No information of any value was obtained regarding that stretch of the main Liard between Lower Crossing and Nelson Forks, but we have no reason for believing that it is very different from the part described above. From a view-point of control, management, and con- servation, the forests of British Columbia are as well and efficiently administered as seems possible in the wartime and post-wartime conditions of shortage of personnel, labour, and equipment. Even in normal conditions the immense distances, limited arteries of transportation, and the high vulnerability of certain areas to fire-hazard make it impossible to provide effective protection for the vast forests of the northern interior. This conclusion is supported by the following quotations from the Annual Reports of the British Columbia Forest Service for 1942, 1943, and 1944: From Annual Report of 1942: The fire season was very satisfactory, the only trouble being experienced in the Prince George District. Here, dry lightning storms started many fires that could not be controlled because of : lack of transportation facilities. and efficient labour. The situation emphasized the need for more lookouts, trails, roads, and, especially for that type of country, air transportation, From Annual Report of 1943: Although the fire season was generally favourable the Fort George district was hit fairly hard in the late summer and again suffered the greatest damage of any district. This was largely due to the vast extent of remote country where the only possible access is by seaplane. From Annual Report of 1944: The fire season was without particular event. Blessed with well-scattered rains fires were less frequent and more easily con- trolled. At the same time the effect of organization, or rather the lack of it, was again shown in the comparatively high costs and damage to forests in the thinly developed areas north of Prince George and along the Alaska Highway. This is a well-forested country. The forests are largely young and thrifty. Though at present they are too far from markets to be merchantable the advent of the proposed highway to connect the Provincial road system to the Alaska Highway and the possibility of railway connection will have a beneficial effect. Further, the Report of 1944 states under the heading “Cost of Fighting Fires”: As an instance, in the northern area of the Fort George District, largely uninhabited, there were reported 13 fires which grew to large portions on which no action was taken, there being no men available. These fires burned over approximately one-quarter of a million acres, about two-thirds of which was productive forest land. Before we can consider ourselves as doing a complete job we shall require the necessary equipment and organization to make manpower available to catch these fires in their incipiency and extinguish them. In that area of the Province aircraft is required. YUKON The northerly and northeasterly parts of the Yukon are too far north, and, over a considerable section, of too great elevation to support much more than a light and scattered forest growth. The westerly portion of the Yukon receives less precipitation and is more subject to drying winds than the easterly portion. The western slopes of the Mackenzie Mountains receive almost enough precipitation to be considered as an interior wet belt, a condition reflected in the general character of the forest. White spruce is the predominant species almost every- where in the Yukon and the only one being used to any important extent commercially. It furnishes practically all the saw lumber used locally and the bulk of the fuel-wood for the river steamers. Black spruce occurs more commonly in the muskeg areas. It seldom grows to commercial size. Lodgepole pine is common and is used to a considerable extent as fuelwood. In places some trees are of sufficient size to make railroad ties. Balsam poplar is common throughout the Yukon. Along the main rivers pure stands often attain tremendous size. This is particularly true of the Liard River and some of its larger tributaries. Aspen poplar is also widely distributed. It occurs in pure stands on southern hillsides throughout the central part of the region, but seldom attains large size. White birch also occurs throughout the Yukon, favouring the banks of streams. In the Liard watershed, it attains fair size on the better sites. Of 112,000 square miles considered by H. L. Holman as capable of supporting productive forest, about 17,850 square miles, or about 16 per cent, are considered as normally growing forest, and about 39,500 square miles, or 35-4 per cent, are considered as unproductive forests. The remainder, 54,650 square miles, or 48-6 per cent, is water, tundra, or barren land. To arrive at a rough estimate of the reserves of standing merchantable timber in the Yukon, it is necessary to consider only the 17,850 square miles of forests of normal product- ivity. By normal forest standards, it may reasonably be expected that from 8 to 12 per cent of the area under con- sideration will support merchantable stands, assuming normal growth and normal depletion through fire and use. It is Holman’s view in considering this area that the high proportion of bottom land forest growing on sites better than the average and the low depletion due to limited use and comparatively low fire losses, suggest the likelihood that a figure of 10 per cent would be reasonable; i.e., that 10 per cent of the area will support merchantable timber averaging 5,000 board feet or more to the acre. On this basis, there would be about 1,140,000 acres of merchantable timber in the territory. Assuming an average of 5,000 ft.b.m. per acre—probably quite conservative—one reaches an estimate of about 5,700,000,000 board feet as the present timber reserve of Yukon. Of this, about 90 per cent is white spruce. This timber has a high local accessibility, but it is likely that from a quarter to a third—say, 30 per cent— would be difficult to log economically from its situation in long narrow strips along small watercourses. This would suggest that the merchantable timber in the Yukon £53]