Forest Prairie Edge

by Merle Massie

  The fact that Little Red River Reserve was so far away from its two parent reserves created an administrative dilemma. It was difficult to decide whom to ask for a surrender, who had authority, and who had the right to make decisions. The timber was advertised and sold by tender in the summer of 1904 to I.G. Turpiff of Canada Territories Corporation Limited.57 Almost immediately, a letter arrived from Reverend James Hines of Prince Albert at the Indian Commissioner’s Office in Winnipeg. The letter indicated that the men living on the reserve in question, the New Reserve, “strongly object to all their timber being sold from them.” Those who signed the timber surrender, the letter noted, “are living 60 miles north and have plenty of timber there.” Those on the reserve did not object to selling some of the timber for cash, recognizing its proximity to the timber limits being worked all around the reserve, but they wanted to make sure that some of the bluffs were kept for their own use.58

  The letter from Reverend Hines indicated the difficulty under which all parties were operating. By this point, there were two surrenders taken for this wood, one from Montreal Lake and one from men located on the New Reserve. Clearly, though, there were divisions within the New Reserve as well as between the two northern settlements and the one southern settlement. The Indian Department, however, was operating on the legal strength of the two surrenders, and the timber was sold. The sale led to the second major problem: the New Reserve was co-owned by both the Montreal Lake and the Lac La Ronge bands. In January 1905, a letter arrived from the Lac La Ronge band expressing their concern over how the wood surrender had been handled, since they were also owners of the New Reserve.59 Although the response was that, indeed, the Lac La Ronge band was entirely correct in this assertion, “it was not deemed necessary to confer with them on the question of surrender of timber as they reside at a great distance from the Reserve…, although they are entitled to their equitable share of the proceeds of the timber and will receive it at the proper time.”60 The proceeds of the down payment on the timber berth were split between the two bands. The company that won the contract, however, was slow to hand over the capital. When it finally did, the sum was placed in trust solely for use of the Montreal Lake band. The trust amounted to over $5,000, and the interest was expended in purchasing supplies for the Montreal Lake band beyond those agreed to by treaty.61 It was only in 1910, after a lengthy investigation into the surrender and sale of the timber and the disposal of funds, that the trust was redistributed to the credit of the Lac La Ronge band.62

  The timber on Little Red River Reserve, because of its proximity to transportation, mills, and a market, was correspondingly much more valuable than any similar stands of timber found on the Montreal Lake home reserve or at La Ronge. Correspondence indicated, however, that only a portion of Little Red contained merchantable white spruce saw timber. The rest of the reserve, chosen for its agricultural capability, had open hay lands and stands of brush and aspen—it had been logged, in fact, long before it became a reserve.63 The controversial timber limit on the New Reserve was neither large nor lucrative, at least according to official documents. The original bidder neglected to pay the rest of the tender price and never logged the timber. The Sturgeon Lake Lumber Company took over the contract. It tried unsuccessfully to renegotiate the original tender, arguing that it was unfair to pay ground rent on the whole reserve—56.8 square miles—when there was merchantable timber on only a small portion of that area, about three square miles. The company by this time was under considerable scrutiny from the Indian Department regarding its logging on Sturgeon Lake Reserve No. 101, for which it had not paid its dues or cut payments. The Indian Department was reluctant to renew the timber berth contract for Little Red when the company was obviously tardy in paying dues, rent, ground fees, and payment on the cut from Sturgeon Lake. The company protested, saying that it still had about a million board feet of timber to log out at Little Red. The company paid the remaining dues but only after many threatening letters from the Forestry Department. It soon rescinded the logging request. By 1909, the Sturgeon Lake Lumber Company had logged only a portion of the available timber. Of the original estimated 2.5 million board feet, it cut 1.5 million. Its timber licence was not renewed.64

  In ensuing years, the men of Little Red River Reserve logged the area themselves and cut the logs using a mill owned by the Indian Department.65 There was concern from the Forestry Department inspector that the band was leaving behind too much debris and slash and in general using wasteful practices. The Indian Department investigated and disputed these concerns, claiming that, since it was sponsoring the logging and milling, it would ask the band to oversee and minimize any potential fire hazard or other problem. The Forestry Department reminded the Indian Department that “no lumbering operations have been authorized by the Department since April 30th 1909 when the license of the Sturgeon Lake Lumber Co expired. You should report fully as to who actually cut timber since that time, for what purpose, whether for sale or building, to whom it was sold and the kinds and quantities of timber removed. You should particularly investigate any evidence that would tend to place the onus of these operations on trespassers.” The reply from Silas Milligan, the Indian agent for the band, said that “none of this timber was cut by tresspassers, as the Montreal Lake overseer, Engineer, and Sawyer superintended the whole of the operations, none of the material has been sold, as it was cut simply for the use and benefit of the Montreal Lake Band.” Milligan had written to the mill operators, giving instructions about debris and danger, “but the heavy snow experienced during the early part of the winter put a stop to the work. No doubt when the Spring arrives a further effort will be made by this Band to safeguard the Government Lands in the vicinity of the reserve.” Little more exists in the file, but this perspective contradicts the oral memory of Little Red residents, who record extensive non–First Nations timber cutting that was never paid.66

