Canadian Forestry Journal, June, 1917 



1159 



Notes on Newfoundland's Forests 



Replying to a request of the Can- 

 adian Forestry Journal, Mr. J. D. 

 Gilmour, General Logging Superin- 

 tendent of the Anglo Newfoundland 

 Development Company, and formerly 

 of the British Columbia Forest Ser- 

 vice has briefly touched upon some 

 of the forest conditions of the island 

 as follows: 



The Anglo-Newfoundland Develop- 

 ment Company owns a continuous 

 block of timber lands, amounting to 

 2,316,000 acres, and comprising all 

 the drainage area of the Exploits 

 River from Grand Falls where the 

 mills are situated, to the head. Twen- 

 ty-five thousand horse power are de- 

 veloped at Grand Falls. The plant 

 has a daily capacity of 184 tons 

 sulphite and 192 tons newsprint. 

 The product is shipped over a Com- 

 pany railway 22 miles long from the 

 plant to Botwood Harbor. The usual 

 difficulties in shipping to England 

 have been met during the war, 

 and part of the product has accord- 

 ingly gone to the United States. 



The timber is spruce and fir, the 

 former being mostly black spruce. 

 The white and red species also occur. 

 The limits are well served by water, 

 so that everything is driven to the 

 mills and comparatively short hauls 

 are necessary in the woods. 



Logging is all done in winter from 

 Oct. 1 — May 1. More men are avail- 

 able then, and in summer the fire 

 danger is great if camps are operated. 



The company maintains a fire pa- 

 trol, and uses lookout points with 

 telephones. One feature where Can- 

 adian limit holders have a little ad- 

 vantage is that Canadian railways 

 in timbered country must patrol their 

 tracks at their own expense. Here 

 an informal association of limit-hold- 

 ers, with Government assistance, per- 

 forms the patrol on the Reid-New- 

 foundland Railway. However for 

 five years they have succeeded in 

 keeping down the fires from this 

 cause, and that is the main thing. 



This country as a whole is timbered 



best along tlie valleys and around the 

 lakes of which there are an immense 

 number. Wherever the land is flat, 

 or away from a drainage system, 

 there are bogs, some very large. At 

 elevations of 1,000 feet above sea 

 level barrens and bogs, the habitat 

 of thousands of caribou, are the rule. 



The greater portion of the island 

 bears no timber, partly on account 

 of these natural bogs and high barrens 

 and partly on account of many dis- 

 astrous fires in the past. This is the 

 oldest British colony, and has suffered 

 from fires longer than any other. 

 As in other places, it is only in the 

 last generation that any thought has 

 been given to the matter of prevent- 

 ing them. The population for 400 

 years has always got its living mainly 

 from the sea, so that there was, and 

 is more indifference here than in the 

 U.S.A. and Canada. However, in 

 this respect an improvement is noted 

 in recent years. 



Clean cutting of all spruce and fir 

 down to 5 inches D.B.H. is the meth- 

 od followed here, and careful inspec- 

 tion of logging operations leads to 

 conservative cutting, low stumps, 

 tops utilized to 4 inches, etc. The 

 result is a very fine natural growth 

 of fir and spruce, partly from vol- 

 unteer growth, and partly from seed 

 in the ground. If fires can be kept 

 out (and there have been none in 

 ten years logging since this company 

 started operations) there is no ques- 

 tion about a second crop. 



The use of tank cars for fire-fighting 

 purposes is now in efTect on the 

 Canadian Pacific, Grand Trunk, 

 Temisl^aming and Northern Ontario 

 and Canadian Government railways. 



Henri Mason, of Brussels, esti- 

 mates the total loss of Belgium in 

 buildings, equipment, stores and loss 

 of trade at $1,060,288,000. 



