The precolonial 19th century forest of the Upper St. Lawrence Region of Quebec; a record of its exploitation and transformation through notary deeds of wood sales

Abstract

A method based upon the use of wood sales, recorded by notary deeds, was used to describe how the precolonial forest of the Upper St. Lawrence Region of Québec changed during the 19th century. The notary deeds, covering the period of 1800 to 1880, are conserved in the National Archives of Quebec, in Montréal. Wood sales of the different species were compared, for each decade, as well as the fluctuations of volumes sold in relation to price. The results show a succession of species, appearing and disappearing, in the recorded wood sales. The sales began, in the early 1800s, with bur oak (Quercusmacrocarpa Michx.), eastern white cedar (Thujaoccidentalis L.), white pine (Pinusstrobus L.), sugar maple (Acersaccharum Marsh.), yellow birch (Betulaalleghaniensis Britton), and American beech (Fagusgrandifolia Ehrh.). Oak sales reached their highest level in the first decade of the century, but this species was rapidly exhausted and disappeared completely from the market by the end of the 1840s. Similarly, pine was sold mostly during the 1820s. Sugar maple, yellow birch, and beech, sold for firewood during the 1820s and 1830s, were replaced gradually in the following decades by other species also used for firewood, such as black spruce (Piceamariana (Mill.) BSP), tamarack (Larixlaricina (Du Roi) K. Koch), hemlock (Tsugacanadensis (L.) Carrière), "plaine" (a mix of Acerrubrum L. and Acersaccharinum L.), American elm (Ulmusamericana L.), and ash (Fraxinus). The most valuable species were the first exploited for wood sales, and as they were depleted from the forest, they were replaced by others of less value. Throughout the 19th century, under the influence of this harvesting, the composition of the Upper St. Lawrence forest changed to become what it is today.