Canadian Forestry Journal, November, iqi6 



805 



BURNED JACK PINE, STURGEON RIVER DISTRICT, SASKATCHEWAN. 



land for field crops, but he must not be 

 allowed to burn off neighboring lands 

 of no use for field crops and profitable 

 only under timber. That seems a 

 very reasonable business proposition. 



Damage Through Settlers. 



The fires of settlers have been the 

 main source of forest destruction 

 throughout the West. Rangers have 

 had no authority to prevent them, and 

 have been forced to take responsibility 

 for numerous damaging fires which 

 could have been nipped in the first 

 place by simple restrictions on the 

 careless settler. 



The Provincial Governments have 

 full authority to devise and enforce a 

 law along lines somewhat similar to 

 the "permit law" in Quebec, British 

 Columbia, Nova Scotia, and part of 

 New Brunswick, penalizing a settler 

 who lights a clearing fire in the danger 

 season without first obtaining a "per- 

 mit" from a ranger. This permit 

 stipulates^ several reasonable precau- 

 tions such as selection of proper wea- 

 ther conditions, piling brush away from 

 standing timber, vigilance in guarding 

 against spread, etc. 



If the Provincial Governments pre- 

 fer to give the administration into the 



hands of the Dominion Forestry 

 Branch, the "Journal" understands that 

 this condition would be acceptable, and 

 further that the Dominion Forestry 

 Branch would place on duty sufficient 

 extra rangers to make the issuing of 

 permits convenient to the settlers. This 

 would relieve the provinces of most 

 of the expense in putting the new law 

 into operation. 



Dr. Roche's Good Work. 



An excellent move in the matter of 

 overcoming fire hazards in .forested 

 lands of the West was made by the 

 Minister of the Interior, Hon. W- J. 

 Roche, recently, when he authorized 

 a proviso in all future homestead pat- 

 ents that settlers in timbered country 

 must not set clearing fires without per- 

 mits from officers of the Dominion For- 

 estry Branch. This safeguard will 

 take care of the fire troubles of future 

 settlements. But the present body of 

 settlers in the danger zone must be 

 covered by an enactment of the pro- 

 vincial governments. 



Scores of Western members of the 

 Canadian Forestry Association have 

 written, at our suggestion, to their lo- 

 cal representatives in the Legislatures, 

 also the Ministers of Agriculture, ex- 



