Canadian Forestry Journal, March, ipi6. 



449 



War's Effect on Shade Trees 



By F. McVickar. 

 Mr. McVickar is a well-known Canadian Forester and has been serving in 



France for many months. 



I am sending all I could scrape up 

 about the effects of war on forests 

 during the two months I was in 

 France. In the army on service a 

 man's time is never his own, and his 

 movements are also very much 

 never his own, and his movements 

 are also very much restricted. Also 

 when in the areas affected one is 

 generally as close to mother earth as 

 he can get during daylight hours ; 

 and consequently one's horizon is 

 very circumscribed, especially in a 

 very flat country. 



"The sound of flying bullets and 

 the burst of shells too tends to keep 

 one's mind occupied with problems 

 which at ordinary times are more in- 

 teresting to woodchucks, badgers 

 and the like than to foresters. How- 

 ever, now that everybody is talking 

 of the war, and thinking of the war 

 above all else, my little effort may 

 not be entirely unwelcome. 



"Unfortunately the country in 

 which our force is operating is al- 

 most devoid of woodland. However, 

 farther south in Alsace and Lorraine 

 there are extensive forests, but of 

 course I couldn't get near them. 

 Photos are absolutely out of the 

 question. Cameras are not allowed 

 out there to any except a few gen- 

 erals, etc. 



"I have been in the trenches in 

 Northern France; and although I 

 didn't see enough of the effect of 

 military operations on forest land to 

 warrant venturing on anything like 

 a technical discussion of the subject, 

 a few of my impressions of this side 

 of warfare may not be entirely 



amiss. First, I would like to say 

 that while these operations are go- 

 ing on it is pretty nearly impossible 

 to make any observations of value 

 on this subject. This, I hope, will 

 be made clear in the remarks which 

 follow. 



"The part of the line held by the 

 British runs through a very lovv, flat 

 country largely taken up by farm- 

 ing. It boasts of nothing but small 

 patches of wood scattered about here 

 and there. 



"The operations that have taken 

 place on this territorv may be 

 grouped under two heads; the first 

 heading covering those operations 

 incident to the advance toward Paris 

 at the beginning of the war, and the 

 second covering the almost station- 

 ary siege warfare of the present 

 stage of the war. 



"The damage caused by the first- 

 class of operations is very slight in 

 this part of the country. Chieflv 

 because the patches of wood are iso- 

 lated and because owing to the gen- 

 eral scarcity of wood litter and dead 

 branches are kept cleaned up. Con- 

 sequently the woods are not easilv 

 burned. Also at that stage of the 

 struggle bodies of men moved large- 

 ly along the roads, and artillery fire 

 was not of long enough duration in 

 one place to do much damage. 

 Earthworks then were not very 

 elaborate and poles were not used 

 so much in their construction as at 

 present. 



"The effect o fthe operations com- 

 ing under the second head are much 

 more noticeable for the simple rea- 



