The Dominion Forestry Branch 



Past, Present and Prospective Developments. 



Whoii, in 1900, the Honourable Clifford 

 Sifton, then Minister of the Interior, 

 asked for a grant of $15,000 to establish 

 a Forestry Branch, the proposal met with 

 considerable opposition in the House. It 

 was an experiment, the success of which 

 was doubtetl. But from the very start the 

 Branch amply justified its existence, and 

 each succeeding year has seen an amplifi- 

 cation of its activities. In the short 

 period of thirteen years a forest fire pro- 

 tection system has been develojied, which, 

 measured by results, is second to none on 

 the continent; forest surveys have been 

 carried on, which have revealed the 

 previously unknown timber resources of 

 the Canadian West, and have secured the 

 setting aside of thirty-six thousand square 

 miles of Dominion forest reserves; a Tree- 

 planting Division has been built up, which 

 annually distributes more trees for prairie 

 planting than any similar agency in 

 America, and, exclusive of the annual 

 Branch Reports, over forty comprehensive 

 bulletins have been published, containing 

 information on Canada's forest resources 

 and the industries dependant thereon, of 

 acknowledged value to layman, lumber- 

 man and forester alike. 



The year of 191.3 was marked by the 

 greatest progress in the history of the 

 Forestry Branch, due, in large measure, to 

 the appropriation for forestry purposes 

 being increased to $.541,720, almost double 

 that of 1912. This permitted a large in- 

 crease in the i)ersonnel, which had a sum- 

 mer strength in 1913 of over 400, of whom 

 27 were technical foresters. It also made 

 possible the carrying out of proposed im- 

 provements, the extension of fire-patrol, 

 and the developments of new phases of 

 forestry work. ' Perhaps the most out- 

 standing feature of the development of 

 Dominion Forestry work recently,' as 

 pointed out by Mr. R. H. Campbell, the 

 Director of Forestry, 'has been the con- 

 solidation of the forest reserve adminis- 

 tration on a well organized basis, and with 

 a fair proportion of scientifically-trained 

 foresters, with the result that it will be 

 increasingly possible to apply good fores- 

 try methods in the handling of the timber 

 and other resources of the reserves. This 

 is a development made possible by the fact 

 that technical training in forestry is now 

 being provided by some of the colleges in 

 Canada, and when this is supplemented by 

 ranger schools, in which the forest rangers 



lan also be given special instruction, it 

 should not be long before the Dominion 

 Forest Service will be as /well organized 

 an institution as in any other country 

 which has reached the same stage of de- 

 velopment. ' 



Mr. Finlayson, Chief Fire Inspector, re- 

 fers to this 'distinct improvement in 

 organization and administration' as the 

 chief reason for the remarkably low loss 

 from forest fires on Dominion forest re- 

 serves and fire-districts in 1913. On the 

 Rocky Mountains Forest Reserve, which 

 has an area larger than that of all the 

 reserves in Ontario combined, the total 

 value of the nmture timber reported 

 destroyed by fire was only $150. Even in 

 the fire-districts, where the fire-rangers 

 were unaided by lookout-towers, telephone 

 lines, trails, fire-guards and other fire- 

 fighting facilities found on the Reserves, 

 the fire loss was the lowest on record. It 

 is true that rains were frequent, but so 

 were also fires. In one district in the 

 Railway Belt of British Columbia, 110 

 liros occurred during the three summer 

 mouths, yet owing to the alertness of the 

 patrol, all were extinguished before any 

 damage was done to standing timber. It 

 is probable, when complete records are 

 available, that the area burnt by forest 

 fires, and consisting principally of natural 

 meadows and cut-over land, will not ex- 

 ceed one-fiftieth of one per cent, of the 

 total area of Dominion forest lands under 

 jirotection, a result even better than that 

 attained by the United States Forest Ser- 

 vice, which also had the most successful 

 fire season in its history. 



In the summer of 191.'5 the Dominion 

 Forestry Branch had eleven survey parties 

 in the field, and over 15,203 s(|uare miles 

 of wooded country were examined, at an 

 average cost of only eighty-nine cents a 

 square mile. The technical foresters in 

 charge of these parties are qualified to 

 report not only on the forest conditions, 

 but also on the geology and character of 

 the soil in the regions examined, and if 

 the latter is clearly unsuited for agricul- 

 ture the area is recommended to be re- 

 served in order that the young trees may 

 be better protected from fire, which, in 

 the last fifty years, has destroyed over 

 half the original stand of timber on the 

 area examined by the Branch. This area 

 comprises about 25% of a belt from 40 to 

 150 miles wide, stretching from Lake 



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