OUR CHANGING WOODLANDS ti’fiitfufliifi 
     
    
   
   
    
     by J. Dan McAskill, Central District Manager, Dept. of Forestry, Beach Grove 
     
    
   
   
    
     Writings by visitors to Prince Edward Island in the 1700 and 1800's describe 
     
     a dense forest composed of beech, sugar maple, yellow birch and occasionally red 
     
     oak, in which white pine, hemlock, white cedar, fir, spruce, larch, birch and 
     
     poplar were mixed and sometimes predominant. This forest was viewed by Islanders 
     
     of the times as both a blessing and a curse. It provided the building material. 
     
     for their homes and at the same time it was their foe in the struggle to grow 
     
     crops. Homesteaders cut and burned the forest to expand the amount of cleared 
     
     land they had available for crops, and these fires often became uncontrolled 
     
     holocausts that destroyed thousands of acres of woodland. One fire alone in 
     
     about 1740, burned the forest along the entire north shore of the province from 
     
     East Point to Bedford Bay, destroying the fishing vessels at both Morell and St. 
     
     Peter‘s in its track. 
     
    

    
     The construction of the schooner 'Betsy' in 1783 by Samuel and Alexander 
     
     Fullerton at Savage Harbour, heralded the beginning of the shipbuilding industry 
     
     on the Island. It expanded to a peak in the mid 1800's and had trickled to a 
     
     virtual standstill by the early 1900's. The harvesting of quality timber for the 
     
     shipbuilding industry and the export of shiploads of squared lumber and masts to 
     
     Britain, completed the virtual eradication of the virgin forest on Prince Edward 
     
     Island. 
     
    

    
     Today the Island has 682,500 acres of forest land which represents 48.1% of 
     
     the Island's total area. It is composed of 35% softwood (i.e. woods with greater 
     
     than 75% conifer trees), 35 % mixed wood, and 30 % hardwood (i.e. woods with 
     
     greater than 75% deciduous trees). The principal tree and shrub species are 
     
     white spruce, red maple, balsam fir, sugar maple, beech, black spruce, white 
     
     birch, pin cherry, trembling aspen, large—tooth aspen, alder and serviceberry. 
     
     Species that may be listed as uncommon to rare include ash, red spruce, hemlock, 
     
     ironwood and red oak. Species identification can be undertaken throughout the 
     
     year using leaf, bud and/or bark characteristics. Table 1. gives a list of keys 
     
     which are available and some pertinent information on the features which I find 
     
     either distract or enhance their usefulness. 
     
    

    
     The Department of Energy and Forestry provides a number of programs for 
     
     assisting private woodlot owners in the province. Principal among these is the 
     
     Noodlot Incentive Program which provides financial incentives to assist woodlot 
     
     owners in activities such as thinning, site preparation, reforestation, plantation 
     
     maintenance, boundary line establishment, road building and bridge construction. 
     
     woodlot owners with 10 or more acres of woodland are eligible for portions or all 
     
     of this program, depending on the exact size of their woodlot. This program 
     
     allows the owner to specify the objectives he or she wishes to follow in managing 
     
     the woodlot, and these include wildlife, recreational and/or aesthetic enhancement. 
     
     Other programs and services offered by the Department include reforestation, 
     
     seedling supply, forest fire control, forest extension, insect and disease 
     
     identification and the provision of market and inventory information. If you are 
     
     interested in any of these programs contact your District Forestry Office at 
     
     Beach Grove, (892-2055), Southampton, (961—2172) or Wellington, (854-2155). 
     
    
   
   
    
     During a recent talk to the Natural History Society I displayed a number of 
     
     identification guides which are useful in identifying the majority of the trees 
     
     and shrubs encountered on Prince Edward Island. The following list 15 by no means 
     
     complete but it will provide you with some basic information on the gu1des With 
     
     which I am familiar. My comments as to the particular features of each are 
     
     subjective. 
     
    
   
   
    
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