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The Petawawa
Research Experiment Station was established in 1918 when military
authorities asked the Forestry Branch of the federal Department of the
Interior to protect and manage the forest of the Petawawa Military Reserve.
The government saw it as an opportunity to initiate a research program and
to demonstrate applied silviculture that would advance the scientific
foundations of forest management in Canada and abroad.
The 10,000 ha
research area encompasses the northern portion of the Petawawa Military
Reserve through formal agreement with the Department of National Defence.
For more than
75 years the Station, later known as the Petawawa National Forestry
Institute (PNFI), was at the forefront of forestry research in Canada.
It pioneered systematic study in silviculture, forest ecology, fire
research, and tree breeding and genetics. More than 2000 experimental
plots and sites were established and the Station became internationally
recognized as Canada's pre-eminent research forest site. It is truly a
national treasure.
Although in
1996 the research programs being undertaken at PNFI were shut down or moved
to other centres across the country, the Petawawa Research Forest has been
maintained. Its objective is to protect, preserve, and promote the
forest's historical and scientific legacy. It serves as facility for
scientific research by the Canadian Forest Service, provinces and industry.
The PRF also carries out a program to educate forestry personnel and the
public through field demonstrations of forest management principles and
methods.
More
historical information is available in the publication, "75 Years of
Research in the Woods - A History of Petawawa Forest Experimentation Station
and Petawawa National Forestry Institute" by I. C. M. Place.
ISBN 1-894263-54-5. (Available at the Loonsnest Book
Store in Deep River)
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Friends of the Petawawa Research Forest Inc.