FOREST PLANTING IN CANADA 117 



The necessity for forest planting has not been strongly felt in Can- 

 ada, except, as noted, in the Prairie Provinces, and to some extent in 

 the older farming sections in Eastern Canada. This is principally due 

 to the favourable climatic conditions, which cause cut-over or burned- 

 over areas to reproduce themselves naturally, except where bums 

 occur of great extent and severity, or where successive fires finally 

 result in the destruction of all, or a very large percentage of the seed- 

 trees of valuable species. Under these circumstances, brush or re- 

 latively worthless tree species cover the grotind, and the re-establish- 

 ment of a cover of valuable species may require generations, or be 

 rendered whoUy impossible without artificial means. 



Where fire is kept out, the nat\u-al reproduction of the forest may, 

 as a rule, be readily assured by the adoption of methods of logging having 

 this end in view. Under a proper system of forestry practice, the 

 character of the forest will improve, and an increased yield per acre will 

 be secured from the next crop. The wonderful possibilities in this 

 respect have been fully demonstrated by the forestry systems which 

 have been in effect in parts of Europe for centuries. 



Much progress has been made in Canada in decreasing the fire 

 damage, and much better attention is also being given the question of 

 ensiuing the perpetuation of the forest by requiring the modification 

 of old-style methods of lumbering on lands owned by the Dominion 

 and Provincial Governments. Thus, in Canada, the planting problem, 

 at least for the present, applies, principally to farms which have been 

 denuded of timber or never had any, and to non-agricultural lands 

 formerly forested but upon which the forest cover has been wholly, 

 or in large part, destroyed by repeated fires. 



The following statements summarize the principal planting ac- 

 tivities with which the Dominion and Provincial Governments have been 

 directly connected. No pretence is, however, made of entire com- 

 pleteness, nor is there here taken into account the very considerable 

 amount of planting done by individuals, through the use of plant 

 material secured from nvirseries in the United States. 



Forest Planting in British Columbia 



By H. R. Christie, B.C. Forest Branch 



It is estimated that British Columbia contains over 100,000,000 

 acres of woodland, of which upwards of 65,000,000 acres may be re- 

 garded as actually or potentially capable of producing merchantable 

 timber, though outside of this the land is of relatively little value. 



