1108 Canadian Forestrii Journal, May, 191'. 



PRESENT STATE OF FORESTS 

 IN PRAIRIE PROVINCES 



A most interesting and informative estimate of forest conditions 

 has been furnished by the Dominion Forestry Branch at the request of 

 the Canadian Forestry Journal It deals with the results of examina- 

 tions by Forestry Branch reconnaissance parties of about 100,000 square 

 miles north of the prairies in Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta. On 

 this area, which is accepted as typical of the bulk of the tree-covered 

 lands'(the complete survey of which will be completed in about two years) 



about 6 per cent, is grassland or prairie, 



about 3 per cent, is water, 



about 23 per cent, is muskeg or slough, 



about 55 per cent, is covered with more or less good reproduction 

 verging in size from seedlings to trees 8 inches in diameter, B. H. This 

 includes also recent burns where the reproduction may as yet be very 

 poor or altogether lacking. 



About 13 per. cent, of the area is covered with timber of merchant- | 

 able size, 8 inches or more. ! 



This estimate is at once a tragic testimony to past neglect and a | 

 reminder that only by resolute conservation policies beginning with | 

 exclusion of fire and on through replanting to a scientific plan of utilizing I 

 mature timber will the timber resources of the prairie provinces prove 

 equal to the* requirements of future population. If, as claimed, the 

 future of Canada depends upon heavy immigration, the hope of immi- 

 gration depends not upon bare land merely, not upon wider markets 

 merely, but upon holding down the costs of production, in which the 

 cost of lumber and fuel, fence posts and other wood supplies bear such 

 a substantial part. As the cost of wooden pit props affects the price 

 of coal, or the cost of barrels affects the selling price of fish, so the thou- 

 and-and-one products of the forest that enter into a modern farming 

 plant will retard or send up the production cost of wheat and live stock 

 according as the storehouse of the provincial forests is in a flourishing or 

 depleted condition. 



The forests of Alberta are primarily for Alberta's use. So with 

 Saskatchewan and Manitoba. Each province gets all the dividends 

 of conservation, by whomsoever applied. 



THRIFT IN FOREST FIRES losses in 1917. As is well known, the 

 There are estimated to be 10,000 present-day causes of forest fires are 

 forest fires in Canada every year of all not the railways as much as the set- 

 sizes and descriptions. Nine-tenths tiers, campers, hunters and fishermen, 

 are set by human hands, and the Thoughtlessness in respect to camp 

 damage runs from four to ten millions fires, the throwing away of lighted 

 of dollars, not counting damage to tobacco, matches, etc., has caused 

 soil, to the value of watershed areas some of the worst conflagrations in 

 and many other factors. history. During the months of May 

 "Thrift in forest fires" is a new and June, before the fire season is well 

 movement which the Canadian under way this year, thousands of 

 Forestry Association has started out-doors men are being asked by the 

 amongst the guides, and campers and co-operation of the newspaper pub- 

 sportsmen of Canada with a view to lishers of Canada to make 1917 a year 

 cutting down the country's timber of thrift in the forest. 



