Forestry Matters Before the Conintission of Conservation 



25 



inj; and tulti\ atioii of forests, an oxpcmli- 

 ture wliii-li could never he rej>aiil. And 

 even ainon>; tliose counooted with the lum- 

 ber iiulustry a niisconeoi)tion existed that 

 forestry meant the importation from 

 Kurope of a])surd reijuhitions tiiat Avouhl 

 hamper and restrict operations. 



On the contrary, good forestry policy 

 expected tliat timber should be cut -when- 

 ever, and wherever, there was a market 

 for it. No expenditure should be made 

 for lire i)rotection that would not be re- 

 turned by production. 



The British Columbia Forest Branch 

 had ilemonstrated that forestry rejjulations 

 were not burdensome to operating com- 



Mr. R. H. MacMillan. 



panii's. Several hundred million feet had 

 been sold to loggers, during the past two 

 years, under regulations requiring such 

 disposition of slash as wouhl prevent dan- 

 gerous fire hazard ami encourage the re- 

 generation of the forest. 



Every acre should be made productive 

 by producing either agricultural or tim- 

 ber crops. South of the 6()th i)arallel, about 

 fiO per cent, of the area of Canada was 

 unsuited for agricultural crops, but would 

 yield merchantable timber. At present, 

 forest industries supply 12 per rent, of the 

 foreign trade, It) per cent, of railroad traf- 

 fic ami e<|ualled, in value, the annual wheat 

 crop. Should these valuable industries 

 perish for want of raw material or should 

 they be ])erpetuated by protecting mature 

 timber from fire, encouraging young for- 

 ests and logging so as to help reproduction ? 

 Yet, people saw no asset in non-agricul- 

 tural logged areas and burned-over lands. 



New Brunswick was now cutting more 

 than the annual forest growth on Crown 

 lands. All merchantable forests in Eastern 

 Canada would rapidly be wiped out on 

 account of the increasing foreign demand 

 for the products. Yet on three fifths of the 

 whole area the forest industry was the 

 only suitable one. It could be maintained 

 only by i)roducing timber on the logged- 

 over and burned-over areas. These lands 

 were not wastes but needed only fire pro- 

 tection to enable them to support logging 

 camps, inilp n)ills and populous communi- 

 ties. 



Thus the i)ractice of forestry in Canada 

 was imperative as an economic measure. 

 Tn every province the timbered and non- 

 agricultural Crown lands shouhl be studidl 

 in order that protective and administrative 

 measures might be adopted with a full 

 knowledge of the ]>roilucts to be derived. 

 The experience in British Columbia was 

 that the best results were obtained, at the 

 least expense, where one organization was 

 responsible for the necessary forest study 

 and fire protection as well as the timber 

 administration. 



DR. B. E. FERNOW. 



Organization Methods in Forest Service. 



Dr. B. E. Fernow, Dean of the Faculty 

 of Forestry of the X'niversity of Toronto, 

 advanced the motto, "In time of war, pre- 

 pare for peace," as a forestry ])olicy. 

 Three suggestions in the report of the 

 Committee on Forestry might be accen- 

 tuated. These were: re-organization of the 

 administrative offices dealing with Do- 

 minion timber lands, expansion of the 

 scientific work of the Dominion Forestry 

 Branch and bringing the Trent Watersheil 

 under Dominion management. 



It was an incongruous condition to have 

 three separate government branches di- 

 vide authority over the puldic timberlands. 

 There were the Timber Branch, in charge 

 of licensed timber limits; Forestry Branch, 

 in charge of forest reservations, ex<dusive 

 of the timber limits, previously licensed; 

 I'arks Branch, in charge of all the other 

 portions of the timber area. 



The Forestry Branch had been insfitute<l 

 presumably to bring into tht> administra- 

 tion technical knowledge to be utilized to- 

 insure continuity of the timber resources. 

 Yet all or nearly all the timber lands which 

 can be used for the next fifty years were 

 withdrawn under licenses from its <lircct 

 influence. They were being cut over with- 

 out technical supervision. 



In the case of the commercial timber 

 areas, the division of authority between 

 the Forestry Branch and the Timber 

 Branch led frequently to friction and un- 



