RECOMMENDATIONS 19 



If the Province assumes the responsibility of such a conservative 

 forest policy, the Dominion might well be relieved of participation in it, 

 for its interests would then be subserved. If, however, it is not the 

 intention of the Province to efficiently protect, recuperate, and manage 

 these forest areas, the Dominion should, by control of the watersheds, 

 be placed in a position to protect its water rights. 



As pointed out, an efficient forest management, especially of 

 cut-over lands, can be satisfactorily carried on only if compact pro- 

 perties of sufficient size are placed under one management. It is a 

 great advantage that such conditions are found here, namely, compact 

 areas of land in the hands of the Province, which could be placed in 

 one reserve under one manager. The man in charge of such property 

 must be a real and circumspect manager, continuously active on the 

 ground. His first duty would be to make a careful survey and map 

 of the property, showing conditions in detail, at the same time, 

 organizing an effective service for protection against fire, building 

 watch-towers, and, where roads or ready means of travel do 

 not exist, he should provide trails, gradually perfecting the pro- 

 tective service. Next, he must make it his business to encourage the 

 establishment of small woodworking manufactures that can utilize 

 the mature hardwood timber, as well as the minor forest products now 

 going to waste. The small values that can be secured by an efficient 

 local manager so far as possible, must be made to pay the cost of re- 

 cuperation. He must also encourage private enterprise to develop 

 the tourist travel and foster the fish and game resources as a not unim- 

 portant asset of the forest reserve. Then follows the improvement 

 of existing stands and of natural regeneration by thinnings, the proceeds 

 of which should, together with the profits of such logging of mature 

 timber as may still be done, pay for the operation. 



Next comes the question of planting to improve or make productive 

 the partly or wholly waste lands. This is a task worthy of strenuous 

 effort on the part of an efficient man, properly supported by either the 

 Provincial or Dominion Government. Is it not time to begin such 

 actual practical forest management instead of merely talking of con- 

 serving our forest resources, theorizing on their value, and letting them 

 go to ruin ? The field for reform is, to be sure, so wide, that the re- 

 formers are staggered by the problem of where to begin ; but here is a 

 concrete case with which a beginning could be made, a case presenting 

 a definite situation and a definite problem. If begun not half-heartedly 

 and in the picayune manner in which such things are usually under- 

 taken, but with a full realization that only a thorough-going business 



