a

capable of being economically exploited may be about
4,000,500,000 board feet.

It will be obvious that, under present conditions of
population, transportation, and markets, very little, if any,
of this timber can be regarded as accessible to other than
limited local outlets. For the purpose of this report it

is classified as “merchantable timber, inaccessible to other
than local outlets”.

In an attempt to determine the potential annual yield
of this productive forest area, it has been assumed that
about half of the area—say, 9,000 square miles—is capable
of producing merchantable stands (5,000 ft.b.m. to the

; 9,000 ;
acre) in 200 years. Then, Soe or 45 square miles will

become merchantable each year, and will produce 144,000,000
board feet. Reduction of this amount by the 30 per cent
that cannot be logged economically leaves a potential
annual yield of about 100,000,000 board feet.

Although there are substantial reserves of standing
timber in the Yukon with a fair potential yield, early
prospects for exploitation are not promising. The reserves
are located for the most part on the upper reaches of the

"larger valleys in long, narrow fringes along the rivers and

streams, and not only is the transportation of the products
to any market costly, but logging operations are bound to

be more expensive than under normal conditions where

timber is situated in more compact blocks. It should not

be forgotten, too, that wage, equipment, and supply costs
are very much higher in the Yukon than elsewhere in
Canada. .

It follows that forest products manufactured in the
Yukon can be marketed only in such places as cannot be

more conveniently and cheaply supplied from other services.
One such place is the Yukon itself. In this connection
Holman says:

... It may be that, in the course of time, mining and other develop-
ment will create a worthwhile local market which will use more
than the very small fraction of the annual growth at present being
used (excluding the present temporary demand, of course). How-
ever, it is hard to conceive of a Yukon population great enough to
use the full production of the forest.

There are two, and only two, other possible outlets. One is
that part of the Yukon Valley in Alaska beyond convenient reach
of coastal shipping. What development there may be in that area
is a matter of conjecture, but it is quite probable that there will be
some and that lumber and fuelwood from the Yukon could compete
successfully with local supplies even though the former must be
transported from places as far away as the Stewart and White
Rivers. Water transportation downstream is relatively cheap.

The second possible market is the Mackenzie valley and the
Arctic Coast. This market is undoubtedly going to need Jarger
supplies of forest products in the future than can be supplied from
the Mackenzie and Slave Rivers themselves, and the large reserves
of timber in the Liard watershed will undoubtedly be tapped for
this purpose. Most of the watershed and by far the larger part of
the timber reserves are in the Province of British Columbia, but it
is probable that the Yukon will supply its share also.

It is scarcely worthwhile discussing the prospects for the
establishment of the larger forest industries in the Yukon, as the

[54 ]

problem of transportation for both raw and finished products obvi-
ously rule out any such possibility.

As an illustration of how costs of various kinds enter into the
problem of markets in this area, the situation around Dawson and
Whitehorse might be described. At both these centres practically
all reserves of standing timber suitable for lumber have long since
disappeared from the immediate vicinity. Dawson now gets its
fuelwood and lumber from the Stewart River area and Whitehorse
is supplied from Teslin and Marshall Creek, each of which places
is 100 miles away by road. In the case of Whitehorse, much of the
local supply is west coast lumber shipped in by railroad from Skagway.

Although there is a modest local consumption the
Yukon forest areas must be regarded as incapable, as yet,
of exploitation for outside markets, and although the
figure of 5,700,000,000 ft.b.m. of merchantable timber has
been classified “Total Merchantable Timber”, the estimate
of 4,000,000,000 ft.b.m. of merchantable timber “capable
of being logged economically” has not been treated as
“accessible merchantable timber”.

The. following notation referring to timber conditions
in the portion of the Liard watershed in the Yukon is taken
from the report of Holman following a reconnaissance made
in the summer of 1943:

As might be expected, due to its generally low elevation and
southerly location, the Liard watershed contains by far the best
timber to be found in the Yukon. Speaking generally, this part of
the Territory is as heavily forested as any part of Alberta or British
Columbia east of the mountains and the growth rate is equally as
good. The best stands are, of course, to be found in the immediate
valleys of the larger rivers but merchantable stands are by no means
confined to such locations. The uplands also support timber of
very good quality up to an elevation of, roughly, 3,500 feet above
sea level and much of the country, in the southern portion of the
watershed at least, lies well below the 3,500-foot contour. Our
knowledge of the upper, or northern end of the watershed is rather
meagre but it is probable that it is rather more lightly timbered.
Some of it must be above timber line which, in this latitude, is
around 5,000 feet above sea level. However, one would expect
good stands of spruce to extend up the larger rivers well to their
source and this seems to be confirmed by information obtained
locally.

Along the river flats and benches of the Liard and its larger
tributaries occur some quite remarkable spruce and cottonwood
stands. A stand of spruce was measured on the Liard River just
west of Watson Lake which was found to be between 125 and 135
years old. It ran better than 30,000 board feet per acre, with the
majority of the trees between 110 and 120 feet in height and between
18 and 28 inches in diameter at breast height. Such stands of
spruce occur quite frequently along the larger rivers and, while
most of them would cover no more than a few hundred acres of
river bottom land, the sum of them all must constitute
considerable and valuable reserve of saw timber. |

The higher land away from the rivers is fairly well drained for

the most part and supports a good, rapidly-growing and healthy
forest.

quite a

Forest fires have not been extensive nor frequent in this.
area for more than 70 years. The last wide-spread fire occurred |
between 1870 and 1873 and the area covered by it is now covered \
with a thrifty 75-year old stand which on the better sites is already
approaching merchantable size. There are also remnants of an
older stand, about 125 to 130 years, which are of merchantable size
on good sites. Some stands of spruce were measured, on upland,
near the Rancheria River, which went better than 15.000 board
feet per acre with dominants up to 84 feet in height and diameters
up to 17 inches at breast height. Most of the upland area, however,