230 



Canadian Forestry Journal, October, ipij. 



COAST RANGERS GET TOGETHER 



"Get together" meetings of offi- 

 cers and rangers connected with the 

 forest services have been advocated 

 with more vigor than has been ap- 

 pHed to their practice. For the past 

 two years, the British Columbia 

 Rangers of the Dominion Forestry 

 Board, with the supervisors of both 

 the provincial and federal services, 

 have held conventions twice a year 

 with excellent results. 



On September 29th at New West- 

 minster, one of these friendly and 

 informal assemblies took place and 

 for four hours the men who form 

 the rank and file of the coast district 

 of the Pominion Forestry Branch 

 discussed ways and means as to im- 

 provements which might be effected 

 in the methods used for fighting for- 

 est fires and so conserving the great 

 wealth of the British Columbia for- 

 ests. 



The meeting might be said to have 

 been Dominion wide in scope, as m 

 addition to officials of the forest 

 service at Victoria, there were pre- 

 sent Mr. R. H. Campbell, Director 

 of Forestrv for the Dominion; Mr. 

 R. D. Craig, of the Staff of the Com- 

 mission of Conservation, and Lt.- 

 Col. J. D. Taylor, M.P. 



Sawmill men. whose interests are 

 allied to the work of conserving the 

 green forests, were represented by 

 Messrs. R. A. Trethewey, of the Ab- 

 botsford Timber and Trading Com- 

 pany, and N. S. Lougheed. manager 

 of the Abernethy and Lougheed 

 mills. 



Mr. George D. McKay, Chief Pro- 

 vincial Forester, and Mr. H. Chris- 

 tie, Assistant Forester of Victoria, 

 represented the provincial depart- 

 ment, and Inspector Cameron, of 

 the Dominion Branch, was also pre- 

 sent. 



Onus on Settler. 



An important point touched upon 

 and one over which a great deal of 



discussion ensued, was where best 

 to place the responsibility for the 

 "mysterious forest fires" which it 

 was freely stated were in nine cases 

 out of ten, deliberately set by the 

 settler who, forgetful or careless, of 

 the fact that he might be endanger- 

 ing thousands of dollars' worth of 

 timber, would persist in starting a 

 fire to burn up his "slash," although 

 he had not a permit from the local 

 ranger. 



The consensus of opinion was 

 that the occupier of the land where 

 the fire started, should be forced to 

 prove that he did not set the fire, in- 

 stead of the onus of proof being 

 placed on the ranger or the timber 

 owner. Mr. R. A. Trethewey was 

 emphatic in his declaration that at 

 least 90 per cent, of the forest fires 

 fought by the department annually 

 would be eliminated if the Forest 

 Act were changed to embody such a 

 clause and the majority of the Do- 

 minion officials and rangers, heartily 

 agreed with him. 



Mr. McKay and ^Mr. Christie were 

 not so certa'in that such a change 

 would be practicable, while Mr. Mc- 

 Kay went a step further and declar- 

 ed that he was not in favor of such 

 an aggressive policy. "We were all 

 settlers ourselves once, you know, 

 he observed. 



Season a Severe One. 



Although the season of 1915 will 

 go down^in the history of the coast 

 department as one of the severest 

 vears in the matter of forest fires, 

 the aggregate loss to timber is rela- 

 tivelv slight.' The season was ex- 

 ceptionalfy dry and up to the end of 

 August the local rangers had fought 

 257" fires of which total 166 occurred 

 in the months of July and August. 

 Ten thousand acres of slash and 

 logged off lands were burned over, 

 principally in Surrey municipality 



