GRAZING ON PUBLIC LANDS OF CANADA 



(Impromptu Address) 



BY 

 R. H. CAMPBELL 



Secretary, Canadian Forestry Association 



I DO not respond to the call for Western men, but 

 am very glad that the discussion has been brought 

 back again to Western conditions, because I am con- 

 nected with the Department of the Interior of Canada, 

 which has the management of the Western lands and 

 deals with the problems which have been specially 

 brought before the Congress this afternoon, and I 

 thought a statement of the method that has been 

 adopted by us in dealing with the Western grazing 

 interest might perhaps be of some interest to the Con- 

 gress. The problem has not become an acute one with 

 us in connection with the forest reservations. The 

 grazing has not injured them seriously, and we have 

 not developed the management of the forest reserves 

 to such an extent that we have given much attention 

 to that subject. Another reason why the grazing in 

 the forest reserves has not been a very pressing subject 

 is the fact that there are no sheep grazed in close 

 proximity to the reserves or within them, and as the 

 chief objection has been made to the grazing of sheep 

 in the reserves on your side of the boundary, I think 

 it is from that the problem has largely arisen. In the 

 lands outside of the reserves we have been following 

 for a number of years a leasing system. We have not 

 laid down the principle, which apparently has been 

 laid down in your administration, that the range is 

 free to any man who wishes to make use of it ; in fact, 

 we lay down the principle, in the first place, that no 

 person has the right to make use of the public land 



