Section Two

The immigration boom on the prairies, that started in the late 1890s and continued up to the eve of World War I in 1914, gave the forest industry its first Canadian export market.

Sawmill at Prince George, 1910
B-00354
During this period the main logging areas in the province were in the south west mainland, southern Vancouver Island, and areas close to the railway lines in the southern interior.

Loggers on the coast, 1926
D-04875
Early logging was hard manual work. Trees were cut down by axe and manual saws and the logs were dragged out of the forest by horses or oxen. At the water's edge the logs were formed into booms and towed to sawmills located along river banks or by the ocean. Mills on the coast were larger and more modern than those in the interior.

Logs on rail cars in the Comox
area of Vancouver Island, 1926
D-04873
Gradually new technology was introduced into the forest industry, especially on the coast where trains were used to haul logs out of the forest and to the mills. This meant that logging was no longer restricted to areas close to water.

Logging train near
Powell River, 1926
D-04907
Logging train near
Powell River, 1926
D-04906


By the 1920s logging trucks had been introduced but were not common for many years. Today the forest industry mainly uses trucks to haul logs to mills and lumber is exported out of the province mostly by ship and train.

Logging operations near Qualicum
on Vancouver Island, 1953
I-28498
The forest industry in the interior expanded into the north slowly, but grew more rapidly after the end of World War II.

The forest industry also includes pulp and paper. The first small pulp mill in the province was in the Alberni Valley on Vancouver Island in the 1860s. Since then the industry has grown to include large mills all over the province that make British Columbia one of the world's largest producers of pulp and paper.

Pulp mill at Port Alberni
in the 1930s
B-08102
Pulp and paper mill at
Ocean Falls on the B.C. coast, 1916
I-47056


Over the years there has been frequent concern in British Columbia about over cutting of trees and destruction of forests. In the early days forests were seldom replanted after the trees were cut. That is no longer true but the controversy continues over how much to cut and how much to leave as untouched forest land.





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