[1][3][4] The Forestry Corps was created during the First World War when it was discovered that huge quantities of wood were needed for use on the Western Front.

Occasionally, Forestry Corps units were employed as labour units for the Canadian Corps on the front lines with duties such as stockpiling artillery ammunition, assisting in the quick construction of rail and road systems in the wake of attacking troops, or in helping to evacuate the wounded.

Towards the final two years of the war, more and more Canadian soldiers volunteered for the Forestry Corps, as it was viewed by many as a way to serve the country without facing the German Army in direct conflict.

However, the Corps was not without casualties: accidents like those which would occur in a forestry camp in Canada were not uncommon: power saws, machinery and transport all took lives.

War artist Alfred Munnings was invited by the Corps to tour work camps, and he produced drawings, watercolors and paintings, including Draft Horses, Lumber Mill in the Forest of Dreux in France in 1918.

The CFC is largely forgotten today but played an important role in the eventual Allied victory in World War I. Newfoundland did not join Canada until 1949 but was at the time a separate Dominion of the British Empire and had its own wartime forestry unit.