Second Conference – 1923, Canada

After a lapse of only three years, the next Conference was convened in Canada, and met in Ottawa on 25^th July, 1923. Lord Lovat was again the chairman, and there was a very wide and representative membership from most Commonwealth lands. Canadian participation was very strong, with delegates from no less than fifty-two national or provincial governments, departments, associations and universities that held an interest in forestry or the timber trade.

Three resolutions that were to prove of lasting significance were passed. One concerned a “central institution” for forestry education, which led to the foundation of the Commonwealth Forestry Institute at Oxford. Another pledged support to the Commonwealth Forestry Association, which was just beginning to play a real part in promoting communications between the many scattered forest services. The third was aimed at promoting research into forest products and their use in industry, and led to stronger support for the Forest Products Research Laboratory at Princes Risborough in England – now run by the Ministry of Technology – and also to the very much larger Canadian timber research organisation centred on Ottawa.

The first group of tours undertaken by the delegates was to forests in the eastern provinces of Ontario, Quebec, Montreal and New Brunswick. Later the party travelled westwards by trans-continental train, to review forest nurseries and afforestation projects in the prairie provinces. Then, in the Rocky Mountains, they saw the incomparable landscapes of conifer forests, lakes, peaks and glaciers in the Jasper Park and the Rocky Mountain Park. Next they went on to Vancouver Island, to review the magnificent stands of Douglas fir and Sitka spruce, and the enormous complex of timber using industries that draw upon them for raw materials. The final sessions of the Conference were held in Victoria, British Columbia, during the first week of September.

Excerpt from:
Commonwealth Forestry Conferences: 1920 to 1962
H.L. Edlin
The Commonwealth Forestry Review
Vol 46, No 3 (129) (September, 1967), pp 192-200 (10 pages) Published by the Commonwealth Forestry Association