1304 



Canadan Forestry Journal, September, 1917 



Estimating Fire Damage 



An effort to secure uniform statis- 

 tics regarding forest fires and the 

 damage caused by them was made 

 recently by a special committee of the 

 Canadian Forestry Association. The 

 committee secured many valuable 

 suggestions and criticisms which will 

 be utilized in a report. Dealing with 

 this subject, Mr. Ell wood Wilson, 

 Forester of the Laurentide Company, 

 writes : 



"The necessity for uniform statis- 

 tics of forest fires and the damage 

 caused by them is a subject of great 

 importance and likewise of consider- 

 able difficulty. It would seem to be 

 necessary to have, whenever a fire 

 occurs, the date, location, cause, area 

 burned over, stand before the fire 

 occurred, timber which can be sal- 

 vaged, and timber burned. Value of 

 timber or other resource destroyed is 

 also important. The last three items 

 are very difficult to ascertain. Pro- 

 tective agencies cannot be expected 

 in the nature of the case to cruise and 

 accurately determine the amount of 

 timber on areas under their care. 

 The ordinary fire ranger is, certainly 

 not qualified nor has he the time to 

 make a careful estimate of the amount 

 of timber which can be salvaged, nor 

 the value of the trees destroyed. At 

 best the most he can say is: green 

 timber destroyed, or old burn, or 

 logging slash or some such general 

 description, and he can say timber 

 scorched but ht to cut, timber all 

 burnt, etc., and none of these design- 

 ations are of any real value for 

 statistical purposes. In fact, the 

 determination of areas is really often 

 beyond the capacity of the ranger, 

 and again the difficulty of leaving 

 his patrol to measure burnt areas 

 crops up. Then when the question 

 of valuing such damaged areas is en- 

 countered, further difficulties enter. 

 Only an expert in local values is com- 

 petent to say what timber is worth. 

 The question of the value of young 

 growth, of scorched timber and of 

 areas which have just started to 

 reproduce is a trying one, and no two 



owners will agree as to the value 

 placed on such areas. Much pre- 

 liminary work is necessary, especially 

 in a country which has not even been 

 carefully mapped, such as all of the 

 Canadian co-operative associations 

 are operating in. It might be pos- 

 sible for these Associations to under- 

 take such mapping and estimating 

 work. This would give winter work 

 for rangers and inspectors, a very 

 important matter indeed." 



A RECORD LOG JAM 



Probably the record logjam of the 

 world is blocking the Glommen River 

 in Sweden. 



A quantity, estimated at about 

 450,000 dozens of logs, have piled up 

 at Bingfoss lock, almost inextricably, 

 to an enormous height, and it is 

 only possible to extricate the logs 

 one by one with immense work and 

 difficulty. Instead of employing as 

 usual about 20 to 30 men, the asso- 

 ciation has now 130 men engaged, 

 who work day and night totry to 

 loosen this mighty mass of timber. 

 Although everything has been done 

 to stop more timber from coming 

 down to Bingfoss, the river still 

 carries a great deal of timber, and 

 the quantity at Bingfoss i^ thus 

 steadily increasing. As the situa- 

 tion now is, it is hardly possible to 

 clear the quantity of timber at the 

 Bingen lock in a shorter time than 

 two years, and there is no prospect 

 of being able to release this year 

 much more than one-half of the 

 quantity of timber which has been 

 marked this season for being floated 

 in the Glomrnen River. 



CHEAP MEAL IN PLANTER'S 

 CAMP 



Roast veal, fried potatoes, stewed 

 tomatoes, dried corn, canned peaches, 

 hot biscuits, butter, cookies, coffee, — 

 not a menu of a fashionable hotel, 

 but of a meal served in a Pennsylvania 

 State Forest tree-planting camp. It 

 cost 163^ cents per man. 



