Trent Watershed Survey 



I 



Conditions in the Trent Watershed 



Introduction 



THE following report on the conditions of a section of a 

 once rich forest area in Old Ontario, will serve to exhibit in 

 a precise and detailed manner the consequences of mis- 

 management under the old system of timber licenses, con- 

 sequences which afford a warning against a continuance of that system. 

 The report is also intended to suggest possible methods of recovery. 

 Furthermore, an area has been considered in which the conditions 

 are typical of those in thousands of square miles of cut-over lands in 

 the eastern provinces of Canada. 



In the autumn of 191 1, Mr. John H. Biimham, M.P., invited the 

 writer to look over a portion of the watershed of the Trent canal, 

 situated in Hastings, Peterborough, Haliburton and Victoria counties, 

 Ontario, in company with the Superintendent of the Canal, with a view 

 to formulating suggestions for taking care of the forest cover. It 

 appeared that the Dominion Government had spent some ten million 

 dollars on this canal and watershed, building dams at some 40 lakes 

 to regulate the waterflow, although control of the watersheds, from 

 which this flow derives its source, had not been secured by the govern- 

 ment. The slopes, once, for the most part, covered with valuable pine 

 and hardwood forest, had been cut over. A large area, the pinery in 

 partictdar, had been repeatedly subjected to fires and rendered liable 

 to eventual total destruction, especially since the commercial interest 

 in the lands had to a large extent disappeared, through the removal of 

 the merchantable pine timber. 



A short inspection trip made it clear that these conditions pre- 

 sented a problem of peculiar and particular interest ; one of sufficient 

 size and importance to call for carefiil analysis and consideration ; a 

 problem meriting the development of some plan for its solution. 



The proposition to make a detailed reconnaissance and description 

 of the area as a basis for recommendations, appealed to the Chairman 

 of the Commission of Conservation, the Honourable Mr. Sifton. As the 

 timber had been nearly cut out, the Provincial Government was only 

 receiving a trifling revenue from this portion of the coimtry ; on the 

 other hand, the interest of the Dominion, on account of the capital in- 



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 N. C, State Ccilos^f^ 



