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Les diagrammes suivants illustrent la mAthode. 1 2 3 1 2 3 4 5 6 MICROCOfY MSOIUTION TEST CHART lANSI and ISO TEST CHART No 2, 1.0 I.I 11. 132 I: tii 2.2 2£ 1.8 1.25 1.4 1.6 ^ APPLI ED IM/1G E Inc S^. -■'i-^ t'Ji' Mcj.n iKeft S'jS -or^estef, Se* TofK '4609 yiA WEENS Cominicjsion of Conservation COMMITTEE Fire Protection from the Private Timber Owners' Viewpoint EI^LWOCT' Fareste- jRU^kited t Tor WEirs iMvoan umn DOCUMENTIi DfP;. M Commission of Conservation CANADA COM Mil TEE ON FORESTS Fire Protection from the Private Timber Owners' Viewpoint BY ELLWOOD WILSON Forester. Laurentide Company, Limited Reprinted from the Seventh Annual Report of the Commission of Conservation OTTAWA— 191(i Cfi if r/?7/ j<^ Fire Prottction from the Private Timber Owners' Viewp)oint BY Ei.LwooD Wilson Forester, Laurenlide Company, Limited IMAGINE a manufacturer, with his whole stock of raw material for his lifetime, piled up in one store-house. Would he not insure it? Would he not instal automatic sprinklers? Would he not have watchmen on the premises? Let me carry the parallel a little further, and ask what you would do, if you knew that the destruction of your stock of raw material meant the destruction of the elements from which it could be reproduced, as also the supply for your children and your children's children. The forest is such a store-house, and on it depend some of our most important industries, the stability and continuity of our water- powers, the welfare of oui agricultural population, and the comfort of our daily lives. The private timberland owner is just as vitally interested in fire protection for his woodlands as is any manufacturer. He might far better let his saw-mill, his sulphite plant, or his paper- mill go uninsured, and spend the money in protecting his forests. In a year or two he can rebuild his mill ; he can easily borrow the money for the purpose, and go on just as before. But he cannot rep'oduce his forests. After a bad fire the soil itself is partially or wholly Destroy"he Soil destroyed, and, if the fire has been of any extent, the nearest source '^f seed may be too far distant to permit natural reforestation. i have seen a tract of land, of about ten square miles in extent, which, after fifty-six years, has not a stick of merchantable timber on it, although covered with a growth of small birch and aspen, already past its prime. Not only is there no merchantable timber but, on this whole tract, there are but 1,280 spruce and balsam trees 3" or less in diameter. Of urnt-over land in Quebec 16 per cent, or about 10,597 square mdes, is not reproducing, and that on which re- production has begun is 12-9 per cent. These figures are based on actual surveys over a large area, and, when applied to the areas under license, are rather under than over the amounts. 2013117 4 COMMISSION OF CONSERVATION staih DiiDOMl *^"* °' '^"^ '"°*' important questions to be considrred It Important ^y lumbermen for the protection of their forests is an etficient and economical method of slash dis- posal. Toplopping on operations where large amounts of timber are cut has proved, in my experiments, to Ih; loo ex|)en8ive fur the measure of protection it gives, and I think the only 8f)iution will l)e in brush-piling and burning. The cost of this will be vciy little more than for simple lopping, as the brush has to be piled in any case, and the protection will l)e absolute. In my experience, the great majority of fires originate in slashings, and such fires cause most damage and are the hardest to fight. If all operators are re- quired to dispose of their slash, it will be no hardship, as it will put all on the same basis and the cost will be added to the finished product. Would a farmer set fire to his wheat crop ? Would he burn his seed wheat for yt-ars to come? Would he let his employees smoke if it endangered his crop? Would he allow hunters, fishermen and campers to freely travel over his land, making fires and scattering lighted tobacco from their pipes? Would he let his neighbour light Imnfires where the fire would spread to his standing grain? He would not. Is he wiser, more practical, more hard-headed than the lumberman? Is he a keener business man? You will say no. But there are dozens of men, whose bread and butter depend on their supply of raw material from the forest, who do just such things and worse. I could muUiply instances enough to make a volume. Fire protection is not forestry, any more than it rire trotection . ■ .,,. , ...» is Plain Busineu '^ loggiiig or mdling, but. It is the foundation, the absolute essential, of all these. Without it they cannot exist. If we are not prepared to protect our forests, then, as practical men, let us cut them down and use them up before they are burnt. Fire protection is not a matter of cost; it must be done as cheaply as possible, but it must be done at any cost. Remember -n Canada we are not dealing with privately-owned forests, but with government-owr.; -1 forests; they are the proijerty of the people; every man. woman and child has a direct interest in them, which extends to generations yet unborn. It is the duty of our public servants to see that they are protected, and that the licensees, who are but tenants, should not be allowed to shirk their respon ibilities. Quebec is the only province in eastern Canada to fully realize this, and its fine of $5.00 per square mile for the licen- see who fails to properly protect his limits has done much good. For EST FIRE PROTECTION I Railway Fire Protection The average man Hoe» not realize hciw closely fire protection touclui him. Every stwk-holder of timlwr Aning comp.inie» »hould uu» an interest in fire-protection, and see that his directors are taking care of their forests. Bond-holders are vitally interests, as a g»K)d part of heir security may be wiped out in one largi' fire. Banki