“Not A Paying Business”: The Archival Legacy of the Canadian Forestry Service

D uring their active lives in the files of the agencies or individuals that create them, records undergo many transformations . The amount and qu ality of information in them can be significantl y affected by legal, constitu tion al , pol itical, adm inistrative, and social changes. In particular, the records of an office wh ose mand ate and importance changed frequently are subject to considerable reorganization. This has often resulted in their dispersal, neglect, dam age, and even destruction . To locate , appraise, and conserve such tecords, as well as describe them for researchers, arch ivists find it necessary to reconstruct the history of records. And in order to understand fully the function or individual being studied, researchers must also understand the history of the records they use. This ar ticle then is a contributio n to the history of arch ival sources relating to the development of forestry pol icy in Canada since Confederation (1867). Central to this subject is the administrative evoluti on and consequent archival legacy of the Canadian Forestry Service, whose record s are among the holdings of the National Archives of Canada in Ottawa. The Forest ry Service collection consists of over three hundred linear meters of corre spondence, reports, and inventories, as well as certai n maps an d posters. It is the most important source for the study of federal forest ry policy afte r 1867. The collection is also the best histo rical source for tracing out the relationships between Canadian and U.S. forestry officials, companies, and associations. The historic al information located in the Forestry Service records is supported by a myriad of other archival records created by federal government agencies and other