Dominion Forest Reserves 85 



the exception of portions of British Columbia, is 

 slow, and nature unassisted will probably not 

 furnish enough timber for the needs of the future. 



The Dominion forest reserves, owned by the 

 Canadian people and controlled by the Ottawa 

 Parliament, are all situated in the northwestern 

 provinces: Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta, 

 and British Columbia. 



When this century began, Canada had nine of 

 these Dominion reserves; now, if we include the 

 parks, whose timber is managed in precisely the 

 same way as that of the Dominion forests, there 

 are thirty-nine. 



All the forest reserves in eastern Canada are 

 under provincial administration and, therefore, 

 out of the present discussion. 



The most important of the Dominion forests is 

 the great reserve covering the whole eastern slope 

 of the Rockies. This is a beautiful vast tract of 

 more than twenty thousand square miles. It is 

 divided, for administrative convenience, into five 

 forests — the Athabaska, Brazeau, Clearwater, 

 Bow River, and Crowsnest — and it is the birth- 

 place of all the rivers which water the prairie 

 country. 



These Dominion reserves, ample now, will one 

 day become insufficient to the needs of the nation, 

 and no doubt the Canadian Government will add 

 to their number as a growing population requires 

 more timber and more reliable water power. 



