Canadian Forestry Journal, December, ipij. 



301 



Should Sportsmen Be Registered ? 



Will Public Sentiment Support Such A Move Towards Better 



Protection of the Forests ? 



In order to sound public opinion 

 upon a matter which has been con- 

 sidered by the Canadian Forestry- 

 Association, the Secretary addressed 

 to a number of men in all parts of 

 Canada a letter outlining briefly the 

 suggestion for the registering of all 

 fishermen, hunters, and others who 

 make use of the forest country dur- 

 ing the period of fire risk. Sports- 

 men, railway men, newspaper edi- 

 tors, government officers, etc., etc., 

 received these inquiries and have al- 

 ready sent in many expressions of 

 views. 



It is recognized, of course, that no 

 government would consider any 

 such move during the war or if 

 strong opposition from settlers, 

 tourists, railway companies, hotels, 

 etc., appeared likely. At the same 

 time, it is an undoubted fact that 

 serious annual losses to standing 

 timber are caused by careless fisher- 

 men, hunters and others, making 

 temporary use of the woods. Would 

 it be possible to secure a record of 

 sportsmen, with an outline of their 

 proposed route, before they enter 

 the forest so that rangers may be 

 notified in advance of the need for 

 extra vigilance in a particular neigh- 

 borhood? That is the question 

 which readers of the Journal should 

 assist in answering. To minimize 

 the amount of interference with the 

 sportsman's holiday, it might be 

 possible to have the issuer of the 

 game license register at the same 

 time the necessary particulars for 

 •fire guarding purposes and forward 

 them immediately to the inspector 

 or other official of the district to 

 which the sportsman is bound. This 

 would impose no extra bother upon 

 the sportsman and the act itself 

 Avould somewhat impress upon him 



the importance of being careful with 

 fire on his trip. 



The letter of inquiry read in part 

 as follows : 



"We have had under consideration 

 for some time the advisability of re- 

 questing our provincial governments 

 to consider the registration of all 

 tourists, fishermen, hunters, pros- 

 pectors and others who make occa- 

 sional use of the forest. We have 

 received suggestions from many 

 quarters that fire guarding would be 

 greatly facilitated if the rangers 

 knew approximately the routes 

 taken through the woods by these 

 parties. It is asserted that registra- 

 tion could be carried out very easily 

 without the appointment of new offi- 

 cials or the opening of new offices, 

 by simple utilization of Crown 

 Lands or other government offices 

 at present in existence in most lo- 

 calities. 



A system amounting practically to 

 registration of tourists, fishermen, 

 etc., is now in force for Algonquin 

 Park. Ontario, so that the rangers 

 are immediately made acquainted 

 with the number of persons in their 

 locality, and the route which they 

 have planned to take. At least one 

 of the Canadian lumber companies 

 followed a system for some years of 

 compelling all persons using their 

 limits to register, giving details of 

 their intended excursion. The com- 

 pany, forthwith, sent a ranger on 

 their trail, and this system was in- 

 strumental through a long period of 

 years in preventing many fires. 



It is not suggested that registra- 

 tion should be enforced except dur- 

 ing the months of actual fire risk — 

 roughlv. April 15th to November 

 15th." ' 



