Canadian Forcslrij Journal, Janiiarij, 1U17 



917 



HOW QUEBEC ASSOCIATIONS RID THE 

 FOREST OF SETTLERS' HAZARDS 



Remarkable Record Achieved in 1916 on more than 24,000 

 Square Miles of Timber Lands 



In the 12,000 square miles of 

 Quebec, patrolled by rangers of the 

 St. Maurice Forest Protective Asso- 

 ciation, 1213 settlers living in tim- 

 bered districts where carelessness 

 with fire is a direct bid for a catas- 

 trophe took out 'burning permits' 

 during the summer of 1916 in accord- 

 ance with the Quebec law. 



They took out the permits for more 

 reasons than fear of a legal penalty. 

 The written permit to burn the slash 

 in their clearings was equal to an 

 insurance policy on their lives, their 

 homes, and the valuable timber of the 

 neighborhood. By means of the 

 'permit' a skilled ranger supervised 

 their dangerous slash fires. He made 

 the job a safe one. The settler got a 

 thorough 'burn' to clean up his land, 

 but he made sure of preventing ano- 

 ther 'Claybelt Horror'. No red tape. 

 Nothing unreasonable. Today, the 

 Quebec settler in that district holds 

 up both hands for the 'burning per- 

 mit.' 



1213 settlers' fires in 1916 in the 

 St. Maurice area! And not one fire 

 got away. Every fire a safe fire! Only 

 one settler refused to co-operate in 

 playing safe; he was prosecuted and 

 fined. 



More Proof 



Over 1000 settlers' permits were 

 issued in another 12000 square miles 

 of Quebec, patrolled by the Lower 

 Ottawa Forest Protective Associa- 

 tion. How many of them escaped 

 from the clearings? One. And it did 

 practically no damage before it was 

 extinguished. Why this remarkable 

 change from the old days when forest 

 holocausts (produced frequently from 

 runaway fires in settlers' land-clear- 

 ing operations) ravaged whole town- 



ships and destroyed lives and pro- 

 perty? First: a law requiring the 

 settler to take out a 'permit' before 

 burning his slash; second: a vigilant, 

 thorough system of forest patrol by 

 qualified rangers. 



The Claybelt Horror came to 

 Ontario's northland in 1916 because 

 in the absence of any 'permit law' or 

 patrol system, hundreds of settlers' 

 fires got loose at the hottest part of 

 midsummer and swept like a cyclone 

 across 800,000 acres between Mathe- 

 son and Cochrane. 



A Warning to the West 



Most of the new immigration in 

 the prairie provinces is taking up lands 

 in the northern timbered areas, there- 

 by duplicating the forest fire hazard 

 of the Ontario Claybelt. 



As with Ontario in 1916, and in the 

 old days of the sections of Quebec 

 referred to, settlers' clearing fires can 

 be set out in the hottest weather, on 

 the windiest da^s, with slash piled 

 dangerously against the edge of stand- 

 ing timber. No existing law (except 

 in Manitoba, where it is not enforced) 

 prohibits such disregard of grave 

 risks. Any year of drought may 

 duplicate for Manitoba, Saskatche- 

 wan, or Alberta, the terrible events 

 in Northern Ontario in July last. 



The only known safeguard against 

 wanton destruction of lives and tim- 

 ber possessions in settled forest lands 

 is the enforcement of 'burning permits' 



The plan has worked with striking 

 success in British Columbia, Nova 

 Scotia, large areas of Quebec, in many 

 of the States of the American union 

 and will soon be operated in Ontario. 

 It has won the sympathy and co- 

 operation of settlers wherever applied. 



Is the West ready to protect itself? 



