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Canadian Forestry Journal, October, ipi6 



An Effort to Compile Losses on 



Licensed Lands 



Limit Holders Co-operating With Canadian Forestry Asso- 

 ciation to Secure Statistics of Forest 



Fires 



A hearty response from timber limit 

 licensees in Ontario has resulted from 

 the efforts of the Canadian Forestry 

 Association to obtain a definite esti- 

 mate of losses by fire on licensed forest 

 lands of Ontario in 1914, 1915, 1916. 



There is at present no official means 

 of obtaining such information. The 

 Ontario Government has no data on 

 fire damage beyond some returns as to 

 the number of fires reported by rang- 

 ers, probably the least important item 

 of all. As long as the Governments 

 are themselves ignorant of the annual 

 fire damage how many anyone expect 

 a protective policy patterned upon ac- 

 tual needs? Why expect the public, 

 lulled by promises of generalization, 

 to initiate any movement calling for 

 reform? 



Purpose of the Forms. 



The Canadian Forestry Association 

 scarcely hopes to secure this year suf- 

 ficient statistical information on the 

 losses sustained by limit holders to 

 justify a general estimate. The chief 

 object is to place the questions before 

 all timber licensees in at least one of 

 the provinces as a means of suggestion 

 to them, and particularly to the provin- 

 cial government, that such evidence 

 should be carefully compiled and turn- 

 ed to public account. It is indeed an 

 amazing thought that the annual dam- 

 age on 10,000.000 acres of Ontario's 

 best forest lands, under license, should 

 not be known promptly to the Govern- 

 ment and people. The lack of such 

 public knowledge of the frittering 

 away of the common assets certainly 

 serves a purpose in hiding an ineffi- 

 cient state of forest protection work, 

 although it is not to be assumed that 



successive governments have any 

 hoodwinking tactics in mind. They 

 continued inefiicient systems because 

 forest protection has been allowed to 

 take its little corner as a purely de- 

 partmental item, without any live re- 

 lation to those public policies that win 

 or lose votes. It is but fair to ac- 

 knowledge that forest guarding, as far 

 as Ontario is concerned, has quit its 

 cubby-hole and is to-day a matter of 

 intelligent public discussion and vigor- 

 ous agitation. 



The replies of the Ontario licensees 

 will be dealt with more fully in the 

 November issue. A few of the com- 

 ments are as follows : 



Licensees' Remarks. 



"We lost $11,000 in one township in 

 1913. It is most disheartening trying 

 to do anything towards protection on 

 our own holdings when contiguous 

 government-owned territory is left un- 

 protected." 



"The fire was started on abandoned 

 timber berths, and we understand and 

 believe that these lands were left en- 

 tirely unprotected. 



"Our last large fire was in 1911. 

 During that year we had some 15 or 

 20 miles of timber berths burnt over at 

 points very far removed from each 

 other. Most of the territory had been 

 cut over, but was coming along well to 

 young pine. This was mostly killed 

 by the fires. During that year we 

 lost in camps, outfits, etc., destroyed 

 by fire $10,000." 



"For the most part the appointees as 

 rangers (on certain limits) consist of 

 young college men who are utterly in- 

 competent to perform the duties, being 

 neither bushmen of experience nor 



