This final cessation of the destructive policy was the outcome of a campaign which started once more with a forest commission instituted, in 1849, to take stock and make new propositions. This commission reported in 1850, and pointed out not only the necessity of terminating the sawmill privileges, which was done in 1854, giving time till 1860, but also very wisely accentuated the need of technically educated foresters if anything for forest recuperation was to be done.
To meet this latter want, young men were sent to Germany at government expense to study forestry. Some 10 or 12 men were educated in this way during the next decade and thereby the basis for a technical forest management was laid. In 1857, the first two professional foresters, Mejdell and Barth, were placed in charge of affairs under the Interior Department, and when in 1859 a new commission was charged with organizing a forest service, these two men were members. Gradually an organization took shape under the direction of these two forestmeisters, and, finally, in 1863, the modern forest department and forest policy was established by law, placing the State domain and other public forests under an effective management, making provision for the extinction of the ruinous rights of user and also for reducing the mismanagement of private forests.
The forest service, as now constituted after a reorganization in 1906, is in the Department of Agriculture under a director (Skovdirector) and 4 Forstmeister or inspectors with some executive officers under various names, and 360 rangers (skogsvogternes), including the rangers employed in the public forests outside the State domain. The ranges are so large, sometimes several million acres, and many of them so inaccessible that only the most extensive management is possible; the officials being poorly paid and poorly educated, the management is, of course, not of a high order.
Besides a “forest engineer,” who is a public lecturer, the officers of the forest department are under the obligation of advising private forest owners in their management, under contracts somewhat similar to the present practice of the U. S. Forestry Bureau, the owners agreeing to follow the advice.
Since 1860, the State has begun to purchase forest lands for reforestation in the forestless districts and where, for protective reasons, it is desirable. In late years, regular appropriations of $15,000 to $20,000 were annually made for this purpose, besides extraordinary grants. In this way, the cut-over lands, neglected by their owners, are cheaply acquired by the State. Besides its own planting, the State assists private owners by advice and money grants and plantmaterial in reforesting their waste lands.
The communal forests are under government supervision; they are usually worked under plans and under supervision of foresters with a view to supply the needs of the community. Only when the area is more than sufficient may they obtain the right to cut for sale outside of their parish; on the other hand all fellings may be prohibited by the government, if this is found desirable. As regards private property there seems to be little or no supervision, although the law of 1863 had declared Kulturplight and Kulturtvank, i.e., the duty of reforesting, but it had not defined that duty, and the law remained a dead letter.
In 1874, a special commission was charged to consider the forest policy which the public welfare required. The commission reported in 1879 with propositions, which were submitted to the officials of the department and the district. A new proposition was worked out and submitted in 1882, but it was pigeonholed until 1891, when the forest administration brought in not a general law but one merely forbidding the export from Nordland, Tromsoe and Finmarken, the thinly forested northern provinces.
Finally, in 1893, legislation was had enabling municipalities to protect themselves against destruction of forests needed for their protective function. This gives to them the right to formulate rules which are to prevent devastation, as for instance a diameter limit for felling, or reforestation of clearings. But the costs of such restriction must be borne by the municipalities as well as half the cost of inspection, the other half being paid by the State. The procedure to determine the protective quality of forests and the financial difficulty have left the law unused.
In 1878, however, a committee of private owners formed itself, to fix the sand dunes, which with the State subventions started work the following year.