should not loan money on timber limits as collan-ral, until they have investigated the fire prevention provided by the borrower. Do not depend upon any concern which docs its own fire protection, unless it is done by a department which has no oti duties. The timber- lands departments have ttw many othei ules, they have men th. y want to 'take care of" from one sea . to the next, f om the end of the drive to the beginning of the fall cut They leave their patrol to cache-keepers, dam-keepers, and. if there is any exploring, any repairing or other odd jobs, fire rangers are taken off to do them. Then, too, it runs up the logging cost, and you all know *hat a ter- rible thing that is. I re protection is a business by itself . It requires special knowledge, special training, and special tools and methods; the man who is skilled in logging or driving is not necf^ssarily a good fire discoverer or fighter, in fact, rather the reverse The same thing applies to railway fire-fighting, which is ur^ually left to section crews. These men have other work to do and many of them do not take any interest in fire protectior. work. It would pay the railways, and be far more efficient, to have special fire patrolmen under a separate department head. The reduction of damage laims would pay for the expense many times over, j ust as volunteer fire-fighting is out of date, so is amateur forest .^re protection. maintenance- of-way department begrudges every cent spent oi e protection, and this attitude filters down to the section r len. All our work for the conservation of oiu timber resources is wasted if we cannot conquer the fires. W. »n 1 first went into the woods in Quebec, I was told c > 'ay that t .r. were fires all along a river. "Why don't you put : .. out or prevent them?" I asked. "Oh. you can't help having fires; it is impossible to put them out. We'll get rain pretty soon. " But this attitude has changed and the outlook is very hopeful. Co-operative ^^^ ^^^^ "^f*' ^t*^""?* ^* fi™ protection in Quebec Protection was made in 1908, and now. after only eight years, we have 38-5 per cent of the licensed area of the province under co-operative protection, and this protection is becoming more and more efficient each year. Co-operative fire protection is not only more efficient, but it is much cheaper than individual protection. It is cosi-ng the larger members of COMMISSION O [•■ CONSERVATION the association only two-thirds of what it cost them to prntc^ their own limits and has wiped out the msnace of the small limit- holder, who never used to protect his territory. If a man owns fifty square miles, it would require two men for six months, with their outfit of canoe and tent and provisions, at a minimum of $500, to patrol it, or S1.60 per 100 acres. Under co-operation he gets much more efficient service for 40 cents per hundred acres. The Quebec Department of Lands and Forests, under Hon. Mr. Allard, Mr. Dechene and Mr. Hall, deserves the highest praise for the work it has done in helping along this movement. These men have shown their broad-mindedness and their sense of respon - bility for this great provincial asset placed in their care. In every way they have helped, often at political inconvenience to themselves from members of Parliament trying to save their constituents from punishment for infraction of the fire laws, as well as others who did not want to spend any money in protecting their limits. Mr. Allard is now at work on amendments to the provincial fire laws which will bring them up to date, make them easier of enforcement, and do away with some abuses. The settler and the woodsman, living so much in the wilderness, have naturally become ignorant of the law and contemptuous of it, but this condition is rapidly changing for the better. Of the 70,000 square miles of timber limits under license, about 10,000 square miles are burnt; these have not yet commenced to reproduce themselves. At an average of 2,500 board feet per acre, this means a loss to the Quebec government of §15,000,000 in stumpage dues, and, for the 8,500 square miles reproducing, but which will not be ready to cut for .">0 years, a large loss of revenue, due to interest charges for this long period. When licensees awake to the fact that they are paying the government So. 00 per square mile per annum for lands which they cannot cut during the next fifty years, and release these limits to the government, the loss of revenue will amount to S90,000 a year. The agitation for better fire protection has also resulted in closer utilization. Until recently, hre-killcd timber was never cut, but now the larger companies cut all the trees on burnt-over land, and the government encourages this by a reduction in the stumpage dues, thus saving a great waste. The great necessity is education of all classes of our people — the man in the street, the government officials, members of Parliament, lumbermen, business men, woodsmen, farmers, settlers and hunters, and above all the Losses of Revenue Education is Necessary FOREST FIRE PROTECTION t I i I children, for they will be the men of the coming generation ; and often the only effective way is to educate the children. The Roman Catholic Church in the province of Quebec has done splendid work. His Eminence Cardinal Begin, Archbishop Bruchesi and Mon- seigneur Laflamme have for years sent special notices to all their parish priests to impress upon their people the necessity for care. The Department of Education, through its inspectors, has distributed leaflets to the schools in both languages, showing by pictures and by simple sentences the danger of forest fires. The reduction in the number of settlers' fires has been remarkable, and, once the laws are enforced, it is hoped they will be a thing of the past. Members of Parliament are especially in need of instruc^ tion, for several times they have encouraged their c tituents