By D. ROY CAMERON
Dominion Forester of Canada
Fig. 1. Mt. Pilot in Banff National Park, Alberta
SCARCITY, or the threat of scarcity, is a great stimulus to research, and it is not surprising that Canada, with a historic surplus of forests up to fairly recent years, should show belated progress in forestry and forest products research. Developments in this country have been along four major lines, e.g., silviculture, protection, aerial surveys, and forest products research.
The beginning of organized silvicultural research in Canada may be dated from 1918 when a Silvicultural Research division was set up in the then Forestry Branch of the Department of the Interior, and the first forest experiment station was established. In the intervening thirty years this division has carried out many investigations both on forest experiment stations and on provincial lands and industrial holdings. Information of great value respecting cutting methods, regeneration, and rates of growth has been published from time to time.
During World War II the staff of the Silvicultural Research division was greatly affected by enlistments in the armed forces, and research programs were reduced to care and maintenance. However, timber disposal operations on forest experiment stations, conducted with internees, prisoners-of-war, and conscientious objectors, not only improved timber stands but made creditable contributions to the war effort.
Since the war, the return of experienced staff, recruitment of additional trained foresters, and provision of larger appropriations has enabled a considerable expansion of silvicultural research in the Dominion Forest Service. The main items on the program are:
a) Forest mensuration which involves the measurement of trees, stands, and forest products. This includes the development of standard volume and yield tables for use in timber estimating in various parts of Canada; the study of converting factors between different units of measurement of timber; analysis of log scales and investigations with a view to standardization thereof.b) Preparation of scientific forest working plans for application to areas which are to be brought under intensive forest management.
c) Cultural treatment of stands by thinning and pruning to improve volume and quality production.
d) Development of silvicultural cutting methods to secure natural regeneration.
e) Studies in tree-breeding and vegetative propagation of promising individual or hybrid tree species.
f) Studies in the technique of reforesting devastated land having regard to the most suitable species adaptable to the various sites.
g) Studies to determine the suitability of exotic tree species to Canadian conditions.
The greater part of the above projects are undertaken at five forest experiment stations, selected on the basis of representing conditions in the forest regions in which they are located. They are as follows:
Acadia Forest Experiment Station. - This area is suited to a study of the softwood types occurring in the Maritime Provinces. The principal species studied are white add red spruce, Picea glauca (Moench) Voss and Picea rubens Sarg, growing in both softwood and mixedwood types. The experimental area contains 38 square miles (98 km²) and lies 15 miles (24 km.) northeast of Fredericton, New Brunswick.
Valcartier Forest Experiment Station. - This station is representative of the mixed hardwood types, and to some extent, the spruce type, in the Province of Quebec. It is 7½ square miles (19.4 km²) in area and located some 17 miles (27 km.) north of Quebec City.
Petawawa Forest Experiment Station. - This station serves for investigation of problems associated with the management of the pine and hardwood types in eastern Canada. The area of approximately 100 square miles (259 km²) comprises part of the Petawawa Military Camp. It is located northeast of Pembroke Ontario.
Riding Mountain Forest Experiment Station. - This station is representative of the aspen-grove and mixedwood belts in which white spruce arid aspen are predominant. The area of 25 square miles (65 km²) comprises part of the Riding Mountain National Park, located in the western part of the Province of Manitoba.
Kananaskis Forest Experiment Station. - This station affords an opportunity for the study of lodgepole pine, Pinus contorta Dougl., in association with spruce, one of the most important timber types found in the Rocky Mountain region. This area of approximately 63 square miles (163 km²) lies wholly within the Kananaskis Valley, with headquarters about 62 miles (100 km.) west of the city of Calgary, Alberta.
Recent special projects include: the Green River Experiment in New Brunswick, a co-operative study of possibility of reducing spruce budworm, Cacoecia fumiferana, damage by special attention to forest sanitation in management plans; resumption of rate-of-growth surveys interrupted in 1930; and inauguration of-a broad series of regeneration studies to find out what is happening on cut-over and burned-over lands.
Plans for 1947 provide for seven rates of growth and six regeneration parties. These will involve employment of over 100 forestry students during the summer months.
The National Research Council also enters into the Canadian silvicultural research picture. As far back as 1923, the Council financed special studies in reseeding of cut-over areas in New Brunswick. The Council convened a research conference at the Petawawa Forest Experiment Station in 1935, as a result of which the Associate Committee on Forestry of the Council (broadly representative of governments, universities, and industry) was established the following year.
