620 



Canadian Forestry Journal. July, Jpj6. 



How Europe's Forests Are Paying 



the Price of War^^^ 



The Severity and Mobility of the Conflict Have Taken 

 Fearful Toll of Richest Woodlands 



Only when the European War is 

 over and .?. detailed examination 

 made of the enormous areas of 

 forest surrendered to axe and shell 

 fire will the world know^ exactly 

 what penalty the timber resources of 

 France and Belgium have paid since 

 August, 1914. 



Not only have the Belgian forests 

 and those of the occupied sections 

 of France suffered fearfully by the 

 'leg-itimate' necessities of war, but 

 by the deliberate vandalism of the 

 German hosts. As was described 

 in the June "Forestry Journal," the 

 French military authorities have 

 made demands on the Forest Serv- 

 ice for materials which cannot be 

 supplied in the time given without 

 injuring seriously the future pro- 

 ductivity of the forests. Belgium's 

 richest timber possessions have 

 largely perished either in the first 

 terrible onslaught and stubborn de- 

 fence, or by the systematic thieving 

 of the German government to sup- 

 ply their home needs without crip- 

 pling home resources. An article by 

 Mr. J. S. Illick in "Forest Leaves" 



of Philadelphia, brings one into 

 close touch with the conditions as 

 they existed immediately before the 

 War. 



Many and varied are the factors 

 which enter into a consideration of 

 the total amount of damage done. 



Two groups, however, stand out 

 prominently above all the rest. They 

 are: (1) the prevalence and condi- 

 tion of the forests at the beginning 

 of the war, and (2) the severity and 

 mobility of the conflict. These two 

 groups of factors have very few 

 points in common along the three 

 main battle fronts; viz: the western 

 front in France and Belgium, the 

 eastern front in western Russia, 

 eastern Prussia and Galicia, and the 

 southeastern front in the eastern 

 Alps and the Balkan states. The 

 forest conditions along these three 

 main fronts differ just as widely as 

 the military operations now in prog- 

 ress along them. It is not the ob- 

 ject of this article to discuss the mili- 

 tary operations now in operation 

 concerning which our daily papers 

 and periodical publications give us 

 ample and fairly authentic informa- 

 tion, but rather to describe the con- 

 dition, prevalence, and economic 

 significance of the forests embraced 

 within the destructive clutches of 

 this gigantic and prolonged strug- 

 gle. The writer travelled afoot — 

 prior to the outbreak of war — over 

 large areas of rural Europe, par- 

 ticularly the heavily forested por- 

 tion, and in a few instances tra- 

 versed the very spots now dissected 

 with tortuous lines of trenches. It 

 is difficult, even for one having been 

 upon the ground, to picture the 

 transformation that is taking place. 

 Today bare, unproductive, and erup- 

 tive areas indistinctly mark the sites 

 of former fertile field and finished 

 forests. 



