Cascara Tree Disappearing

For many years I have been watching what has been going on in regard to the Cascara tree in British Columbia. Several years ago, during the war, I took up with the Dominion Government the subject of conservation of our Cascara resources, pointing out that as other parts of the Empire were working to secure an Imperial supply of Cinchona Bark to furnish Quinine for the medicinal requirements of the British people, so we in Canada – British Columbia in particular, - should work to ensure an Imperial supply of Cascara bark to furnish the Empire with its requirements of the valuable medicine derived from it. The Dominion Government authorities were sympathetic and expressed the opinion that as this tree was limited to certain parts of B.C. it really came under the jurisdiction of the Provincial Department of Forestry. They expressed the wish, however, to share in helping the rank and file of the people to know how the bark may be collected so that we may not exterminate the trees while collecting the bark, and I was asked to write up the material for the Dominion Government to publish. This has been issued, as many of you know, as an illustrated circular by the Forest Branch, Ottawa.

Owing to the increasing scarcity through the depletion of the Cascara tree in the States, numerous agents of American firms have been extremely active this year in trying to secure as much as possible of the B.C. Cascara; so active have they been that it looks to me as if they were trying to secure a corner on Cascara. An extra special effort has been made in the States to the south of us to make a clean up there by sending gangs into the more remote districts to secure all the Cascara supplies available. The result was to cause a halt in the rise in price of bark – at least for the time being – so that this year’s supply from B.C. may be had at a lower price, and as the bark can be stored for several years, it can be released when the price is high. If the American firms secure our B.C. supplies the British people may have to buy it back at a higher price.

I would like to see British Columbia in a position to furnish more of the Empire’s commodities than we are doing; and seeing that this tree is native to B.C. we should endeavour to maintain our hold on this essential commodity, by regulating its export outside the Empire, encouraging its growth over greater areas of the Province ensuring an annual revenue from this source, and establishing the foundation for drug industries here with the accompanying prospects of drug farming, to assist or take the place of other branches of framing where crops are found unprofitable. Many farmers here, grasping at last straws, are eager to try raising medicinal plants as is done in some parts of the States and in many parts of Europe. The future prospects of drug farming here are closely bound up with our retaining our position as the main source of the Cascara tree, in other words they will centre around the Cascara industry. If the Cascara tree becomes extinct in B.C. it means farewell to our prospects of drug farming and all the prosperity it may mean to succeeding generations. With the present apathy and lack of foresight on the part of the Provincial Forestry Branch, and at the present rate of cutting, our Cascara supplies are rapidly nearing an end.

Government aid may establish farms to raise pheasants to be shot by sportsmen but when it is suggested that a beginning should be made on a small scale to ensure an increase of Cascara trees to encourage new industries, the suggestion is turned down coldly with a reply to the effect that “we are not interested.”

It seems to me, therefore, that it is our duty as a Natural History Society to do our part in educating the community to the fact that the Conservation of Plant life in B.C. is of vital importance to the future of the Province, that conservation is a profitable investment, and that it is really dangerous to neglect it, or close our eyes to the wanton waste of our resources which may be seen all around us if we only wake up, and observe the hand writing on the wall.

This appeal need not be confined to the people of Vancouver, it is of Provincial and Dominion wide importance to be temperate in all things. Let me repeat, it is idle to use extravagant words of denunciation of any Government or Official, no doubt all are doing their best according to their Light; we regret that some have so little Light. I charge you then as fellow members interested in this subject to shed more Light throughout the community. I would like those of you who are engaged as teachers to discuss these matters in your nature study and Arbor day talks. Those of you who are parents should take every opportunity of showing your children what is being done, so that the next generation may elect or appoint more enlightened representatives than the present generation has done; and above all, though nothing can be gained by expressing contempt for, or denouncing those engaged in this work, let us cease to praise “the gods of gold, of silver and of wood,” and praise men, like Mr. Woodward, who take a firm stand for the rights of the community to secure an abundant and reliable supply of the most necessary element of life.

Let each of our 800 members act as broadcasting agencies on behalf of the Conservation idea, so that we may not be “Weighed in the balances and found wanting.”

WANTING, A forest supply.
WANTING, A water supply
WANTING, The basic requirements for the future success and prosperity of British Columbia in general, and Vancouver in particular.

Additional copies of this address may be had at a nominal sum (Five cents each) from MURPHY & CHAPMAN, Printers, Seymour Street, Vancouver; or the Society’s Librarian, Mr. J.D. Turnbull, c/o TURNBULL Bros., 325 Howe Street, Vancouver, B.C.