1078 



Canadian Forestry Journal, April, 1917 



A Modem Ranger Spstem at Work 



The excellent work of the Lower 

 Ottawa Forest Protective Association 

 during 1916, and the two previous 

 seasons, was described in a paper 

 by the manager, Mr. Arthur H. Gra- 

 ham, at the Forest Conservation 

 Conference at Montreal, Feb. 1 and 2. 



The patrol staff consisted of 57 

 rangers and 4 chief rangers. Ex- 

 perience had proved conclusively that 

 the co-operative system of fire-fight- 

 ing was the strongest and most effi- 

 cient when the drought period came 

 and men had to be gathered and 

 hurried to fires -with equipment. 

 During three seasons' operations 457 

 fires had been extinguished, 560 miles 

 of trail cleared, and the mileage tra- 

 velled by rangers was 311,868 miles. 

 About 300 miles of telephone lines 

 had been constructed, five large tow- 

 ers erected, three of which were 

 equipped with local and long dis- 

 tance telephone connections. Dur- 

 ing the first two seasons settlers were 

 accountable for 50 per cent, of all 

 the fires, but this had been reduced 

 to less than 15 per cent. The opposi- 

 tion to the permit system had almost 

 vanished. They had more success 

 in controlling fires and confining 

 them within a certain area than in 

 completely extinguishing them. 



In 1914 the number of fires ex- 

 tinguished was 154; in 1915, 155; 

 and in 1916, 148. The total area 

 burned over, including private lands, 

 was: 1914, 297,996 acres; 1915, 20,- 

 715 acres; and 1916, 8,637. The 

 merchantable timber scorched was: 

 1914, 16,624,325 b.m. feet; 1915; 

 6,607,450 feet; and 1916, 858,620 feet. 

 The cost of operation for patrol, in- 

 cluding all accounts except for fire 

 fighting, had not exceeded $1.50 per 

 square mile, or less than }4c per acre. 

 No fires had come to their territory 

 from the St. Maurice territory, which 

 adjoined, but this could not be said 

 regarding the Upper Ottawa area 

 (which included licensed crown lands 

 to the extent of 16,000 square miles), 

 where fire ranging was done by the 



private system of patrol. A num- 

 ber of the companies were doing a 

 great deal to prevent fires, and were 

 spending two or three times more 

 money patrolling and fire fighting 

 than they should have to spend be- 

 cause of their neighbors' carelessness 

 and lack of proper patrol of their 

 limits by competent rangers. Mr. 

 Graham's remarks were backed up 

 by a licensee who owned extensive 

 areas in the Upper Ottawa district. 

 Thirty-five million feet of merchant- 

 able timber scorched was the estimate 

 of damage done by two fires that reach- 

 ed his limits in an uncontrollable state, 

 notwithstanding the fact that he spent 

 $3.80 per square mile patrolling, and 

 an additional $2 per square mile was 

 spent for fire fighting. 



THE ANCIENT POPLAR TREE 



When white men settled in Am- 

 erica, the Indians were making canoes 

 of the yellow poplar. This was really 

 the beginning of the last chapter in 

 its life. Earlier chapters have been 

 dug out of rocks and clays where its 

 leaves and flowers have lain buried 

 during thousands and millions of 

 years. This tree appeared after the 

 coal beds were formed, but before the 

 ice age. 



There were sixteen species of the 

 tree then, extending to Greenland 

 as the climate was warm. At that 

 remote time yellow poplar grew in 

 Europe where it no longer exists. 

 Fifteen species perished in this long 

 winter known as the ice age. The 

 species that survived was probably 

 then growing south of the region of 

 extreme cold and when the ice finally 

 melted, it worked its way north as 

 far as Canada. 



The scarcity of paper? As long 

 ago as the reign of Tiberius the dearth 

 of papyrus was so alarming that 

 the Roman Government took over 

 the distribution of the available sup- 

 ply. — Boston Herald. 