In 1937 the Committee arranged for experiments in the use of hormones in tree-breeding studies. The following year a Forest Tree Breeding Subcommittee was established to conduct researches through co-operation between the National Research Council, the Dominion Forest Service, and the Tree Planting Division of the Dominion Department of Agriculture. Work under this committee is largely centralized at the Petawawa Forest Experiment Station, with certain experiments conducted at the Dominion Forest Nursery Stations in Saskatchewan. The most important studies are development of white pine, Pinus strobus L., resistant to blister rust, and hardy fast-growing poplars for tree planting on the western prairies. In 1939 the Associate Committee on Forestry secured a grant from the Council to finance a two-year investigation of regeneration of white pine in the Algonquin Park and Ottawa Valley regions of Ontario.
Another special development occurred in 1943 when the Advisory Committee on Reconstruction, through its Subcommittee on the Conservation and Development of Natural Resources, undertook a special land use investigation of the Ganaraska watershed in Ontario. This study included the role of forestry in flood control and in the rehabilitation of a badly run-down local economy.
To date, the forestry departments of Canadian universities. as such, have devoted little attention to silvicultural research. Demonstration of cutting methods, planting techniques, etc., have been made on school forests and sample plots have been established. Graduate students have been few in number, and theses presented for degrees have not made significant contributions to silvicultural knowledge. The few that have been written have not been published.
While the greater part of the silvicultural research in Canada has been carried on by the Dominion Government, there are certain phases undertaken under provincial and industrial auspices. Of these the most consistent effort has been in British-Columbia. A review of the history of forest research work in that province shows that the first attempts at detailed study of the many complex factors governing tree growth took the form of spasmodic investigations by various officers attached to the staffs of the District Foresters. The pressure of routine duties and a lack of direction, militated against any very tangible results from these efforts, but in 1920 a forester attached to the Victoria staff initiated some growth studies, and organized research work has continued uninterrupted since that date.
In 1927 the staff employed and the work in hand justified the organization of a small research division. Two experiment stations were established, one at Aleza Lake in the spruce-balsam, Abies balsamea (L.) Miller, type of the North-Central Interior, and the other at Cowichan Lake in the Douglas fir type, Pseudotsuga taxifolia Britt., as central points from which studies could be conducted in these two important forest regions. As suitable personnel became available, the staff was increased and the scope of the program of study expanded. Finally, in 1939 the Research and Forest Survey Divisions were amalgamated, thereby improving supervision and eliminating possible duplication of effort. At the present time the forest research program is carried out by the Mensuration. Silvicultural, and Soils Sections of the Economics Division.
Considerable work has been concentrated at the experiment stations, but, in addition, observations are maintained on 606 sample plots scattered over the Province. Investigations include silvics, stand treatments, mensuration, soils, growth, yield, and regeneration. For the latter there are 2,380 mil-acre (4.047 m²) plots on four representative areas. In addition, insect and disease studies are carried on in co-operation with the Dominion Department of Agriculture.
Fig. 2. Nursery at the Petawawa Experiment Station
In Ontario the Forestry Branch started growth and yield studies on a small scale in 1920, and these were carried on sporadically until the onset of the depression in 1930. The work was resumed in 1941, and lately has been organized under a Research Division of the Department of Lands and Forests. Principal investigations concern regeneration in spruce-balsam, Abies balsamea (L.) Miller, Picea glauca, (Moench) Voss and Picea mariana (Mill) B.S.P., pulpwood types, and in white and red pine, Pinus strobus L. and Pinus resinosa Ait. Ontario has for many years undertaken reforestation on a large scale and possesses three large and well-organized tree nurseries. Seeding and planting studies have been conducted at these stations in efforts to improve artificial reforestation techniques.
The Quebec Forest Service has also an important nursery station and has conducted similar seeding and planting investigations. The school forest attached to the forest ranger school at Duchesnay has afforded opportunity for silvicultural experiments, principally intermediate cuttings in spruce-balsam stands. Quebec is further advanced than any other province in its requirement that industry must file working plans for timber holdings on provincial Crown lands. In connection with these working plans, permanent sample plots are established and should produce valuable growth and yield information. The Quebec Forest Service research staff, while small in number, has made some important studies particularly in site classification. Mention should also be made of interesting investigations in distribution of tree species and forest ecology carried out by professors of the University of Montreal.
