Evolution! Does this denote progress? There is every reason to question this. After a career going back to the 50's I have to wonder. At least I can be thankful for a half century of memories.

In that time frame governments have evolved. The old Department of Lands and Forests (currently the Ministry of Natural Resources) actively accomplished much. Foresters, being members of a long term profession, have a great deal to show off today of which they can be justifiably proud. Our 10 provincial nurseries are gone but county forest plantations remain. Thousands of acres of young forests exist in the north, a memento to the dedication of foresters, technicians and hundreds of workers of a bygone era.

Among my experiences in northern Ontario were years of plus tree selections as part of the provinces' tree improvement program. One role in Geraldton was finding unusual sources of trees, selecting the best and collecting scions (twigs of current year's foliage) to be grafted to young nursery stock and planted out as seed orchards.

I particularly enjoyed visiting isolated stands of conifers mostly beyond their natural range as a basis for future planting stock in the district.

The first challenge was preservation of the scattered white pine trees along the route of a new Trans-Canada pipeline My section of the line, through Macdiarmid, involved trees near highway #11 north of Nipigon. As the line was cleared these were cut, young foliage from the top removed and shipped to Angus for grafting.

The second memory was a red pine program. The Geraldton district was at the northern extreme for the species. One stand was adjacent to highway #ll at Pijitiwabic Bay, an arm of Orient Bay of Lake Nipigon, south of Macdiarmid.

Two other isolated stands farther north were of particular interest. My friend Harold Cumming and I found the one on the shore of Beatty Lake while on a canoe trip, portaging from a lake adjacent to the Auden Road. The other was on the shoreline of Fleming lake south of Nakina which could only be visited by float-plane.

In each case foliage from the upper crown of selected trees was collected, shot off with high-powered shells. The one stand was easily accessed from the highway but the other two were reached by ski mounted aircraft when the lakes were frozen. Each visit was an escapade in itself.

A stand of white spruce was selected near Pagwa adjacent to Highway #11 about 50 miles east of Longlac. These were especially tall, narrow crowed trees, the tallest being 129 feet. This was a stand regenerated as a seed production area and thinned out accordingly.

The selected trees, mostly in the 100 foot range, were climbed and scions collected near the top. The area, cleaned out in 1960, is now stocked with 40 foot trees available for improved seed collection in the Geraldton District.

The significant feature of these memories was the fact that government officials were developing future forests.

Much of this was exploratory in nature. The greater accomplishment was establishment of new young forests, monuments to their work. The province was directly involved with creation of a resource for the future, a contribution to a new prosperity with a promise of continuing employment.

The current so-called progress in these troubled times lies in the sale or abandonment of provincial nurseries. Regeneration in the north is left to the forest industries with varying degrees of success.

Provincial planting is a thing of the past while Ministry of Natural Resources offices have largely been closed. The complement of foresters and technicians has been reduced to a minimum of pencilpushers in the few remaining government offices. It will be interesting to evaluate the status of forests on crown lands of northern Ontario under this modern regime.

For now one can express pride in the county forests here in southern Ontario though it is unfortunate that the large area of marginal lands which could be producing revenue for the provincial economy remains in low productivity, a loss in future benefits for our grandchildren as well as improved environments for us all.