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

by B. E. Fernow

Towards the end of the ninth century, special forest officers, forestarii, are mentioned in Charlemagne’s celebrated capitularium, which describes in detail the administration of the public domains. These were, to be sure, only lower rank officials, working under mayors, intendants and the count (comes), who was the administrator and soon independent arbiter of the royal domain as well as of the administration of justice in general. His office early became hereditary.

The first mention of “forest masters” (maîtres des eaux et forêts) dates back to 1291, and later ordinances mention higher officials. But the credit for a full and detail organization and regulation of management belongs to Charles V, the wise Valois, in his ordinance of 1376. This organization, after various changes, by the end of the 16th century, under the reign of Henry IV, took about the following form:

Under a general superintendent of forests, titulary head of the forest service, a number of grands maîtres, généraux réformateurs des eaux et forêts, some 17, were appointed by the King to watch over the conduct of the maîtres and gruyers, officers in charge of the forest districts (maîtrises). All of these officials had their deputies and lieutenants under various designations (procureur du roi, greffier, gardemarteau, sergent du garde, etc.)

A stamping hammer (kept by the gardemarteau) was employed for marking trees which defined the boundaries, or which were to be reserved in the fellings. In addition to these regular officers there were employed a great number of capitaines des chasses whose functions, as the title indicates, related mainly to the chase. The function of the forestmasters did not stop with the supervision of the use of the forest and sale of wood, but included also the jurisdiction of all misdemeanors and crimes committed in the royal, and later, in all forests. They became thus gradually a privileged class of immense power. Graft and sale of offices became the order of the day. Sometimes the offices were made hereditary, and again were limited to three or four years’ tenure, in the endeavour to break up the shameful practices. For nearly three centuries all efforts at reform were failures.

The method of prescribing the rules and regulations during the 12th to 17th century was by ordinances like those issued by the German princes; the first ordinance on record being that issued by Louis VI in 1215. These ordinances usually appeared under the name Le fait des eaux et forêts (the matters of waters and woods), curiously enough thus suggesting the relation of the two. The latter term was used exactly like that of the German Forst, designating the reserved territory under the ban, while bois is used to designate actual woodland (silva).

In 1376, Charles V, in his endeavor to build up a navy against England, made reservations for naval timber and also issued the ordinance of Melun, a general forest code, the provisions of which lasted largely until the reform of 1669. In 1402, the many ordinances, often contradictory were codified under one text, and another codification was made under Francis I in 1515.

By the middle of the 17th century the devastation of forests had progressed so far, and the abuses in the management of the royal domain had become so evident that Louis XIV’s great minister, Colbert, was induced to make the historical remark “France will perish for lack of woods.” Again the needs of the navy was the prime incentive of the vigorous reform which he instituted after a most searching investigation. The result was the celebrated forest ordinance of 1669. For this purpose he appointed, in 1662, a commission which not only investigated conditions but was clothed with power to reform the abuses which it might discover. For this work he selected four trusted men outside of the forest service, to whom later more were added, and gave them the aid of technical advisers, among whom Froudoir seems to have been most prominent. Colbert himself gave close attention to this work of reform. As the first act, the commission recommended the ceasing of all cutting in the royal forests, and, after deliberation and consultation with interested parties through eight years, the final law was enacted, a masterpiece whose principles and prescriptions to an extent have persisted into the 19th century. The commission from time to time made reports, giving their findings in detail, and these form a most interesting record of conditions prevailing at that time. As one of the historians (Joubain) puts it, “the commissioners did not recoil before long hours of inspection nor high influence, they neither hesitated to declare against, nor prosecute, great and small alike, nor to pronounce a most serious sentence.” A thorough cleaning up was done and a complete reorganization secured.

By this ordinance, three special courts of adjudication in matters pertaining to the forests were established, with special officers whose duties were carefully defined, namely the courts of the Gruries, of the Maîtrises and the Tables de Marbre. The first named, lower grade courts took cognizance of the lesser offences, abuses, wastes and malversations, disputes in regard to fishing or chase, and murders arising out of these; gruries being the woods belonging to individuals in which the jurisdiction and the profit from such jurisdiction belonged to the king, or at least to the seigneurs. The courts of the maîtrise referred to the forest territory placed under administration of the maîtres particuliers (Forstmeister), and were established near the many royal forests as courts of appeal in forest matters. A final appeal could be made to the tables de marbre (courts of the marble table), which also decided on the more weighty questions of proprietorship by whatever term held, and especially civil and criminal cases relating to the eaux et forêts; the wrong doings in the discharge of official duties (abus), contraventions to the orders and regulations, misdemeanors or depredations (délit); and all kinds of fraud not included under those cited (malversations).

The whole country was divided into 18 arrondissements of grandes-maîtrises des eaux et forêts and these were divided into 134 maîtrises, each under a maître particulier, with a lieutenant, a garde-marteau, a garde général, two arpenteurs and a number of gardes. A financial branch for the handling of moneys, and the judicial branch represented by the three courts described above, completed the organization, which lasted until the revolution, albeit some details were changed soon after its enactment, and the offices became again purchaseable and hereditary.

The sale of royal forests was again forbidden, penalties being provided for the eventual purchaser. Theft and incendiarism were severely punished, and specific rules of management were established.