710 



Canadian Forestry Journal, September,, ipi6 



ruples the perils of the next dry sea- 

 son. These escaped fires caused 

 the horrible swirl of destruction that 

 passed across 1.200 square miles of 

 Ontario a few weeks ago, causing 

 the loss of more than 250 lives, with 

 a recurrence last week in the vicinity 

 of Haileybury which took an addi- 

 tional toll of 12 lives and caused a 

 further large exodus of settlers from 

 the country. 



Origin of Disasters. 



Government control of all settlers' 

 fires means a safe Claybelt. A con- 

 trolled fire, as understood by forest 

 protective systems in nearly all parts 

 of the world, spells careful, safe, 

 economical burning of slash, as op- 

 posed to the imperilling of thou- 

 sands of lives and millions of dollars' 

 worth of property by indiscriminate 

 burning at any time the settler may 

 choose. 



Many settlers in Northern Onta- 

 rio exert great care when burning 

 ofif their slash. Others deliberately 

 encourage the fire to do its worst for 

 themselves and neighbors by light- 

 ing their fires in times of drought 

 and wind, and "coaxing" the flames 

 beyond their clearings. From these 

 careless and thoughtless people the 

 wise and cautious settler has abso- 

 lutely no protection under present 

 Ontario laws or administration. As 

 an individual, he can watch only his 

 own conduct. For the criminal 

 conduct of other people he reason- 

 ably looks to the Ontario Govern- 

 ment, the trustees of his lands and 

 personal safety, the designated guar- 

 dian against the menaces of forest 

 fire. 



Two Evictions by Fire. 



Life and possessions are as pre- 

 cious to the North Ontario settler 

 as to the southerly townsman. He 

 is being asked to-day to return to his 

 home in the bush, to make a fresh 

 start after two evictions by forest 

 fire in 1911 and 1916. Is his request 

 excessive that he should enjoy as 



good fire protection through the 

 bush areas as his fellow settlers in 

 parts of Quebec, and New Bruns- 

 wick, or the whole of British Colum- 

 bia and Nova Scotia? 



Is this a reasonable proposal? 

 Since settlers' fires are admittedly 

 the most formidable source of trou- 

 ble, the remedy must start precisely 

 at that point. The wise and care- 

 ful settler must be encouraged. His 

 conduct must be made the standard 

 of the whole Claybelt. 



First of all, the Legislature of On- 

 tario should pass a law — there is 

 none in existence to-day — prohibit- 

 ing the use of fire for clearing land 

 in those spring and summer months 

 of highest danger throughout the 

 North Country,- except by consent of 

 a skilled ranger. How will such a 

 law affect the settler? 



Hozv the Plan Works. 



Look into British Columbia or 

 Nova Scotia or sections of Quebec ! 

 A law is. of course, merely an in- 

 strument. It requires tactful but 

 thorough enforcement by competent 

 and experienced officials, to be of the 

 slightest avail. The settled parts 

 of Ontario's forested territory will 

 have to be organized for patrol pur- 

 poses. No one even pretends that 

 the public-owned and partly settled 

 bush lands of the Claybelt bordering 

 the T. and N. O. and Transcontinen- 

 tal Railways are adequately patrol- 

 led, aside from the railways' right- 

 of-way. In other provinces, fire 

 rangers are assigned to such dis- 

 tricts, and these men quickly make 

 themselves known to all settlers un- 

 der their jurisdiction. Their pres- 

 ence itself is an advertisement for 

 carefulness. When a settler is pre- 

 pared to make a burn he hails a ran- 

 ger, satisfies hnm that he has com- 

 plied with the simple conditions of 

 safety, such as piling part of his 

 slash or making fire guards about 

 the edge of his clearing, and gets 

 forthwith a written "permit," pro- 

 viding the weather conditions are 



