File:Canadian forest industries 1901-1902 (1902) (20516080682).jpg

Title: Canadian forest industries 1901-1902
Identifier: canadianforest190102donm (find matches)
Year: 1902 (1900s)
Authors:
Subjects: Lumbering; Forests and forestry; Forest products; Wood-pulp industry; Wood-using industries
Publisher: Don Mills, Ont. : Southam Business Publications
Contributing Library: Fisher - University of Toronto
Digitizing Sponsor: University of Toronto

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ID THE CJ^TJLIDJL XvUMBKRI^JLlSr August, 1900 rock and muskeg, containing very little timber, and the remaining one-third as timbered land. In this vast extent of country the white and black spruce, now becoming so valuable for pulp, are everywhere likely to be met with, as they extend from beyond its southern limit up to the verge ot the timber line, and are the varieties found skirting the tundra of the arctic regions. The other varieties in this northern forest are the larch or tamarac, the Banksian pine, balsam fir, aspen, balsam poplar, canoe birch, willow and alder. The next to the notice is the belt along the eastern slope of the Rocky Mountains and west for getting the product out. Being along the valley of the Fraser River the whole distance, and extending only twenty miles on each side ot it, the facilities for floating the logs to tide-water are apparent. Of the district between the "dry belt" and the summit of the Rocky Mountains Professor John Macoun says :— " Descending from the Rocky Mountains sum- mit by the Kicking Horse Pass, we meet the west- ern cedar as a mere shrub, but in the Columbia Valley it comes a gigantic tree, often having a diameter of ten feet in the valley of the Beaver creek. Ascending the slope on the west side of
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Lumbering in Canada—A Log Dump. of the prairies. The varieties are similar to that in the northern belt, with a few added species, such as the mountain fir (pinus albicaulis ) and the Douglas fir (Pseudotsuga Douglasii). THE RAILWAY BELT IN BRITISH COLUMBIA. Next we have the railway belt in British Columbia, above referred to. This tract of country was granted by the province of British Columbia to the Dominion as a contribution to the latter for the building of the Canadian Pacific Railway. The timber in this belt is divided into two parts by the " dry belt ," a semi-arid district extending from Lytton to Shuswap Lake, a dis- tance of about 130 miles. The latter contains but little timber, though there are some belts of yellow or bull pine ( pinus ponderosa ) scattered through it. The country west ot the " dry belt " and extending to the Pacific coast deserves to be ranked with the most productive forest producing regions of the globe. This is the home of the magnificent Douglas fir ( Pseudotsuga Doug- lasii ), which increases in size as the coast is ap- proached ; of the western cedar ( Thuya gigantia ), the Menzies spruce ( Picea Sitchensis ) and the western hemlock (Tsuga Mertensiana ). Unfor- tunately an enormous amount of this valuable timber has been destroyed by fire, and nearly every year the burnt area is being increased. This tract of country derives its great value as a lumbering district not alone from the quality of the timber, but from its position and the facilities the valley we come at once into a belt of the western hemlock and white pine, which is char- acteristic of all the mountains from here to the Coast range. Above these trees, but often inter- mixed with them, as at the Glacier hotel, Selkirk mountains, Patton's hemlock is found capping the mountains or forming the last groves on their sides. On the coast range a change takes place, and the upper slopes are clothed with this tree and the white fir (Abies amabalis). " Fine groves of this shapely tree are to be seen here, and the difference between it and the Rocky Mountain species ( Abies subalpina) is very apparent, as the former has green cones and the latter bright purple ones. Descending the Columbia river, groves of the western larch are seen below the Upper Arrows lake, and this fine tree is not uncommon on the lower slopes of the mountains on both the east and west sides of the Gold range. "Generally speaking, all the valleys through- out both the Gold and Selkirk Ranges are filled with cedar and spruce, and the mountain slopes are covered with Douglas fir and hemlock. The trees are in all cases well developed, and from their size are suited for any purpose. This is the character of all the timber from the Columbia river to the Gold range. The valleys of the streams discharging westward from the latter ranges into the Eagle and Spallumcheen rivers and Shuswap lake are also filled with fine timber of the same species. Passing westward from these mountains we come gradually into the drier region, and the country becomes open, with only scattered groves of single trees on the lower slopes and plateaus, and the yellow pine ( pinus ponderosa), so characteristic of the dry interior of British Columbia, is the chief feature in the landscape. " In addition to these districts there is a con- siderable extent of timbered land in what is usually known as the prairie belt, notably in the Riding mountains, Moose mountains and the Turtle mountains, as well as that found in smaller quantities surrounded on all sides by the prairie. The latter, though perhaps of not much value to the lumberman, is invaluable to the settlers in the neighborhood for building, fencing and for fuel. FOREST FIRES. I have now to refer to a destructive agency that has done more damage to this country than any other that could be named. It has been estimated that even in the Ottawa valley ten pine trees have been destroyed by fire for every one that has been cut by the lumbermen, and I believe this estimate to be quite within the mark not only in the Ottawa valley, but also in the pine producing districts of Ontario west of the Ottawa, and when we examine the coniferous forests on Dominion lands, whether in the northern belt or in the foot hills of the Rocky Mountains, or in the Railway belt in British Columbia, this proportion is greatly exceeded, and when it is known that most of these fires are caused by carelessness on the part of those living in the neighborhood or travelling through the territory, it is certainly not creditable to the people ot this country that they have not adopted more adequate means to guard so valuable a heritage. Mr. W. C. Edwards, M. P., one of the large lumbermen of the Ottawa valley, in a recent communication, writes as follows :— " Imperfect though the system of fire protection now in vogue in the Province of Ontario and Quebec may be, at the same time the result has been the saving of millions of dollars worth of timber to these Provinces. Previous to the employment of fire rangers in the Province of Quebec, annual serious fires took place in the Ottawa region, destroying enormous quantities of timber. Since the adoption of the fire ranger system there has not been, so far as I am aware, one very serious fire. " It is also worthy of notice in this connection that a forest fire is far more destructive than any system of lumbering no matter how irrational and destructive it may be. The lumberman removes the larger trees and leaves the younger ones standing. By his removal of the larger timber he lets in the light and gives room for the more rapid growth of the smaller trees, but when a fire sweeps over a district in a dry time it destroys every living tree and sapling and even the seeds that may be lying on the ground. In fact, so great and so widespread is this destruc- tion that in nearly every report where the forests of the country are referred to their rapid disap- pearance from this cause is commented upon and urgent recommendations made for the adoption of means for their protection. There can be no question that the monetary loss that Canada has sustained through forest

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