968 



Canadian Forestry Journal, February, 1917 



forest planting is being thought of, 

 but otherwise the woods are being 

 cared for. 



"To make a long tale short, and 

 so as not to annoy the censor unduly, 

 let me say, that the woods of the 

 fighting countries are suffering less 

 from the war than the men ; the ani- 

 mals, including game; the fields, be- 

 cause of lack of phosphate and stable 

 manure; the buildings, and the hu- 

 man hearts." 



The Western Campaign. ^ 



"A campaign of considerable vigor 

 has been waged in the Province of 

 Manitoba for some time past, under 

 the inspiration of the Canadian For- 

 estry Association, to have the pro- 

 vincial legislature adopt means to 

 stop the great timber waste in the 

 northern sections of the province 

 caused by forest fires. Most of these 

 fires originated on settlers' lands 

 where clearing operations are care- 

 lessly conducted, and very frequently 

 result in dangerous conflagrations. 

 The catastrophe in Ontario last sum- 

 mer was due entirely to settlers' fires 

 It has been discovered that Manitoba 

 already has committed itself to the 

 principle of issuing permits for the 

 setting out of fires in the northern 

 forested districts. This is contained 

 in the Fires Prevention Act of 1913, 

 but the scope of the act is wholly 

 municipal, and it has no application 

 to the districts where fire prevention 

 is most needed, namely, the unorgan- 

 ized municipalities. The Manitoba 

 Government is now being asked to 

 make the act apply to unorganized 

 municipalities, and it is suggested 

 that the issuing of permits and the 

 supervision of the fires, so as to pre- 

 vent them doing damage, might be 

 entrusted to the rangers of the Dom- 

 inion Forestry Branch, thus relieving 

 the province of the administration 

 costs. The Dominion Government 

 is willing to undertake the additional 

 duties." — Western Lumberman. 



from their lands," says the Calgary 

 News-Telegram. In Quebec, British 

 Columbia, Nova Scotia and part of 

 New Brunswick there are laws which 

 make it necessary for a settler to 

 have a "burning permit" before he 

 starts to clear his land. This per- 

 mit contains stipulations as to the 

 manner of lighting a fire, the dis- 

 tance from the fire of brush, of in- 

 flammable substances, etc. It is 

 pointed out that similar legislation 

 should immediately be put into ef- 

 fect in the prairie provinces and in 

 Ontario. This matter has been 

 strongly advocated by members of 

 the Canadian Forestry association, 

 and numerous letters have been writ- 

 ten to members of the different pro- 

 vincial legislatures, asking that such 

 a law be passed. United States, by 

 means of protective legislation, has 

 succeeded in saving in their decrease 

 in timber fires the sum of $14,000,000 

 since the year 1910. Fires are shown 

 to be diminishing in British Columbia, 

 and also in the other provinces where 

 this permit system is in operation. 

 Many do not credit the prairie 

 provinces with the timber which they 

 really possess, but figures officially 

 compiled show that there is great 

 wealth in the standing trees of the 

 three provinces. Also, figures show 

 that of the three territories. Alberta 

 has the greatest timber wealth. 



What The West Deserves' 

 "It has been found that the fore- 

 most cause of forest fires have been 

 from the carelessness of settlers en- 

 gaged in clearing brush or timber 



Britain's Forests Reduced. 



So much timber is being used for 

 the war it is said by advocates of 

 a government scheme for reafforesta- 

 tion that if the war lasts another 

 three years the British Isles will be 

 entirely denuded of timber. One 

 feature of the situation is that some 

 pre-war sources of supply are no 

 longer available. Fifty-five per cent 

 of timber imported in normal times 

 came from Russia, Sweden and Ger- 

 many, four per cent, from Norway, 

 and 41 per cent, from France, Portu- 

 gal and Spain. Since the war this 

 country has had to rely partly on 

 supplies from Norway and Swed- 

 en and largely on French and Portu- 

 guese supplies, and to make good 

 the deficit from woods and forests 

 in the British Isles. 



