1448 



Canadian Foresfnj Journal, December, 1917 



Twentp-two Times as Much B. C. Timber 

 Burned as Has Been Put to Use 



An astounding proof of heavy for- 

 est fire losses in the Province of Brit- 

 ish Cokimbia is made piibhc by the 

 Commission of Conservation which 

 has been conducting an investigation 

 of the forest resources of the province 

 during the past four years. 



This investigation has shown that 

 on 95,000 square miles — nine times 

 the size of Belgium — the timber has 

 been uselessly destroyed by fire, most- 

 ly many years ago. 



The amount of timber so des- 

 troyed is estimated to be not less 

 than 650,000,000,000 feet, or about 

 twenty-two times as much as the 

 total that has ever been cut by the 

 lumbermen in that province. Put- 

 ting the loss in another way, this 

 timber is equivalent to almost 

 twice the amount of saw timber 

 now standing in the province, and to 

 nearly as much saw timber as is now 

 standing in the forests of all Canada. 

 Much of the area burned over 

 contains young forest growth, 

 which, if protected from further 

 destruction, will, in time, furnish 

 the basis for enormous industrial 

 development on our Pacific Coast. 

 If we assume that the 97,000 

 square miles of cut-over and burn- 

 ed-over lands should be made to 

 produce an average of only 100 

 board feet per acre per annum, the 

 total increment would amount to 

 6,200,000,000 feet per year, or 

 about five times the present annual 

 cut. That this estimate is by no 

 means beyond the bounds of rea- 



son is shown by measurements of 

 growth which have actually been 

 made. 



The Government and private oper- 

 ators of British Columbia have real- 

 ized fully the gravity of past losses 

 by forest fires, although probably few 

 were prepared to admit that the situa- 

 tion was as grave as the conclusions 

 of the Commission of Conservation 

 actually show. Happily the pro- 

 vincial forest service is making sure 

 that the annual losses are kept as 

 close to a minimum as the present 

 staff and expenditures allow. This 

 year, for example, the total losses 

 to merchantable timber from forest 

 fires was estimated at $178,401, which 

 is a vast decrease from some of the 

 summers prior to five years ago. At 

 the same time it must be borne in 

 mind that a good many of this year's 

 fires were on areas previously burned 

 over and, therefore, the timber crop 

 was not there to be destroyed. 



The total estimated stand ot tim- 

 ber in British Columbia to-day — 

 regardless of present commercial value 

 — is placed at approximately three 

 hundred and fifty billion feet. 



The commercially valuable timber- 

 ed area of about eleven million acres 

 is estimated to bear a stand of two- 

 hundred bilKon feet. 



The "Lumber World Review" in 

 issuing "The British Columbia Tim- 

 ber Primer" makes an estimate that 

 five per cent, of the total area of the 

 province bears timber having a pres- 

 ent commercial value. 



French Forestry and Canadian Timber Growth 



Lt.-Col. J. B. White, woods man- 

 ager of the Riordan Pulp and Paper 

 Company, Montreal, and for the past 

 two years in charge of forestry work 

 in England and France, stated re- 

 cently that if yields of 30,000 to 

 45,000 board feet per acre were fre- 

 quent in France, as his own investiga- 

 tions had shown, there seemed no 

 reason why Canadians should tolerate 



the relatively small productivity of 

 timberlands in Eastern Canada where 

 soil and climatic conditions were not 

 dissimilar to those of France. One 

 plot, measured by Col. White, con- 

 tained 100,000 board feet within an 

 acre. Such a showing did not tend 

 to increase our satisfaction with Can- 

 adian lands producing only two to 

 three thousand board feet per acre. 



