C AX ADI AX- FORESTRY ASSOCIATION 55 



bution of the debris. Members of this Association attending our Convention year 

 after year, will know that this is a point I have had to raise on numerous occasions. 

 At Ottawa last year it was promised us by the retiring head of the Dominion Forest- 

 ry Department, that the regulations regarding the cutting and the disposition of 

 the debris would be brought down shortly. I would like to know whether this 

 very important matter has been dealt with by the Dominion Forest Service. I 

 understand that our neighbors to the south have once more got ahead of us. In 

 the organization and use of lumber reserves they have provided regulations regard- 

 ing the disposal of the debris. I would like to know what the Dominion Forest 

 Service has done and is prepared to do in support of similar regulations. 



The PRESIDENT. As the late head of the Forestry Branch of the Dominion 

 Government I would call upon Mr. E. Stewart to speak as to that. 



Mr. E. STEWART. I have been about a year away from Ottawa and have had 

 nothing to do with the administration of the Forestry Branch during that time. 

 I do not remember any definite promises made with regard to regulations for the 

 destruction of debris, but I know that the matter was discussed just as Mr. Chown 

 says. My idea has always been that the most practical thing we could do with 

 the debris, at present at least, would be to cut the limbs off and let them drop 

 flat on the ground instead of standing up and drying. That method would cost 

 very little and when lying flat the limbs would soon rot, but when standing in the 

 air at the end of the tree they will remain there for years. I do not say but that 

 in time it might be possible to pass regulations compelling lumbermen to dispose of 

 all the debris, but even that is a very dangerous operation. Unless it is done very 

 carefully there is a strong liability that they will start more fires, and destroy more 

 timber than they would otherwise have done. It would require very careful work 

 to burn the debris and I am strongly of opinion that the cutting down of the limbs 

 so that they will rot would prove fairly efficacious. It would also cost very little 

 and would certainly be a move in the right direction. I do not know whether 

 the Department has made any regulations within the last year with regard to this 

 matter or not. Of course so far as the Dominion is concerned it has not control 

 over a very large area in which lumbering operations are going on, probably not as 

 as much by any means as the Province of Quebec. You must remember that the 

 timber of British Columbia is mainly under control of the local Government, and 

 all the older Provinces have the management of their own timber, where lumbering 

 operations are conducted. There is, of course, some timber now being cut in the 

 North West Territories and in the new provinces of Saskatchewan and Alberta, 

 and in the railway belt in British Columbia, and as Mr. Chown says this is a matter 

 of such great importance that something should be done by the lumbermen them- 

 selves. But for the Government to undertake to go on to a lumberman's limits, 

 clear up and burn the debris for fire is the only means that we could use would 

 be a work of great magnitude, which, so far as I am aware, the Forestry Branch has 