  The timber dispute, and the subsequent fight over the trust funds, set the stage for division. Little Red River Reserve was informally split. The Lac La Ronge band was accorded a much larger share of the reserve since they had not yet chosen all their treaty land entitlement in and around La Ronge; moreover, at the time of the treaty in 1889, they were a much larger band and had a larger treaty land entitlement. The Montreal Lake band was accorded nine out of the roughly fifty-six square miles, the Lac La Ronge band the remaining forty-seven.67 Confusion over who owned what proportion of the timber (until the land was informally split), investigation of how much timber was actually logged and paid for when and by whom, and the debate over which band (Montreal Lake or Lac La Ronge) owned which parts of the reserve will complicate the current court case. The situation on Little Red River Reserve was not the same as that on Sturgeon Lake Reserve, even though the two reserves were situated in or near the same wood basket. Landscape and tree cover, regional logging prior to creating the reserve, ownership, payment, and actual logging are subject to conflicting interpretations.

  Regardless of current court disputes, both the oral history and the contemporary documentation pointed to a mixed use of Little Red River Reserve. Although set aside as a farming reserve, its situation in and near the merchantable timber basket of the north Prince Albert region led primarily to continuing timber resource exploitation by both non-band and band members. Local residents of the reserve took cash employment in the nearby lumber industry. They also began to cultivate grains and gardens, raise cattle, and exploit the reserve’s hay meadows, thereby taking economic advantage of local opportunities at the lumber camps.

  Logging and the Environment

  There was an almost wanton disregard for the environmental impacts of the logging industry. Cutting trees and bringing them to market abused and reshaped the entire north Prince Albert landscape. The Spruce/Little Red River was small and could not reliably handle log volumes. To compensate, the Prince Albert Lumber Company cut all the trees along the riverbank and built a series of dams to control water flow.
This intervention culminated in damming Beartrap Lake (now in Prince Albert National Park) and building a canal southward to move its water into the Spruce/Little Red River system to flow south to the mills at Prince Albert—an environmental intervention with major implications for the local landscape.68

  Millions of board feet of logs caused extensive damage to each river, from killing fish to altering its course. The dams changed not only the ebb and flow of the rivers but also their ability to handle rain and runoff. Extensive environmental intervention had a local effect on drainage throughout the region. Cutting trees on either side of a river led to slumping and excessive mud, actually exacerbating the problems of river drivers as well as those who had taken up homesteads along the rivers. Homesteaders in the Alingly district, opened for settlement during the height of the lumber industry after 1906, struggled to bridge the river effectively to allow travel within the district and kids to attend school. A 1916 newspaper report expressed local concerns: “J. Andrist has voluntarily built about 100 yards of trestle foot bridging over the back water on either side of the Little Red River. He did this to allow nine children on the west side of the river to get to school. Violet Smith, aged 6 years, however, fell off the trestling into the water on Monday last, but was rescued by the elder children. Mr. Andrist reports that the Centreville bridge is not safe and will require immediate attention after the log driving is over and the water goes down on either side of the bridge.”69

  There was correspondingly less logging along the Garden River (then known as Sucker Creek). The mouth of this river emptied several miles downstream from the mills at Prince Albert. Logs sent down this small river had to be collected in a “boom” and towed by steamboat up the river against the current and through a long stretch of rough water, rocks, and shoals to the sawmills. Often rocks or stray logs or other debris floating downriver would strike the boom. If it broke, logs would quickly float downstream past the forks and become irretrievable. As a result, the Garden River never suffered the environmental damage of the other two rivers.

  While responsible for producing large-scale changes to the local environment, the lumber industry was also at the mercy of local environmental conditions. The size and situation of a timber limit, spring water levels in rivers, winter snowfall, droughts, and forest fires all had varying effects, some of them significant. The severe cold and snowstorms of 1906–07 had an impact on the winter cut since conditions were too dangerous for horses and men to operate in the bush. As a consequence, 1907 saw reduced mill throughput and a shorter milling season. Lumber camps had to be moved farther away from town as berths were logged out, necessitating more expense in freighting goods to the camps and finding efficient transportation (horse, steam engine, or river) to bring the logs or finished products back to Prince Albert.