The Woodlands Section the Canadian Pulp and Paper Association is a recent entry into the silvicultural research field. Its program is cleared through the Pulp and Paper Research Institute of Canada, an organization which will be described in some detail under " Forest Products Research. " The Forester-Manager of the section serves as Director of Woodland Research of the Institute, and funds for special cut-over land regeneration studies are made available by the Institute.
Fire. - Intensive study of the relationship between weather and forest inflammability was started by the Dominion Forest Service in 1929. A system of measurement of fire danger was developed and fire danger ratings compiled. By 1939 these were in practical use in three provinces and in the national parks in western Canada.
The measurement of fire danger depends fundamentally on two relationships:
a) The relation between fire behavior and the moisture content of the "critical" fuels or materials in which fires usually start and spread.b) The relation between fuel moisture content and the weather elements which control it..
Once these basic relationships have been determined experimentally for the principal fuel types of a region, and expressed by means of suitable tables, an estimate of the prevailing degree of fire danger may be obtained by daily observation of the appropriate weather factors only.
A Forest Protection Division of the Dominion Forest Service is responsible for these research activities. Staff rotates between head office in the winter and field duties during the fire season. This division also investigates the use of chemicals and develops test procedures for forestry equipment.
Entomology. - Forest entomological research is a responsibility of the Dominion Department of Agriculture, operating through a Forest Insects Unit of the Science Service.
Investigations are carried on through laboratories in New Brunswick, Ontario, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and British (Columbia. In Ontario the studies at the moment involve investigation of the ecology of forest insects and the control of spruce budworm, sawflies attacking coniferous trees, and insects attacking shade trees, and investigations to determine the value of insecticides sprayed from airplanes in the control of forest insects. In New Brunswick the studies are particularly concerned with forest management in the control of the spruce budworm, the bronze borer, Agrilus anxius, and the beech coccus, Cryptococcus fagi Baer, and of forest insects by diseases. In Manitoba, the studies are primarily concerned with the spruce budworm, and the rate of deterioration of timber killed by fire and insects and the possibility of its salvage in merchantable condition. In Saskatchewan study is especially concerned with the protection of - prairie windbreaks and shade trees from insect attack In British Columbia the more important studies involve the control of pine bark beetles, wood borers. and insects defoliating coniferous trees both in the interior and coastal regions.
In addition to the study of particular insects, one of the most important activities of this unit consists in carrying on the Forest Insect Survey through which, with the cooperation of all official forestry services and the forest protection services of the lumber industry, a very careful appraisal of the insect conditions is maintained and published annually in the form of a report for the information of the forest industries, the forest protection services. and entomologists, in forecasting the probable location and extent of forest insect outbreaks.
The survey determines the danger of insect outbreaks through continuous collection of specimens by the field officers of co-operating organizations. Trained forest insect rangers employed by the Dominion Department of Agriculture give instruction and supervision. Insects are forwarded to Dominion Insect Laboratories in special containers provided by the Department. Here they are classified and the necessary statistical records compiled. By this means, variations in insect populations can be noted and their significance assessed.
Loss and damage through forest insect attacks, principally the spruce budworm, have been mounting at an alarming rate during the past few years. The serious concern felt by Dominion and provincial governments and by industry led to joint action in 1945. A Forest Insects Control Board was established by the Dominion, with Dominion, provincial, and industry representation. The functions of the board are to coordinate efforts and devise a cohesive general program seeking expanded activities by all co-operating authorities, which, however, retain complete autonomy in operations.
While Ontario has made a handsome contribution in the erection of a forest insects laboratory to house Dominion research personnel, Quebec is the only province that has made any serious consistent effort at actual research in this field. A Bureau of Entomology in the Forest Service of the Department of Lands and Forests has a well-equipped laboratory at the Forest Ranger School at Duchesnay and conducts field studies on insect problems. Some of the more important of these are biology of the spruce budworm, birch bronze borer, insect vectors of the Dutch elm disease, and DDT spraying technique. The Bureau co-operates closely with the Dominion authorities. While it assumes responsibility for the insect survey in the province, all collections are shipped to Dominion laboratories.
Pathology. - Research in this field is also a function of the Dominion Department of Agriculture. The Division of Botany and Plant Pathology of the Science Service of that department has a small section dealing with forest pathology. Staff, funds, and program are on a much smaller scale than in the comparable field of forest entomology. Problems studied have included the deterioration of fire-and insect-killed trees, white pine blister rust, rusts of poplars, and root and heart rots in spruce and balsam. A summer laboratory, maintained at the Petawawa Forest Experiment Station, co-operates in hybrid resistance studies and related factors in tree breeding experiments.
