' of the area examined is as follows : 



"The timber on this tract is lodgepole pine, spruce, 

 balsam fir, tamarack, poplar, and white birch. There are 

 very few areas of mature timber, owing to recurrent fires. 

 Probably eleven per cent of the area has been burned over 

 in the last twenty years. As a rough estimate, Mr. Doucet 

 has calculated that the area examined carries 20,009,600 

 cords of poplar and birch, of which seventeen millions are 

 poplar. The mature spruce and pine timber covers an 

 area of approximately 364 square miles, with a production 

 estimated at 2,839,460,000 feet, board measure. A young 

 forest of spruce and pine well on to maturity covers an 

 area of 1500 square miles, and has a stand of 2,672,680,000 



