Canadian Forestry Journal, September, ipij. 



205 



hazard, or that in the great majority of cases 

 such slashings burn sooner or later, usually dur- 

 ing periods of drought, when the resulting dam- 

 age to soil, mature timber and young growth will 

 be greatest. The question concerning which the 

 difference of opinion arises is as to what it is 

 practicable to do about it. Since most of the 

 accessible merchantable timber is included within 

 timber limits on crown lands, this is a question 

 which for the most part involves the relations be- 

 tween the limit-holders on the one hand and the 

 respective governmental agencies on the other. 



Particularly on lands cut over or about to be 

 cut over, the primary object of fire protection is 

 the perpetuation of the forest, by giving the 

 young growth a chance to mature. In this, the 

 public interest is dominant, and it is therefore 

 logical to expect at least the bulk of the added 

 expense to be borne by the public, or, in other 

 words, by the government. All experience, how- 

 ever, goes to show that, to_ be practicable, the 

 process of whatever system of brush disposal may 

 be decided upon, should be an integral part of the 

 logging operation, and must, therefore, be 

 handled by the operator. The added cost on ex- 

 isting limits can be very easily taken care of in 

 connection with the periodical re-adjustments of 

 ground rent and stumpage dues, by taking the 

 added requirement of brush disposal into con- 

 sideration and fixing the money payments accord- 

 ingly. On this basis, it could scarcely be main- 

 tained that a requirement for brush disposal by 

 limit-holders would be a hardship, especially since 

 all competitors, at least within the province tak- 

 ing such action, would be subjected to the same 

 requirements, in which event the market prices 

 would be based upon total costs, which would in- 

 clude brush disposal, and all operators would be 

 on an equal footing. 



In the case of licenses to be issued in the 

 future, a provision requiring some suitable form 

 of brush disposal should be inserted in each li- 

 cense, and the tenders made on this basis. There 

 could in such cases be no claim of hardship to 

 the operator, since brush disposal would be 

 figitred into the cost of the operation and the pay- 

 ment for bonus adjusted accordingly. This is the 

 basis on which timber sales are handled in the 

 National Forests in the United States, and the 

 plan has worked admirably. 



Only a beginning has been made, as yet, in the 

 matter of brush disposal on logging operations in 

 Canada. The question is, however, a live one and 

 will have to be dealt with in the course of time. 



On Dominion Lands. 



Timber licenses on Dominion Crown lands in 

 the west contain provisions under which brush 

 disposal can be required, though but little advan- 

 tage has so far been taken of them. The Do- 

 minion Forestry Branch, which has jurisdiction 

 over Dominion forest reserves exclusive of licen- 

 sed lands, has made considerable progress in 

 securing the piling and burning of brush on tim- 

 ber sale areas, which, however, are relatively 

 small in extent. It is, however, unfortunate that 

 no such action has been taken with regard to 

 timber limits on Dominion lands, which are under 

 the administration of another Branch. The desir- 

 ability of such action has, however, been fully 

 recognized through the insertion of adequate 

 provisions in the licenses, as above noted, and it 

 IS only a matter of time until thev will have to 

 be made effective. 



The province of British Columbia has also re- 

 C9gnized the necessity for some form of brush 

 disposal, in order to permit the forest to per- 

 petuate Itself. Now licenses and sales contain 

 adequate provisions, and are enforced, and con- 

 siderable progress has also been made through 

 voluntary action of the holders of older licenses, 

 particularly in the Douglas fir coast region, where 

 the slash is burned broadcast, following a practi- 

 cally clean-cutting operation. Such burning is 



done either in the spring or fall, when weather 

 conditions are favorable. 



In Ontario, some few attempts have been made 

 by the provincial authorities to provide for brush 

 disposal, in connection with new sales of pine, 

 but no denite results have been secured. In this 

 matter, as is the case also in Quebec and New 

 Brunswick, the developments are mostly for the 

 future. Some experiments have been conducted 

 by the Laurentide Company on their Quebec 

 limits, and will be continued during the coming 

 winter. In Ontario, J. R. Booth has taken a 

 distinctly progressive step by piling and burning 

 the debris on a narrow strip through a portion of 

 his limits adjoining the Canadian Northern On- 

 tario railway, east of North Bay, in order to 

 reduce the menace to standing timber. Other 

 limit-holders could well afford to follow this ex- 

 ample. Through Algonquin Park, the - Ontario 

 authorities have, during the seasons of r9i4 and 

 1915, had a gang of men at work piling and burn- 

 ing the inflammable debris on a strip of land ad- 

 jacent to the Grand Trunk right of way. This 

 work has been carried forward in co-operation 

 with the railway company, the right of way be- 

 ing thoroughly cleared at the same time. The 

 beneficial results are unquestionable, and the pro- 

 ject reflects great credit upon all concerned. 



In Quebec, there is promise of an entering 

 wedge, in the shape of a proposed order-in-coun- 

 cil, requiring the disposal of inflammable debris in 

 timber limits on a strip one hundred feet wide on 

 each side of railway rights of way. Such a 

 provision would be admirable as far as it goes, 

 but should be so amplified as to cover a much 

 wider range of conditions. 



Local Conditions Govern. 



In general, it may be stated that no one form 

 of brush disposal should be advocated for all con- 

 ditions. The method should be adapted to the 

 local conditions in every case, balancing the cost 

 against the results to be secured. Under some 

 circumstances, piling and burning of all debris is 

 justified ; in others, it will be practicable only to 

 pile and burn on a strip around the cutting area, 

 thus forming a fire-guard. In some plases, only 

 piling should be advocated, to check the spread of 

 fire. In the spruce-balsam forests of the east, 

 there is much in favor of merely lopping the tops 

 so they will lie close to the ground and decay 

 quickly. Some approximation to this is already 

 reached in the case of an up-to-date pulp wood 

 operation, where the material is utilized in the 

 tops to a diameter of three or four inches. On 

 the other hand, it may be found practicable, in 

 many cases of winter operations on such lands, to 

 pile and burn the debris as cutting proceeds, thus 

 getting rid of the material at once and at the 

 same time at least partly offsetting the additional 

 expense by lowering the cost of skidding. The 

 whole matter is still largely open for further in- 

 vestigation and experiment. In any event, an 

 intensive patrol should be maintained on all cut- 

 over areas, in order to give them an opportunity 

 to restock. 



It goes, of course, without saying, that no very 

 great general progress in brush disposal is to be 

 expected during the present adnormally depressed 

 condition of the lumber industry. There is, how- 

 ever, no good reason why some progress should 

 not be made, and there is every reason to be- 

 lieve that with a little more time the whole prob- 

 lem will be worked out on a basis that will be 

 equitable to all concerned. With approximately 

 three-fifths of eastern Canada suited only to the 

 production of wood crops, the country can most 

 certainly not afford to continue to render such 

 lands unproductive, as it has so largely done in 

 the past. All non-agricultural forest lands should 

 be made to produce successive crops of timber, 

 but this is impossible without a radical modifica- 

 tion of some of the existing methods for the 

 prevention as well as the control of forest fires. 



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