As is the case in forest entomology, Quebec is the only province that has established its own organization for pathological research. Following some years of investigation of individual projects by the Quebec Forest Service, a separate division of Forest Pathology was established in 1938. A laboratory has been set up at Duchesnay and officers of the division conduct field studies throughout the province. Work includes butt and heart rots of conifers, nursery and plantation diseases, white pine blister rust, rate of decay of fire-killed timber, and other problems of economic importance. The occurrence of the Dutch elm disease in Canada was first discovered by the Quebec division of forest pathology. In all its efforts this division works in close collaboration with its Dominion counterpart.
Recognizing the potentialities of air photographs in the forestry field, studies and investigations were initiated by the Dominion Forest Service in 1929 which have led to the development of techniques, methods, and highly specialized instruments which have been widely adopted as standards. These developments have proved to have extensive practical application in the preparation of forest inventories, in management, and in forest protection planning. The Service is continuing and expanding its investigations in this field.
The work is organized under an Aerial Surveys Division at Ottawa, divided into two sections, viz., forest mapping and research. The research section solves problems encountered in mapping and devises new techniques for reducing labor and increasing efficiency. Special test projects to perfect new techniques are conducted in co-operation with the Royal Canadian Air Force, the Topographical Surveys Division of the Department of Mines and Resources, the National Research Council, and other government agencies. Two instruments have been originated, namely, the duoscope and the monoscope for the transfer of detail from the photograph to the map, and are being employed successfully. From experimental modifications of these instruments, the first working model of the multiscope, which later underwent considerable development at the Harvard Forest, Petersham, Massachusetts. was constructed.
One of the most important advances achieved is the development of methods of estimating, volumetrically, standing timber from air photographs. The technique employs the height of the tree, supplemented in most cases by crown data, in place of the usual ground method of measuring diameter at breast height. The comprehensive view provided by the air photograph enables measurements to be made over a greater area of forest, and with less effort, as compared to the previous laborious and expensive method of ground cruising.
Together with the development of a technique of volumetric estimating, the shadow method of determining tree heights from air photographs has been developed, and grids have been devised for measuring tree heights in oblique photographs. The displacement method, whereby the image of the tree is measured on a single vertical photograph, is also important. These methods in most cases render it unnecessary to apply the parallax method of obtaining tree heights, though the stereoscope is used to correlate the easily measurable trees with the rest of the stand, and also to make slope corrections in the case of the shadow method.
Canada is one of the great timber-producing countries of the world and its production of manufactured wood products is greatly in excess of the domestic requirements. The surplus is exported and constitutes one of the main items in Canada's favorable balance of trade. For these highly competitive world markets, research is essential to ensure continuity of cheap raw material supplies and for the efficient manufacture of the forest products.
Since 1913, forest products research in Canada has been a federal function as is the case in other countries, such as the United States of America, United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, and India. The chief agency for this research in Canada is the Forest Products Laboratories, a unit of the Dominion Forest Service.
The function of the Laboratories is to obtain scientific and technical information on forest products in order to promote the wider and more efficient use of wood. This includes devising means of reducing or utilizing to better advantage the "wood waste" that occurs in the conversion of the standing tree into the finished product; developing uses for species now left in the wood; improving manufacturing techniques, with a view to cost reduction; preparing timber specifications for building codes and engineering standards; increasing the serviceability of wood and developing new products by chemical methods; and studying means of broadening markets for wood and ensuring its satisfactory use by the consumer.
Organization of the Laboratories
The Forest Products Laboratories were established in Canada in 1913 at Montreal, in co-operation with McGill University, as a part of the Forest Service of the then Department of the Interior. Since that date, the Laboratories have expanded and the work is now carried out in three locations: the main laboratories in Ottawa; the Vancouver Laboratory in Vancouver, British Columbia, and as part of the Pulp and Paper Research Institute of Canada, in Montreal, Quebec.
Fig. 4. Aerial photography in winter at Petawawa Experiment Station
a) Vancouver Laboratory. - The Vancouver Laboratory was established in 1918 on the site of the University of British Columbia, where it is still located. Its main function is to look after the special problems of the British Columbia timber industry. The present work of the Vancouver Laboratory includes research on the following: mechanical and physical properties of British Columbia woods and their application to the structural uses of timber; the use of British Columbia species for poles and piling; wood rotting organisms and their identification and control; air seasoning and kiln drying of British Columbia lumber and other wood products; logging and mill waste, its volume and utilization; and the effect of log size and grade on lumber manufacture in British Columbia.
