Canadian Forestry Journal, September, ipi6 



709 



A Visit to the Devastated Claybelt 



Officers of the Canadian Forestry Association Find That 



Sentiment in Northern Ontario Favors 



Restrictive Legislation 



The Canadian Forestry Associa- 

 tion, through two of its officers, 

 made a prelimnary investigation of 

 fire conditions in the Claybelt region 

 between Haileybury and Cochrane 

 on the T. and N. O. Railway during 

 the week of August 14th. Personal 

 observation along the main and 

 branch lines of the railway and some 

 miles into the back country and nu- 

 merous interviews with settlers, 

 government employees, railroad offi^ 

 cers, merchants, etc., strongly sup- 

 ported the Association's contention 

 that Northern Ontario need not suf- 

 fer another catastrophe if the Pro- 

 vincial Government at once reorgan- 

 izes its protective system on really 

 modern lines. 



Danger Ahead. 

 It was everyw^here admitted, with 

 the possible exception of the Mathe- 

 son district, where the country is 

 stripped, that the risk of fire in fu- 

 ture years has been greatly increased 

 by the killing of so much green bush 

 during the past month. The dead, 

 and therefore very inflammable 

 spruce forests, which now lie across 

 so much of the farming country from 

 Matheson northward, add an ele- 

 ment of decided danger to the situa- 

 tion as it was a few months ago. It 

 is well known that it usually takes 

 no less than three or four successive 

 fires to thoroughly clean up an area 

 of standing timber. How to offset 

 these perils to life and property is 

 a problem which can and must be 

 solved by the Department of Lands 

 and Forests of Ontario. The Clay- 

 belt has had scarcely any fire protec- 



tion worthy the name, except imme- 

 diately along the railways, and the 

 Department tacitly confesses that 

 this section must take its own 

 chances. The harvest of that pol- 

 icy has been so gruesome and costly 

 that the forethought of the Govern- 

 ment in the matter of rehabilitating 

 the settlers will logically extend to 

 giving their lives and their homes a 

 reasonable guarantee of fire immu- 

 nity for the future. Toward that 

 sensible goal, all true friends of 

 Northern Ontario are eagerlv look- 



ing. 



A Safe Claybelt. 

 The disaster of July 29th. 1916, 

 had its origin with s^ettlers' slash 

 fires. That point is undisputed. 

 The remedy for bush fires must start 

 with the cause. Wider clearings 

 to protect the towns are an obvious 

 necessity, easy to accomplish. But 

 the safety of the settler in the heart 

 of the bush is another and more se- 

 rious problem. The average set- 

 tler is, to a considerable extent, an 

 isolated unit. He must do his own 

 clearing. After two or three years' 

 work, from 70 to 80 per cent, of his 

 homestead usually remains in bush. 

 He uses fire to rid his soil of the en- 

 cumbrance of slash and stumps, and 

 fire is plainly a necessity for such a 

 purpose. It does a valuable service 

 in clearing that particular piece of 

 land of the overlying debris. It 

 does no genuine permanent service, 

 and often does untold injury when it 

 escapes from the clearing into his 

 green bush, for it destroys the trees 

 as marketable pulpwood, and quad- 



