A Brief History of Forestry. / In Europe, the United States and Other Countries

by B. E. Fernow

At this time, under the influence of a German “forest expert,” Fokel, the increase of forest area by sowing oak, etc., in the poorly wooded districts, was also inaugurated; and this planting was made obligatory, not only on the administration of crown forests, but also upon private owners, who in case of default were to lose their land and have it reforested by the forest administration. To Fokel’s initiative is also to be credited the celebrated larch forest on the Gulf of Finland.

These restrictions of private rights and the tutelage exercised by the forest administration were abolished in toto by Catherine II, in 1788, and although it was reported by the admiralty, concerned in the supply of shipbuilding materials, that as a consequence the cutting, especially of oak timber, was proceeding rapidly, no new restrictive, but rather an ameliorative policy was attempted, such as, for instance, the offering of prizes for plantations in certain localities by the provincial governors.

Upon the abolishment of the serfdom of the peasants, under Alexander II, in 1863, lands, both farm and woodlands, were allotted to them, and in this partition, in some parts as much as 25 to 50% of this forest property was handed over to them. Immediately a general slaughtering, both by peasants and by the private owners, who had suffered by losing the services of the serfs, was inaugurated, leading to wholesale devastation.

Servitudes or rights of user also prevailed in some districts and proved extremely destructive.

By 1864, complaints in regard to forest devastation had become so frequent that a movement for reform was begun by the Czar, which led to the promulgation of a law in 1867, followed by a number of others during the next decade, designed to remedy the evils. This was to be done by restricting the acreage that might be felled, by forbidding clearings, and by giving premiums for good management and plantations. Finally, in 1875, a special commission was charged with the elaboration of a general order which, after years of hearing of testimony and of deliberation, was promulgated in 1888, a comprehensive law for the conservation of forests, private and otherwise, which in many respects resembles the French, in other respects the Swedish conservation laws.

The devastation and its evil consequences on waterflow and soil conditions had been especially felt in the southern districts adjoining the steppe, and these experiences were the immediate cause for the enactment of the law, which, however, was framed to apply conditionally to the entire European Russia.

The law makes an interesting distinction between “protective,” “protected” and non-protective, or unprotected forests, as well as between different ownership classes, and it makes distinction of four regions as to the extent of its application. In the far northern governments, densely forested (60%) and thinly populated, only the protective forests are under the operations of the law. In the Caucasus also, none of the restrictions of private property except in protective and communal peasant forests are to apply, perhaps because the forest area (averaging not over 17%) is there largely owned by members of the imperial house and by nobles. In certain districts adjoining the northern zone (with 37% forest) also only the last two classes of forest, namely protective and communal properties, with institute forests added, are subject to the provisions of the law. The rest, a territory of over one million square miles with only 12% in forest, is subject to all the provisions of the law, which is remarkably democratic in treating State, imperial and private forests alike.

This law declares as “protective forests,” to be managed under special plans prescribed by the Crown forest department, those forest areas which protect shifting sands and dunes, the shores of rivers, canals and other waters; and those on the slopes of mountains, where they serve to prevent erosion, landslides and avalanches.

Conversion of these protective forests to farm use is forbidden, and the use of a clearing system in forest management, as well as pasturage and other uses supposed to be detrimental, may be interdicted, and the method of management may be prescribed. An instruction regarding the execution of the law promulgated in 1889 prohibited clear cutting in conifer forests, permitting only selection forest, and in especially endangered localities only the use of the dry wood and such trees as interfere with natural reproduction.