The Capital's Forest Heritage / Le patrimoine forestier de la capitale

English: , Forestry has sustained Canada , one of the world's largest exporters of forest products , for almost two centuries. Canada’s Capital has its own rich forestry heritage. Imagine the place where you are standing as it was a century ago, piled high with mountains of sawn lumber: this was the centre of the world's largest lumbering complex. The lumber trade began here in 1806, when demand for Canadian timber surged in Britain and the first of the great Ottawa Valley pines were cut, lashed together into rafts and floated downriver to market. By the mid-19th century, lumber was being processed at the Chaudières Falls. The last timber raft (shown here) made the journey in 1904., Hard and Dangerous Work , Throughout the 19th century, a huge seasonal labor force , made up mainly of farmers , poured into the forests to work as lumberjacks. During the winter, they felled the giant pines and dragged them to riverbanks to await spring. When the ice melted, log drivers rolled the timbers into the flood to begin the long journey downstream., Land of Forests , Canada’s position as a world leader in forest products comes with an environmental price tag attached. The need to manage our forests was recognized as early as 1906, when the first Canadian forestry conference debated replanting. Today, industrial tree planting and non-profit organizations like Tree Canada are rebuilding our forests.,