FOR2030-ABED_1: Canada’s Forest History

16th Century and Prior

Indigenous peoples of Canada relied on the forest for many different things; their usage was connected to their tribe’s location. For example, Woodland Indians used the surrounding birch trees for tools and transportation. Coastal tribes used the great cedar trees to build huge canoes and elaborate totem poles. The nomadic Plains Indians used the Lodgepole pines for teepee poles.

First Nations Camp—Courtesy of Provincial Archives of Alberta, Government of Alberta

1500s

The arrival of the first Europeans changed how Canada’s forests were used. They needed to clear the forests in order to have fuel, building materials, and land for agriculture and grazing.

The Europeans also came to fish off the coast of Newfoundland; with this, lumber was needed to build docks, warehouses, and drying racks. This used a lot of Newfoundland’s forested land and forced the adoption of regulations to control the usage. These regulations are considered Canada’s first forest laws.

Clipart courtesy FCIT, https://etc.usf.edu/clipart

1600s to Late 1700s

There were few forest laws in Canada, as the forest was not seen as having much value, other than what Europeans needed to live. At the same time, Great Britain had used up its forests and looked to North America’s east coast Eastern White Pine trees to build masts for their ships. Britain’s king stipulated that the best trees were to be reserved for the Crown and ordered that they be marked with the “King's Broad Arrow”.

It is important to recognize that this law from the King was not enacted to protect the forest but rather to ensure that the trees best suited for shipbuilding were reserved for that purpose.

Wikimedia Commons

Early 1800s

Up until this time, Britain’s use of Canada’s trees for shipbuilding were minimal; they had been using the trees of New England for their main source of naval timbers. Then the American Revolution changed things. New England’s trees were no longer available and Britain looked to Nova Scotia and New Brunswick to meet their shipbuilding timber needs. A large forest industry developed and expanded quickly, and Britain continued to rely on Canada’s forests for timber.

Later 1800s

The industrialization of Canada occurred. Canada’s forest industry was greatly impacted due to steam-powered machinery that accelerated logging, as well as the need for huge amounts of timber to construct railways and bridges.

In addition, new regulations came into effect allowing the public sale of any timber that was not needed for Britain’s Royal Navy.

Pixabay

1871 –	Prime Minister John A. MacDonald wrote, “The sight of immense masses of lumber passing my windows every morning suggests to my mind the absolute necessity there is for looking into the future of this great trade. We are recklessly destroying the timber of Canada and there is scarcely a possibility of replacing it." Pixabay
1872 –	The Dominion Lands Act, a federal law, received royal assent on April 14th. It allowed for lands in Western Canada to be granted to individuals, companies, religious groups, municipalities, and First Nations reserves. The Act specified policies that would encourage settlement in the west.
1873 –	There was an increased demand on Canadian timber from international markets. The U.S. could not meet their demand and looked to Canadian forests; the value of Canadian lumber shipments to the U.S. was 9.5 million dollars.
1887 –	Canada was no longer a colony of Great Britain and ownership of Canada’s forests passed to the Canadian government. The Canadian government now took steps to ensure the forested land was preserved and that reforestation was encouraged. The result was that the first Canadian parks were created, starting with Banff National Park in 1887. Banff Townsite, 1884 Courtesy of Alberta Sustainable Resource Development (photo #6408)
1899 –	The Dominion Forestry Branch (DFB) was established; it was Canada’s first forestry branch. Their two main goals were to: protect and manage the forested area, and encourage tree planting on the prairies. The DFB established the Forest Reserve System, a system designed to preserve timber for homesteaders on the prairie, to protect the watershed, and to provide opportunities for grazing and recreation.

1900s

1906 –	Canada’s first Congress was held, hosted by Sir Wilfrid Laurier, the prime minister at the time, and also a dedicated conservationist. Attended by the continent's leading forest conservationists, this Congress succeeded in defining a new direction for forestry in Canada. Forests were to be used, but used wisely. To this end, conservationist principles were embedded in official government policy and trained foresters were hired to manage Canada's forested lands. It was at this time that the first Forest Reserves Act came into being. This act established 21 permanent forest reserves throughout the country. Sir Wilfrid Laurier; courtesy of the Canadian Encyclopedia
1920 –	Canadian lumber shipments to the U.S. were worth almost 150 million dollars.
1930 –	Control of the forests in the prairie provinces and the B.C. railway belt was transferred to the provinces, with the exception of the National Parks.
1937 –	Canada’s forests were still being cut at an alarming rate even though conservationists were fighting against this. H.R. MacMillan, one of western Canada’s first professional foresters, issued the following warning: "’It is generally known among the well-informed that the forest is being over cut at a devastating rate in every forest province in Canada; that Canada, an essentially forest country, lags far behind India, the United States, Norway, Sweden, Finland, and France in forest policy; and that forest schools and forest departments in Canada are half-starved and failing to lead or influence a Canadian people, who are still bent to exploitation rather than conservation of their great natural resources.’"
1945 –	After WWII, the forest industry and forest professionals agreed that Canada’s forest policies needed to change in order to avoid disaster for the forest industry and the communities they supported. The era of Sustained Yield began which limited how much wood could be taken from a forest, and that a forest should not be cut at a faster rate that it can regenerate.
1947 –	The Sustained Yield era also stipulated that harvested land should be reforested, either by government or industry. British Columbia was the first province to adopt sustained yield forestry.
1949 –	The province of Alberta adopted sustained yield forestry.
1980s –	Past forest management policies were not working and the public was demanding a much greater role in making forest management decisions.
1985 –	The Canadian Council of Forest Ministers (CCFM) was formed. It was composed of federal, provincial, and territorial Ministers responsible for forests. One of their most important functions was, and continues to be, setting the direction for the stewardship and sustainable management of Canada’s forests.
1992 –	At the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development, Canada was one of the first countries in the world to commit to a forest management approach known as Sustainable Forest Management. This method of forest management continues to this day.

2000s

2008 –	The CCFM releases its publication “A Vision for Canada’s Forests 2008 and Beyond”.
2019 –	The CCFM refreshes the Vision for Canada’s Forests 2008 and Beyond by producing “A Shared Vision for Canada’s Forests: Toward 2030”.

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