NORTHERN ALBERTA.
Tree Growth and Timber Resources.
An Abundance of Timber in the Vicinity of Chipewyan.—Much of the
Country Has Been Swept by Fires.—Most of the Timber is Along
the Rivers.—Millions of Cords of Pulp Wood.—Spruce and Black
Bark Poplar the Principal Varieties.—The Water Power
Possibilities Described as Tremendous.
The timber resources of northern Alberta, according to the evidence in
hand, are very considerable, a matter of not a little importance in a
new country. We will deal first with the eastern, or Athabaska division
of this section.
In his evidence before the Senate committee of 1888, Professor John
Macoun, Botanist to the Geological Survey, said:—“There is an abundance
of timber in the vicinity of Chipewyan on Lake Athabaska. There are as
fine spruce in the Athabaska delta as are to be found in any part of the
northwest. I have measured trees on the Embarass river that were two
feet and a half in diameter and were very tall. On Peace river,
likewise, especially on islands, there are many large groves of spruce
and poplar, which attain extraordinary dimensions.”
Mr. Alfred von Hamerstein informed the Senate committee in 1907 that
from McMurray up in a westerly direction, for about twenty miles, there
is very good timber. He had seen trees that would make one thousand feet
of lumber. From Athabaska to House river there is timber standing yet.
There had been some fires raging, but they had not burned it yet. The
timber consists of some patches of spruce of a fairly good size, and the
rest is poplar. From House river to McMurray there is no timber left. It
is all burned out. There are patches here and there along the river, a
couple of trees left standing, and there is some very fine timber in
that. There is some timber which Mr. von Hamerstein used for his oil
well boring work, and he had taken out strips sixty-four feet long, out
of which he had cut his walking beams. There are only patches of this
timber; the rest had been burned. A little further east there is some
fine timber at Chipewyan. From the mouth of Peace river to about Fort
Vermilion there is some good timber. Timber of the same quality ranges
north for a considerable distance. There will be a range of timber four
or five miles long, and then muskeg. From the Vermilion down there is no
timber left; it is all burned up. There is no young timber growing up to
speak of—at least Mr. von Hamerstein did not see any, except in a few
places where a little young timber is starting to grow. Indeed it is
mostly poplar, with patches here and there of spruce, but mostly poplar.
[Illustration: Saw Mill near Fort Smith.]
Mr. H. A. Conroy of the Indian Department, in his evidence before the
Senate committee of 1907, stated that he had been east of Lake Athabaska
as far as Fort à la Corne. All along the rivers there is good timber,
particularly on Great Slave river. On the lower levels of the Athabaska,
through to Athabaska lake, there is heavy timber all the way along. Mr.
Conroy did not know what was behind the timber belt, but believed it was
pretty muskeggy. That was what the Indians told him. He had been up the
river by boat every year for eight years. Taking the country as a whole,
there is quite
A LOT OF MARKETABLE TIMBER.
All the rivers and lakes could produce good timber. There are millions
of cords of spruce for pulpwood.
Mr. Conroy, in a report to the Superintendent of Forestry, January 17,
1910, wrote:—“That part of Athabaska river north from McMurray to Smith
landing is fringed with a heavy growth of spruce and black bark poplar.
The spruce is quite large, and from an economical standpoint will be of
great value in the future. A considerable part of this country is also
excellent for agricultural purposes. From McMurray southwest to
Athabaska there is quite a quantity of valuable spruce and poplar which
has been saved by the watchfulness of the guardian, William Biggs, who
makes his trips up and down that section of the river. He is one of the
most useful men in the north.
During the summer of 1910 Mr. W. Hayes, a capitalist and manufacturer of
Duluth, Minnesota, made an exploratory trip through the Athabaska
country with A. Violette. Mr. Hayes stated in an interview on his return
to Edmonton that there was timber enough in Athabaska district to supply
western Canada for the next half century. Agricultural prospects, he
declared, could not be better, while copper, iron and gold had been
found, and also petroleum, asphalt, limestone and oil. Fishing could be
developed into quite an industry.
Interviewed in Edmonton after his long trip in 1910 (See p. 27) the Hon.
Frank Oliver, Minister of the Interior, stated:—“All the way from
Edmonton to Fort Macpherson the country, along the rivers at least, is
level and forested. There is no prairie. On the upper part of Athabaska
river the banks are from one hundred to two hundred feet in length, and
the country is well wooded. There is a considerable amount of spruce of
good size, but the timber is chiefly poplar. The country has at one time
been altogether under spruce, but fires have wrought havoc in it. The
explanation of these fires is that all freight for the north country
goes down Athabaska river and the men who steer the scows down walk back
along the banks. They are careless with their camp fires and the result
is a continual danger of further destruction by fire.”
VALUABLE WATER POWERS.
