1352 Canadian Forestry Journal, October, 1917 



logs in the driving" streams appeared smaller and smaller. The capacity of 

 that area for periodical production had seriously declined. 



A notable consequence of severe culling of coniferous species has been 

 to encourage the growth of hardwoods. The transition has been a money- 

 loser from every standpoint. The great woods of commercial demand are 

 coniferous — spruce, pine, hemlock, etc., and the great lumbering and pulp 

 making industries of the province of New Brunswick cannot be maintained 

 on other than coniferous forests. 



GETTING RID OF THE FIRE PLAGUE 



Under the proposed New Brunswick Forest Service should come the 

 control of the fire ranging force. 



' Until fire is eliminated, "Conservation of the forests" can make no real 

 headway. One m.ay as well attempt efficiency by painting the lifeboats 

 of a ship and building watertight bulkheads while the hull itself is perforated 

 with decay. 



The Director of the Forest Survey has stated that of the 550,000 acres 

 examined, 82,270 acres have been burned by fires of fairly recent date. Had 

 this area not been burned over, there would have been, besides the amount 

 already taken out from time to time, merchantable timber standing on those 

 tracts to-day worth at least S7 14,000. This figure applies to only one-thir 

 teenth of the whole area to be examined. 



CLOSING OUT A COSTLY RECORD 



Let us consider not the question of culpability for losses sustained in the 

 past, but rather how New Brunswick can bring that record to a close. 



The success of any fire protection arrangement rests, first, upon organ- 

 ization. New Brunswick's laws provide for the appointment of a Chief 

 Fire Warden. Under him are fifteen county wardens who have a varying 

 number of deputies. In some counties the deputies are paid a fixed sum 

 annually, and in others they are remunerated on the per diem basis. 



By this system, 160 men, on an average, are on the Government pay 

 roll as permanent wardens. They look after fire protection and game during 

 the spring and summer, and game protection during the fall and winter. 



The fire wardens, responsible for timber guarding, receive remunera- 

 tion varying in amount and form of payment from S2.00 a day to $250.00 

 a year, a few at $300.00, with some county wardens receiving up to $900.00 

 a year. The average amount received last year per man was about $52.00. 

 For such pay no body of men can be expected to render more than inter- 

 mittent service or to undertake arduous patrol, or to go far afield in search 

 of fires. British Columbia this year, is paying its forest rangers $100.00 

 a month for a six months' period, for which the Government demands and 

 secures an equivalent in energetic application to duty. Ontario pays its 

 forest ranger's (under its recently le-organized system) $75.00 a month mini- 

 mum, Quebec pay averaging $60.00 a month. Cheaply-paid forest guards 

 usually represent unenthusiastic service. They are available for action 

 usually only when fires have secured headway. Neither is it their hourly 

 duty {o look after fire prevention and public education, such as applies to a 

 truly efficient ranger working under an up-to-date system. Adequate wages 

 and alert inspection always recoup the public treasury well during a season 

 of average fire danger. One might hazard a guess, without being accused 

 of exaggeration, that for every dollar withheld from the forest protection 

 service, short of a really adequate amount, the people of New Brunswick 

 are losing many hundred per cent per annum in forest fire damage. 



HOW A BETTER SYSTEM CAN BE PAID FOR 



The proposed reorganization of the fire guarding scheme involves no 

 net outlay on the part of either Government or licensees, and would quickly 

 put an end to a destructive agency that is penalizing the people of the province. 



