51^ Canadian Forestry Journal, May, ipi6. 



Why Action is Needed on the 

 — ^^= Trent Watershed =— 



Canada has Spent Over $14,000,000 on Trent Canal Project 

 While Basic Resources Have Been Turned to Waste. 



Condition, of tlie Trent JVatershcd. 



Of the 1,171,614 acres in the lower watershed, 



Eighty-three per cent, are still forest covered but only 700 acres are 

 virgin forest. 



Less than 90.000 acres have been moderately culled. 



The rest have been severely culled and are therefore in unmerchantable 

 condition. 



Nearly '60.000 acres are waste lands, the results of fires. 



Some 580.000 acres are covered with young and second growth trees. 



Less than 12 per cent, are farmed. 



IVhat is Recommended. 



The bulk of the country involved should be placed in, and managed as, 

 a permanent forest reserve for the growing of timl:)er. 



The Provincial Government still controls about one-third of the area, 

 partly under timber licenses, partly in cancelled and abandoned lots. 



The municipalities are naturally closely interested in seeing as much 

 of their land as possible put to profitable use in order to reduce the indi- 

 vidual tax assessments and at the same time to permit of a higher degree 

 of civilization through increased industrial activities and educational 

 facilities. 



Private landlords will be benefited by better protection. Permanent 

 manufacturers can be established, industrial development will increase, and 

 the public at large will gain in prosperity. 



Co-operation of the three administrative agencies, the Dominion, Pro- 

 vincial and Municipal governments is especially needed to develop any- 

 thing like a permanent forest policy. 



The policy then should be to bring all the lands which are not strictly 

 farm lands as rapidly as possible under the control of one or any of these 

 three agencies. 



Readers of the Journal will obtain from the foregoing excerpts of the 

 Commission of Conservation's report on the Trent Watershed Survey, a 

 glimpse of the problem which seems no nearer solution to-day than in the 

 months of 1913 when public opinion was first shocked by the statements 

 and deductions. 



In these days of war, every energy of finance departments is bent upon 

 the discovery of new forms of taxation. Millions are laid aside for the 

 development of Government railways, oblivious to the fact that the absence 

 of forest protection on these same Government roads is knocking the bot- 