With such knowledge as we now possess it is safe to say that within a
few years the water powers of the section of country under review will
constitute one of its most important natural assets.
Mr. William Ogilvie, in a letter published in the Ottawa Journal,
February 19, 1910, writing of the water power susceptible of development
on Slave river, stated:—“When making my survey in 1888, I deduced the
total fall in the river in this stretch by observing the angles of
depression or elevation of each survey station from the preceding one,
and with the distance from each station to station deducing the rise and
fall; in this way I found the total fall to be two hundred and
forty-seven feet. The instrument I had to use was not of a high order of
precision for this purpose; nevertheless, I feel safe in saying the fall
is between two hundred and thirty and two hundred and sixty feet. All
the drainage basins of Peace and Athabaska rivers, and Lake Athabaska,
are in one here, and with this fall in so short a distance the power
possibilities, when required, will be tremendous.”
Mr. Ogilvie, upon another occasion, speaking of Athabaska river,
said:—“The current averages well over four miles an hour, but the rate
varies much with the height of water. At Grand rapids falls, the fall is
about sixty feet in one quarter of a mile. They are a fine sight and
will, when required, develop a lot of power; I would say in the average
season fully as much as Chaudiere falls at Ottawa (say eighty thousand
horse-power).”
PEACE RIVER SECTION.
As to the timber resources of the western or Peace river division of the
section under review, Doctor G. M. Dawson, before the Senate committee
of 1888, after describing the prairie country, showed that the remainder
of the surface was generally occupied by second-growth forest,
occasionally dense, but more often composed of aspen, birch and
cottonwood, with a greater or less proportion of coniferous trees. Some
patches of the original forest, he said, remained, however, particularly
in the river valleys, and were composed of much larger trees, chiefly
coniferous, among which the spruce was most abundant. Handsome groves of
old and large cottonwoods were also to be found in some of the valleys.
Where the soil became locally sandy and poor, and more particularly in
some of the more elevated parts of the high ridges above described, a
thick growth of scrub pine and spruce, in which the individual trees
were small, was found, and in swamp regions the tamarack was not
wanting, and grew generally intermixed with the spruce.
East of Smoky river, and southward toward the Athabaska, the prairie
country was quite insignificant in extent, the region being
characterized by second growth forest, which was only beginning to
struggle up.
Whatever theory be adopted, and may have been advanced to account for
the wide prairies of the western portions of America further to the
south, the origin of the prairies of Peace river was sufficiently
obvious, Doctor Dawson thought. There could be no doubt that they had
been produced and were maintained by fires. The country was naturally a
wooded one, and where fires had not run for a few years, young trees
began rapidly to spring up. The fires were, of course, ultimately
attributable to human agency, and it was probable that before the
country was inhabited by the Indians it was everywhere densely
forest-clad. That the date of the origin of the chief prairie tracts now
found is remote, was clearly evidenced by their present appearance, and
more particularly by the fact that they were everywhere scored and
rutted with old buffalo tracks, while every suitable locality was pitted
with saucer shaped “buffalo wallows.”
[Illustration: The 23rd Base Line between Townships 88 and 89, Range 14,
West of the 6th Meridian.]
In its primitive state the surface was probably covered with a dense
heavy growth of coniferous trees, principally the spruce (_Picea
Engelmanni_ and _P. alba_), but with scrub pine (_Pinus contorta_) in
some localities, and interspersed with aspen and cottonwood. These
forests having been destroyed by fire, a second growth, chiefly of
aspen, but with much birch in some places, and almost everywhere a
certain proportion of coniferous trees—chiefly spruce—had taken its
place. The aspen being a short-lived tree, while the spruce reached a
great age and size, the natural course of events, if undisturbed, would
lead to the re-establishment of the old spruce forests.
Mr. Charles Mair (“Through the Mackenzie Basin”, p. 91), estimates the
prairie areas of upper Peace river at about half a million acres, “with
much country in addition, which resembles Dauphin district in Manitoba,
covered with willows and the like, which, if they can be pulled out by
horse power, as is done there, will not be very expensive to clear.”
Mr. Mair notes a wide and beautiful table-like prairie, begirt with
aspens, at Peace point.
Mr. Fred S. Lawrence explained to the Senate committee of 1907 that in
the valley of Peace river, the bottoms of the river, the islands—and
there are large islands in the river—and the points, are largely
covered with a heavy growth of spruce, which grows to a large size. The
largest he had ever measured was four feet four inches in diameter. A
tree of that kind would carry its trunk well up, clear of branches for
forty or fifty feet. Of course that is an unusual size, but timber three
feet in diameter is common on the hills, and in the lower part of the
bottoms. There is no oak, but there are spruce, birch and poplar. The
poplars grow to a large size. The cottonwood often grows to four feet in
diameter, and the poplar grows to a diameter of two feet.