CHECKING TIMBER FIRES

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 675, 29 May 1929, Page 13

CHECKING TIMBER FIRES

GREAT WORK IN ONTARIO /ONTARIO'S battle against timber destruction by fire is being effectively fought from the air. At one time the district foresters and fire inspectors spent many weary days peneti-ating remote areas in Northern Ontario’s 160,000 square miles of timber, the only method of transport being canoeing with long portages between lakes. But now it is possible by means of aircraft to cover a whole district in a few hours. Planes patrol daily over country heavily wooded, mountainous and lacking landing space.

Straight transportation work in the Ontario Government Air Service has been subsidiary to observation and has been undertaken only when facilities other than the airplane were lacking. The demand, for airplane observation arose from the natural conditions existing in the province after the armistice. Foresters and land surveyors had watched the progressive growth iu capacity and efficiency of aircraft during the war, and, as much of their work lay in the remoter parts of the province where transportation facilities were poor or non-existent, they were fully alive to the possibilities aircraft held of increasing the efficiency of various services.

In the more highly organised forest districts, aircraft are now regarded as a valuable supplement to the ground forces, increasing fire-fightiog efficiency by providing an improved method of fire detection. The usefulness of the plane is greatest in the remote areas where population is sparse and the ground forces cannot be fully organised. The principal obstacle thus far in the extension of forest fire protection by aircraft is the high cost of flying. Under practical service conditions in some parts of Ontario, however, cost of fire protection by air is said to be amply justified because a highly organised ground force would not be possible, and the alternative to protection by air is at best, an imperfect system of canoe patrols. Northern Ontario, or' that part of it in the Province lying west and north of Lake Nipissing, and the French River—an area of about 800 miles from east to west and 400 miles from north to south—is suited to the operation of flying boats and seaplanes. Lakes and rivers abound. Flying is playing a great part each year in exploration and development. Foresters, mining engineers, prospectors, surveyors and explorers now use aircraft naturally as a means of travel and observation where there are no roads or railways.

The Ontario Government Air Service was organised in the spring of 1924. In its four operating seasons up to and including 1927 it endeavoured to demonstrate the value of aircraft in the protection and conservation of Ontario’s forest wealth and the preparation of forest inventories. Despite the rapid increase and growth of the flying done by the Provincial Air Service each season, the uses to which flying has been put by the service have remained fairly constant, so that it is still possible to place most of the flying in two general classes —forest protection and forest survey.

Fire detection patrols are carried out in accordance with the instructions of the district foresters. With few exceptions the entire forest area has been periodically patrolled in all seasons of fire hazard. Statistical reports of the years 1925, 1926 and 1927 show that approximately 60 per cent, of the total time has been flown on fire protection.