662 



Canadian Forestry Journal, August, ipi6 



about a quarter of a cent per acre 

 per year. Relatively speaking, the 

 results are excellent, and justify a 

 much heavier expenditure for a cor- 

 respondingly more complete fire pro- 

 tection service. With the expendi- 

 ture per acre incurred in Ontario, 

 practically complete protection from 

 fire can be secured. 



At a quarter of a cent per acre, 

 the entire 10,000,000 acres said to be 

 under license in Ontario could be 

 patrolled for $25,000 and patrolled 

 about as thoroughly as the lands of 

 the private associations in Quebec. 

 The Ontario licensees now pay $70,- 

 000 annually for a protective service 

 that, frankly speaking, is not in the 

 same class. The Quebec associa- 

 tions are far from full-grown, but 

 they avoid at least the costly over- 

 lapping incident to the "every man 

 for himself" plan to which the On- 

 tario licensees are bound. Some of 

 the Ontario licensees pay as high as 

 $5 per square mile for fire patrol per 

 year. The highest assessment yet 

 made against the members of the St. 

 Maurice Forest Protective Associa- 

 "^.ion in Quebec is $1.92 per square 

 mile, but that low rate is obtained 

 by unification of ranger control, the 

 mapping of patrol districts on eco- 

 nomical and proper lines, and im- 

 proved methods of communication 

 and transportation, through the con- 

 struction of trails, telephone lines 

 and loookut stations. In Ontario, 

 however, every licensee shifts for 

 himself. Co-ordination of patrol 

 service is practically unknown, and 

 the limit holder pays dearly for a 

 small degree of protection, or some- 

 times fails to get it at all on account 

 of the fire ranger being used pri- 

 marily for other work. Apparently 

 only in the parks and in some of the 

 reserves has even a small beginninsf 

 been made in the construction of 

 trails, telephone lines and lookout 

 stations. And yet this mechanical 

 foundation is absolutely essential to 

 any well-organized forest fire pro- 

 tection service. Surely the interests 



of the wood-using industries of 

 present and future demand that the 

 Ontario Government organize the 

 licensed lands for patrol purposes- 

 It does not seem an exaggeration t 

 predict that if such action wert 

 taken, the amount of protection to 

 the best timber in the province 

 would be quadrupled, without a 

 penny of additional cost to either 

 licensee or taxpayer. 



On Unlicensed Lands. 



The situation on unlicensed lands 

 is far worse than on licensed lands. 

 The Dominion Forestry Branch 

 estimates that Ontario has 70 mil- 

 lion acres of land, containing more 

 or less merchantable timber, in ad- 

 dition to a very large area which is 

 relatively non-productive on account 

 of muskeg, repeated fires, climatic 

 conditions, etc. Of this probably 

 about 20 million acres are included 

 in forest reserves, parks and timber 

 limits, leaving something like 50 

 million acres of unlicensed Crown 

 timber land not included in parks 

 and reserves, and exclusive of non- 

 productive areas such as muskegs, 

 lakes, areas repeatedly burned, and 

 lands too far north to produce tim- 

 ber of commercial value. On this 

 vast area, there is a very large 

 amount of merchantable timber, 

 largely pulpwood, which has not 

 been placed under license on ac- 

 count of relative inaccessibility to 

 transportation or for other reasons. 

 Enormous quantities of timber have 

 been destroyed by fire, and great 

 areas have been rendered unpro- 

 ductive by the great conflagrations 

 which have swept over them time 

 after time. 



Each year, lands under license are 

 surrendered by the limit-holders, 

 usually because the timber has been 

 cut out. In other cases, the area un- 

 der license is reduced because of 

 failure of the limit-holder to pay 

 ground rent or stumpage dues. To 

 a certain extent, these losses are 

 made up by the issuance of licenses 



