PAGE 26 ~ NORTHWEST FORESTRY'DIGEST _ JANUARY'1 997

jy  DIDYOU KNOW?

Trivia Tidbits about our Forest Resources

What a headache
The original active ingredient
in aspirin were first found in
the tea made from willow
bark. Late in the nineteenth

century, the active
ingredients were isolated and
synthesized into

acetylsalicylic acid (ASA),
and marketed under the name
"Aspirin."
Nothing to seeze at

A single flower on a birch
tree can have over 5 million
grains of pollen in it.

Forest compass
The chalky white material
found on the bark of an
aspen tree is always most
noticeable on the south side
of the tree,

Get your fix
Alder leaves do not change
before they fall in the
autumn. Alders fertilize the
soil through a process
known as nitrogen-fixation.
All wet

Most leaves are 90 per cent
waler.

Under the skin
One way of telling a white
spruce from a black spruce

is the inner bark. Black
spruce is olive green in
colour and white spruce is
pinkish.

Staying close to shore
The Arbutus is a broad-
level, deciduous tree which
sheds its bark instead of its
leaves. It is seldom found
growing more than 10
kilometers from the Pacific
Ocean.

Give it a roll
To tell the difference
between a fir and a spruce
tree - roll the needles
between your finger and
thumb. Spruce needles will
roll, but fir needles are flat.
Black moon
Common folklore has it
cutting alders in “the black
moon of August" will ensure
thal there will be no
sprouting the following
summer.
Thin skinned
It would take a concrete wall
five feet thick to equal the
insulating quality of just
four inches of wood.
A lot of trees
Canada's forests cover 453

million hectares, almost 50
percent of the country's land
surface.

Joyeux Noel
Balsam fir is widely used as
a Christmas tree because it
retains its leaves longer than
Spruce, and has a beautiful
aroma.

The ring of things
The width of annual growth
rings in trees reflects
variations in climatic
factors, competition with

~ neighbours and health.

Fir worm?
Balsam fir is more
vulnerable to the Spruce
Budworm than white, red or
black spruce.

Mind the mast, laddie
White pine trees in North
America were first reserved
exclusively for use as masts
by the British Royal Navy.
The tall straight trees so
selected were blazed with a
broad arrow to ensure they
were retained for this
purpose, Il was a serious
offense to fell them for any
other purposes.

Canada's first Faculty of
Forestry was started in
1907.

Contrary conifers
Eastern larch (tamarack) and
Western larch are the only
Canadian conifers which
lose their needles in the
winter,

Magic potions
In the world of natural
medicines, the root of
ground hernlock was one of
seven special herbs which
made up the Micmac magic
healing potion.

Forest competition
The forests of Canada are
largely composed of a total
of 31 species of conifers and
over one hundred species of
deciduous trees.

Forest youth group
The Junior Forest Warden
movement began in 1930
when the Canadian Forestry
Association in BC first
organized this youth group.
The first Chief Warden was
Charles Wilkinson.

Beavers got taste buds
Beavers prefer poplar trees;
however, when they are

hungry, they will eal many
other species, including
hardwoods such as beech
and oak.

In the genes
Common tree names may be
traced to: tree habits, eg.
trembling pine; botanists
who identified them, eg.
Douglas fir; products, eg.
sugar maple; or
geographical location, eg.
Manitoba maple.

Seven million toothpicks
A cord of good dry
hardwood is equivalent in
heating value to as much as
250 gallons of fuel oil or
about one ton of anthracite
oil. One cord of wood yields
7,500,000 toothpicks,
61,370 number 10
envelopes, 4,384,000
postage stamps or 89,870
sheets of 8.5 x 11 bond
paper.

Mighty maple
Of the 150 species of maple
in the world, only ten grow
in Canada:

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Phone (250) 845-7740
Fax (250) 845-7564

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P.O, Box 1300
Houston, B.C. VOJ 1Z0