Using “All of the Tree but the Smell”: The Building of Eastern Canadian Forestry, 1900-1940

As stronger pressures converged to “open the North”, new technically trained foresters were charged with the task of assessing, on a scientific basis, the value and extent of the wood stocks, and of devising the exploitation practices that would provide for a continuous and steady supply for the industry. This injunction had a tremendous impact both on the development of forestry and on the transformation of the Canadian forest. Broadly informed by the European ideal of a “normal forest” as well as by the notion of “sustained-yield”, eastern Canadian foresters imported forestry practices implemented in the European homelands as well as in their colonies, that contributed to the colonization and the industrial rationalization of the Canadian environment.

Illustration:
General view of Baie Comeau (Quebec) and its paper mill, c.1940 Source : BAnQ Québec, Fonds du Ministère des Terres et Forêts E21 S74 SS2