The facilities of the Vancouver Laboratory are being extended.
b) Pulp and paper, Montreal. - The pulp and paper research of the Laboratories is carried out in Montreal, as part of the Pulp and Paper Research Institute which is operated by a Joint Administrative Committee consisting of members of the Dominion Government, the Canadian Pulp and Paper Association, and McGill University. The Institute, in addition to carrying out research investigations, provides an information and special testing service to the Pulp and Paper Industry. The Institute is financed jointly by the three organizations concerned.
c) Main Laboratories, Ottawa. - The main laboratories were moved in 1927 to Ottawa. Their research work is dealt with by the following divisions:
i) Timber Mechanics. - Concerned mainly with the mechanical and physical properties of Canadian woods (other than those tested in the Vancouver Laboratory), the structural properties and applications of timber, the fabrication and use of plywoods, and the design and standardization of shipping containers for domestic and export markets.ii) Wood Preservation. - Concerned mainly with the treatment of railway ties, poles, piling, and other exposed timber, with chemical preservatives to protect the wood from decay, insects, marine organisms, and fire.
iii) Wood Chemistry. - Concerned mainly with the chemical composition of the various Canadian woods and their utilization in the manufacture of chemical products - with special attention paid to the utilization of bark, logging waste, and sawmill waste by various methods, such as the conversion of carbohydrates to sugar and by the manufacture of building boards.
iv) Wood Utilization. - Concerned mainly with studies on the manufacture of the tree into lumber, veneer? pulpwood, furniture, and other wooden articles. in order to develop manufacturing practices which will permit closer utilization and find uses for material now wasted.
v) Lumber Seasoning. - Concerned mainly with studies of various aspects of the kiln drying, air seasoning, and storage of lumber and other wood products in order to improve the efficiency of these processes and reduce seasoning losses.
vi) Timber Pathology. - Concerned mainly with problems in connection with decay, stain and mold in wood - their identification and control.
vii) Timber Physics. - Concerned mainly with special investigations in which wood structure is a primary consideration.
viii) Dielectric Heating. - Concerned with the application of radio frequency dielectric heating to the wood-using industries.
Technical service to industry. - An important function of the Laboratories is the answering of technical inquiries from the wood-manufacturing and the wood-using industries. In dealing with these, the Laboratories use data obtained from their own researches, supplemented by information from other sources (especially from forest products laboratories in other countries) available in the very complete reference libraries of the Laboratories.
In 1940 the Province of Quebec established a forest products research organization. A small laboratory is operated at the Forest Ranger School at Duchesnay, and the facilities of the chemical laboratories of the University of Laval are also utilized. The objective is to service Quebec wood-using industries, particularly small ones. An information service is maintained, and problems requiring experimental work are submitted to the laboratory staff. A certain amount of fundamental work in wood chemistry and utilization is under way. Other studies include preservative penetration characteristics of Quebec woods, compregnation, and utilization problems of bark and sawdust.
Wartime demands for increased production and tax relief for research purposes, greatly stimulated research activities in the pulp and paper industry. Today most of the companies have their own laboratories and the sum total of research completed has reached an impressive volume. However, little has been published. The results have been retained in the main for the benefit of the individual company operating each laboratory. In some cases, companies have sought solutions of special problems through co-operative arrangements with institutions such as the Ontario Research Foundation.
The information presented in this review indicates that Canada has made some real progress in forestry and forest products research; compared, however. to the vastness of her forest estate and the economic importance of the problems awaiting solution, it is evident that the surface has just been scratched.
Canada's forestry problems transcend provision of raw material supplies for industry. They go deeper than regulation of streamflow, conservation of tourist attractions, and protection of fur, fish, and game. They constitute a land-use problem of the first magnitude. Over 58 percent of the land area of the nine provinces is suitable primarily for wood crops. The national prosperity is thus dependent in large measure on the use made of the growth potentialities of these lands. There is evidence that both governments and industry recognize this fact. Signs point to a very considerable expansion of forest and forest products research in the near future.
Photographs accompanying this article are reproduced by courtesy of the following: Fig. 1 - National Parks Bureau (Canada), Figs. 2 and 3 - Dominion Forest Service, Fig. 4 - Royal Canadian Air Force.
