regardless of its importance in the landscape or to conservation, is without any legal protection, being totally reliant on the goodwill of the owner of the land. And that, quite simply, is the reason why the main evidence that survives to give us a picture of the pre-settlement forests that we have lost forever, are the descriptions that were put down on paper by the early recorders, which have been assembled in this book.

CONCLUSIONS

The records — In the one hundred and fifty years between the British takeover of the island in 1758 and the first decade of the twentieth century, there is an almost continuous flow of documents of many different types that contain information of relevance to the forests of Prince Edward Island. One hundred and seventy-eight such documents, the product of a diverse group of writers and recorders, are included in this sourcebook.955 Though many of the documents may contain only a brief comment on one particular aspect of the forest, at the same time there are several exceptional and extremely useful accounts that make an invaluable contribution to the study. Also, unlike the French period, when almost all of the documents were written by persons in the direct employ of the king of France, most of the documents of the British period are the product of individuals writing in a private capacity, including especially the new landowners and their agents, as well as visitors to the island.

The information the documents contain is wide- ranging, including general comments on the state of the forest; lists of the different tree species (often with comments on each); and descriptions of the forest in general, or of specific areas. There is sometimes also extended ecological comment, especially on the relation between the natural forests and the soils that occurred under them, as well as on the succession of trees that occurred after fire, tree-cutting and farm abandonment. Then, there are many comments on the forest as a source of timber and other products, with sometimes a reference to the extent of forest exploitation at the time of writing; and there are comments on topics such as forest fire, the animals of the forest, and on the forest and trees as landscape elements. Finally, various attitudes

955 In addition to the 172 documents contained in “Part B, The

Extracts", there are the six documents in Appendix 6 of this volume, which came to my attention afterthe printing of Part B.

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and opinions, both positive and negative are expressed on many different aspects of the forest.

The natural forest — It is evident that much of the island was covered by upland hardwood forest

(which also contained some conifers), though there were areas where softwood species predominated, as well as areas that were

designated by the names ’swamps’ and ’barrens’, which frequently also carried a tree cover. By combining information of different sorts from a wide variety of documents we are able to get a relatively clear picture of the variety of trees that occurred in the forest, and some idea of their relative contribution. Thus, in the hardwood forest before settlement, shade-tolerant species predominated (beech, sugar maple and yellow birch), with beech seeming to have made the greatest contribution. However, conifer species predominated especially on the wetter soils in the east and west of the island, with the spruces and the pines receiving the most frequent mention.

Ecological aspects — There are various comments in the records, on ecological aspects of the forest, including: the absence of a shrub layer in the old- growth hardwood forests; the presence in particular forest—types of fallen trees in large numbers; the prevalence in old—growth forest of ”cradle-hills’ with their hummock and hollow pattern; the distinctive nature of the coastal spruce forests; the occasional large-scale damage to the forest due to hurricanes and wind-storms; the food-chain inter-relationships between the various forest mammals; the relationship between soil fertility and moisture levels, and the distribution of the forest-types; and the phenomenon of forest succession after forest fire, timber-cutting and farm abandonment.

Forest clearance — During the British and post- Confederation periods almost all of the area occupied by upland hardwood forest was cleared for farming. The records give some idea of the extent and pattern of forest clearance: it began in the 17705 near the shoreline and estuaries in specific townships, and in the next half century slowly spread along most of the coasts and waterways wherever the land was suitable, as well as pushing inland from the coast. Later, the new lines laid out for roads in the interior parts of the island attracted settlement and clearance, such that by 1860 most of the land suitable for farming had been sub-divided into farms, with the peak of land clearance occurring shortly after 1900. However, because of the need to retain an area on