A Brief History of Forestry.: In Europe, the United States and Other CountriesFernow, B. E. (Bernhard Eduard)
History
A Brief History of Forestry.: In Europe, the United States and Other Countries
Fernow, B. E. (Bernhard Eduard)
Forests and forestry -- History
In 1309, Henry VII ordered the reforestation of a certain stripped area
by sowing. Of the execution of this order we have no record, but the
first actually executed plantation on record is that by the city of
Nuremberg, in 1368, where several hundred acres of burned area were
sowed with pine, spruce and fir; and there is also a record that in 1449
this crop was harvested. In 1420, the city of Frankfort on the Main
followed this example, relying on the Nuremberg seed dealer, whose
correspondence is extant and who was invited to go to Frankfort for
advice how to proceed. He sowed densely in order to secure clear boles,
but expressed the opinion that the plants could not be transplanted; he
also relied on the phases of the moon for his operations.
The planting of hardwoods seems to have been begun much later; the first
reference to it coming from the cloister and city of Seligenstadt, which
agreed in 1491 to reforest annually 20 to 30 acres with oak.
Natural regeneration by coppice was in quite general practice and proved
satisfactory enough for fuelwood production. The system of coppice with
standards was also frequently practised, the standards, 20 or 30 to the
acre, being “reserved for the lord.”
In the timber forest, the unregulated selection system was continued
generally through the period, although in 1454 we find in the Harz
Mountains a transition to a seed tree management, a few seed trees or
groups of seed trees being left on the otherwise cleared area, somewhat
in the manner of the French _méthode à tire et-aire_. Toward the end of
the 15th century we find here and there a distinction made between
timber forest, where no firewood is to be cut, and “leaf forest” which
is to serve the latter purpose, and is to be treated as coppice.
Toward the end of the period we find, however, various provisions which
are unquestionably dictated by the fear of a scarcity of timber. The
discovery that pasture prevents natural regeneration led to a
prohibition of pasturing in the newly cut felling areas. In 1488, we
find already a diameter limit of 12 inches--just as is being advocated
in the United States now--as a basis for conservative exploitation, the
city of Brunswick buying stumpage, and in the contract being limited to
this diameter, and in addition obligated to leave 15 oaks or aspen per
acre for seed trees.
Attempts at regulating the use of a given forest by division into
felling areas are recorded in 1359, when the city forest of Erfurt, 286
acres, was divided into seven felling areas. It is questionable whether
this referred to a coppice with short rotation or whether a selection
forest with seven periodic areas is meant.
We see, then, that the first sporadic and, to be sure, crude beginnings
of a forest management in Germany may be traced back to the 14th and
15th centuries; but it took at least 250 to 350 years before such
management became general.
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