to fight arrest; they have influenced the magistrates, tried to use their influence at Quebec, and some have even paid the fines them- selves. The magistrates havd been very remiss in their duty in some districts, discharging offenders in spite of clear evidence and in some cases imposing fines of SI. 00, thus making a mockery of the law 'ey are sworn to administer. Improved ^^^ railways, with one notable exception, have had Conditions a decided change of heart, and railway fires of any Along Railways ggriousness are rapidly becoming a thing of the past. The one exception is the railway directly under government control, the National Transcontinental. While the Hon. Mr. Cochrane has given instructions to have put into effect all that the Dominion Railway Commission requires, the order has not Deen fully carried out. The provisions for control during the coming year are still incomplete, in spite of every effort on the part of the Provincial Government and private owners to get the matter settled. Workers in the woods are still in need of education, as ten per cent of the fires are still set by river-drivers. Woodlands depart- ments are getting more strict, and, in the most progressive companies, Sf-ting a fire is now cause for instant discharge of the man and punishment for the foreman. The proposed amendments to the present law, approved by Hon. Mr. AUard, and the better enforcement of the fire laws, will be a great step in advance. These changes will require permits to burn clearings at any time during the summer, will require all persons called on by a fire-ranger for help in extinguishing fires to respond under penalty of a fine, will fix minimum fines for infractions of the laws, so that a magistrate cannot make the law ridiculous by letting a man off with a one dollar fine, and will punish by imprisonment any deliberate setting of fire to get employment 8 COMMISSION OF CONSERVATION in extinguishing it. Last year, trouble was caused by men setting fire in order to gain work, but, under the new law, this will be punishable by Imprisonment without a fine, and a minimum fine will be imposed, so that magistrates will have no discretion but have to impose a sufficient fine if they find the person guilty. Better Methods There is great need for better methods of slash SRe^ufred ^"^P^^^"' ^nd I believe that the only right method IS the piling and ourning of the branches and tops as soon as the trees are felied. A fire in a slashing is terriblv des- tructive and almost impossible to fight, and, if there was no inflam- mable material of this kind, fires, except in unusually drv seasons, could never assume dangerous proportions and could be easily extinguished. If this is made compulsory on all lumbermen, it will be no hardship, because the added cost will be the same, it will be added to the price of the lumber and will have to be paid by the consumers The greatest advance in fire prevention methods will probably come in a year or two. through the use of aeroplanes or hydro- aeroplanes. This may sound impracticable, but it will not appear so when you consider how short a time it was since the aeroplane was a toy. while now it is the most vital pan .f the fighting forces in the war. There is no reason for not using it to protect our forests. In Michigan last fall, a rich aeroplanist undertook to help in fire protection and the amount of territory he has been able to cover was remarkable. This matter was taken up by the St. Maurice Association last spring, but. unfortunately, the high cost of hydro- aeroplanes ($10,000, including duty and freight) precludes their use at least for a few years. But, when you consider that two men with an aeroplane can protect 10,000 miles more efficiently than fifty fire rangers, you can easily see that we can afford to buy the machines and hire experts to run them. The great difficulty is that which Mr. Wentworth has already spoken of. namely, of educating people— of bringing home to every man the absolute necc sity of taking care of our forests. I think the greatest benefit thi» Commission can render is precisely the same as that suggested by Mr. Wentworth in regard to fire protection in cities; that is the necessity for starting some cheap, but effective, method to educate the children, to educate the ordinary- man interested in timber or the woods, or saw mills, or in any other wav; and, above all. in educating the population who live on the bound- aries of forests— the farmers and the settlers. To do this we have a great inertia to overcome. It is difficult to get people Educate the Public FOREST FIRE PROTECTION 9 in the mass to realize what they realize as individuals. Every intel- ligent man, when you talk to him about fire protection, agrees that it is very necessary, but men in the mass do not seem to understand this matter nor the necessity of meeting the difficulty. Theyareinert, they lack the stimulus, the initiative, to do anything. While they realize the conditions, they do not want to start on the remedy. „ . . . VVe must realize that in this great question of forest Patriotism in r ^ . . . . , Times of Peace "''^ protection there is a patriotism behind it all, a patriotism of peace, just as important as the patri- otism that we have shown in this great war. There are slackers in peace times, just as much as in war times: and it is time for every one of us to realize his individual responsibility in this matter; to make government officials, who are responsible for fire protection, see that they are only public servants, that public office is a public trust, and that they have no political and no individual interest in this matter; that their duty is perfectly clear and plain, and is, first of all, to protect our natural resources — and that applies to every one of us, because, if each man realizes his responsibility, his representative will realize his responsibility too. ■RP ^