1454 



Canadian Forestry Journal, December, 1^)17 



A New Medium Between Foresters and 

 Woods Managers 



Recently at Montreal was launched 

 a "Woodlands Section" of the Can- 

 adian Pulp and Paper Association. 

 As expressed in the by-laws the ob- 

 jects shall be "to stimulate interest 

 in more economical and efficient 

 methods of production and utilization 

 of raw materials for pulp, paper and 

 lumber industries; and to provide 

 means for the interchange of ideas 

 amongst its members and to encour- 

 age investigation of woodlands prob- 

 lems." 



This heralds a movement having 

 the highest import for the wood- 

 using industries of Canada. For alto- 

 gether too long, the technical for- 

 ester has been an appendage rather 

 than an integral of Canada's lumber 

 and paper making enterprises. In 

 almost every other department of a 

 paper manufactory than the man- 

 agement of the forests, the technical 

 expert has been accepted as a basic 

 necessity. Now arises a medium, 

 identified with the business control 

 of the industry, whereby the For- 

 ester may at last be allowed to place 

 his special knowledge at a company's 

 disposal. This will be achieved very 



happily by the creation of a sort of 

 common council table at which the 

 problems of the woods departments 

 should come nearer solution. 



As knowledge of actual woods 

 conditions ceases to be guess work 

 and becomes scientifically-proved, 

 those responsible for the affairs of 

 great wood-using corporations are 

 coming more and more to realize 

 that the forest management of the 

 past cannot hold the log supply 

 abreast of the mill's necessities, can- 

 not 'make good' the common boast 

 that the timber crops are repeating 

 themselves every thirty or forty 

 years. The more data produced on 

 a forest region, the clearer becomes 

 the conclusion that Eastern Canada's 

 forests are rapidly deteriorating. If 

 this is permittee! to continue, the 

 same deterioration will eventually 

 sweep the mill investments to ruin. 

 It is high time, therefore, that the 

 science of woods management was 

 given more scope in actual cutting 

 and logging practice, not by brushing 

 present men and methods to one side 

 but by giving effect to the most rea- 

 sonable and valuable elements of 

 each. 



Guarding 21 Million Acres 



Wherever modern forest protection 

 gets a working chance, it demon- 

 strates its ability to save public and 

 private timber owners an enormous 

 amount of money. The past season 

 was a tricky fire year in the Pacific 

 Northw^estern wStates, producing no 

 fewer than 7,688 fires, of which 938 

 are given as 'bad' fires. 



On regular patrol on the 21,000,000 

 acres were 2,579 regular rangers and 

 12,000 extra men were called in to 

 fight fire at various times. The total 



expended for fire protection was $1,- 

 825,000. On the lands of the West- 

 ern Forestry and Conservation Asso- 

 ciation, 650 patrolmen extinguished 

 2388 fires. The loss of timber was 

 very much under previous severe 

 years. 



One of the special causes of trouble, 

 is said to have been the activities of 

 the I.W.W. and other pro-German 

 w^orkers, intent upon destroying some 

 of the areas particularly of aeroplane 

 spruce. 



