CANADIAN FORESTRY ASSOCIATION 45 



TURTLE MOUNTAIN RESERVE. 



In the case of the Turtle Mountain Forest and Game Reserve, about forty 

 miles south of Brandon, Manitoba, Mr. R. D. Craig, B. S. A., F. E., late Inspector 

 of Dominion Forest Reserves, found by the methods I have just described that 

 the unburned area of 1611 acres has standing on it enough small aspen to yield 

 19,825 cords of wood, of the balm 7,007 cords, of birch 7,695, of green ash 1,068, of 

 burr oak 1,379, and of elm 593; a total af 37,567 cords. On the partially destroyed 

 area of 6,371 acres the smaller living trees would yield about 39,520 cords of wood 

 and the standing dead trees about 28,250 cords. The dead and down timber 

 amounts to nearly ten cords per acre or 63,710 altogether. Of the living trees 

 large enough for saw timber it was found that the unburned area yielded 453 board 

 feet per acre and the partially destroyed only 122 board feet; making a total of 

 only 1,507,000 for the whole tract. Thus the total stock was found to consist of 

 77,087 cords of green timber large enough for firewood, 91,960 cords of dry fuel 

 and one and a half million board feet of small saw timber. The remaining 63,872 

 acres, 85% of the total area, include the lakes, open prairie-like spots and areas 

 which have been completely destroyed by fires. 



MOOSE MOUNTAIN RESERVE. 



In the Moose Mountain Forest and Game Reserve there are about 4,000 acres 

 of merchantable timber and about 80,000 acres covered with an excellent young 

 growth of aspen and balm which followed the fires of 1885 and 1897. The ten- 

 year old trees are now ten to fourteen feet high and the twenty-two year old trees 

 thirty to thirty-five feet all growing in dense enough stand to form tall, straight, 

 clean-boled trees, if protected from fire. In the mature timber the average yield 

 is about 23.4 cords per acre, or 93,600 cords altogether. Of dead and down timber 

 there is probably 100,000 cords which Forest Ranger Rutherford is having removed 

 in as rapid and systematic a manner as possible. The saw-timber is so scattered 

 that it is hardly available for milling, but the amount estimated to be present is 

 4,520,000 board feet of aspen, 760,000 of balm and 368,000 of birch. 



In the Riding Mountain and Duck Mountain Forest and Game Reserves 

 there are many stands of spruce, larch, balsam fir and Jack pine yielding over 6000 

 feet, board measure, to the acre, or 4,000,000 board feet per square mile. Besides 

 yielding valuable saw timber these reserves are especially important as regulators 

 of stream flow for nearly half the tributaries of the Assiniboine River, and all the 

 streams watering the rich agricultural lands extending from Dauphin to Swan 

 River. In the eastern and northern part of the Riding Mountain Reserve, elk 

 and moose are plentiful, whilst in the Duck Mountain Reserve the moose are even 

 more abundant than the elk. 



GROWTH STUDIES. 



The ultimate object of nearly all studies of growth is to predict the number 

 of cubic feet of wood per acre per year that will be added to the growing stock. 

 Studies of this sort are of too complicated a nature to be dealt with in a paper of this 

 kind, but perhaps I may be permitted to state that they depend upon a knowledge 

 of the volume of the stand, during the different periods of its growth from youth 

 to maturity. During the last three years the Dominion Forest Service has been 

 collecting data for studies of this nature, but, as yet, no attempt has been made to 