  The two most important environmental conditions that had severe impacts on the local lumber industry were water and fire. Lumberjack Allan Kennedy recalled that through the years several lumber companies got into serious financial trouble when they could not bring their logs down. In 1910, a very dry winter meant low water levels in the spring. The log drive was unsuccessful since the logs became “hung up” and would not come down the river. When the logs got hung up, some could be salvaged and brought to town with horses, but salvage freighting was a labour-intensive activity and depended on both the state of trails/roads and the capacity of bridges to take large loads. In most cases, the summer road system could not handle this kind of capacity.70 As a result, logs were left to rot, though locals were happy to salvage them for their own purposes.71

  White spruce is an old-growth tree that requires specific conditions to flourish. Unless a large area of fully mature white spruce was left unlogged, to offer a seed source for new growth, the species could not regenerate efficiently. The debris left from extensive logging, combined with the flammable nature of forest litter in aspen stands, led to forest fires within the area. Homesteaders placed increased pressure on the landscape. Escaped fires from brush clearing on the homesteads raged through the region. The combination of logging, agricultural settlement, and fire was nearly catastrophic: white spruce was virtually eliminated from the forest canopy.72 Although the boreal forest is a fire-dependent regime and fire is a necessary part of the forest regeneration cycle, extensive forestry intensified the effects of fires. Logging virtually eliminated mature white spruce capable of producing cones, and the extensive tree litter prohibited cone regeneration. The impacts of fierce ground and canopy fires resulted in a local transition from primarily mixedwood forest to a canopy dominated by aspen, burnt brush, and open meadows.

  The changeover to aspen/poplar in the north Prince Albert region encouraged both the rise of mixed farming after 1906 and the growth of the cordwood industry in the 1920s. As agricultural settlers moved north of the river, following the logging roads first to the area near the Shell River (Shellbrook) and later into the Buckland, Alingly, Deer Ridge, and Henribourg districts north of the Sand Hills, they found less mixedwood forest and more rank aspen growth and extensive brush on the cut-over and burned-over lands. Those who took land in the Garden River region, which experienced little commercial logging but some forest fires, found somewhat more mixedwood forest, which included both white and black spruce and pine on sandy soils in addition to aspen and birch on burnt-over land. The Paddockwood history book records that the first settlers in the region found that “the country was heavily wooded, mostly white and black poplar with the odd spruce bluff, all green timber.”73 However, it seems likely that the region had experienced forest fire activity, owing to the predominance of poplar (aspen), but those burns might have been as many as thirty years or more before major settlement. Of course, forest fires are erratic and do not burn evenly or absolutely, resulting in a forest mix between complete devastation and substantial green areas.

  The Sturgeon River Forest Reserve

  The federal government regulated the lumber industry through its Dominion Lands Act, but in 1914 it added a new layer of administrative control in the north Prince Albert region. As homesteaders agitated for more surveyed land, increased political and economic pressure from the agricultural sector led to heated debates among settlers, Prince Albert businessmen, and the dominion government regarding land in the region. Was it best suited to the timber industry or farming? Intensive homestead pressure sent the Department of the Interior scrambling to find arable farmland. Reports regarding extensive environmental damage from the lumber industry were also disconcerting. Dominion land surveyor C.H. Morse was sent in 1912 to assess the landscape and the logging industry and to make a report. His commission was to view the region with an eye to creating a national forestry reserve, which would divide the landscape.74 Land with timber suitable for the lumber industry or soil not suitable for farming was withdrawn from settlement. The Sturgeon River Forest Reserve, on land west of the third meridian and east of the Sturgeon River, between Townships 53 and 57, was set aside.75

  Designation as a forest reserve had little impact on the ongoing lumber industry—there were fourteen timber berths operating within its borders, all but one controlled by the Prince Albert Lumber Company. In fact, historian Bill Waiser suggested that the lumber company “acted as if the region was now its own special preserve.”76 Wartime demand doubled the annual cut. At the same time, though, the dominion government, through its forestry reserve inspectors, increased its control. The dominion conducted audits and issued orders for restitution if the number of logs reported cut did not match the number reported at the millsite (with shrinkage allowed for fires or logs lost on the river drive). Overall, creating the Sturgeon River Forest Reserve signalled a significant change toward resource management and fire control. For homesteaders, it placed legal limitations on the landscape and narrowed agricultural expansion.77

  Map 7. Sturgeon River Forest Reserve, c. 1925.

  Source: Waiser, Saskatchewan’s Playground, 23. Used with permission.

>   End of the Early Commercial Logging Industry

  Prince Albert’s logging industry continued through the First World War despite supply and manpower shortages. Lumber was considered essential to the war effort. In the spring of 1916, as the lumber camps were breaking up for the season, the federal government created the 224th Canadian Forestry Battalion. It actively recruited in Prince Albert to take experienced loggers and lumbermen overseas to Britain and France to help cut timber and saw lumber for the war effort. This was a volunteer effort and was ultimately successful. Men could volunteer for duty but not at the front; their work was considered specialized.78 Prince Albert National Park historian James Shortt commented that the Great War gave the Prince Albert Lumber Company its most productive years, when it logged 124.47 square miles within what became park area, with a series of camps near Shoal Creek and Stump Lake.79 Toward war’s end, however, demand for lumber slackened. Constrained by the wartime slump in residential and commercial building, the lumber companies faced a combination of problems: rising transportation costs, manpower shortages, and falling prices. Although an astonishing 520,000 logs were sent downriver from the Prince Albert Lumber Company’s logging camps in the Sturgeon River Forest Reserve in the spring of 1917–18, over 25,000 logs were never removed. The company suspended local operations in October 1918. Those logs, along with the slash and debris from the entire cut, were left to rot or be salvaged by local homesteaders.80