Forestry is the science and craft of creating, managing, using, conserving, and repairing
forests and associated resources to meet desired goals, needs, and values for human and environment benefits.
Forestry is practiced in plantations and natural stands . The science of forestry has elements that belong to the biological, physical, social, political and managerial sciences.
Modern forestry generally embraces a broad range of concerns, in what is known as multiple-use management, including the provision of timber , fuel wood, wildlife habitat , natural water quality management, recreation , landscape and community protection, employment, aesthetically appealing
landscapes , biodiversity management,
watershed management, erosion control , and preserving forests as ' sinks' for atmospheric
carbon dioxide. A practitioner of forestry is known as a forester . Other terms are used a
verderer and a silviculturalist being common ones. Silviculture is narrower than forestry, being concerned only with forest plants, but is often used synonymously with forestry.
Forest ecosystems have come to be seen as the most important component of the
biosphere , and forestry has emerged as a vital applied science, craft , and technology .
Forestry is an important economic segment in various industrial countries. For example, in Germany, forests cover nearly a third of the land area, wood is the most important
renewable resource, and forestry supports more than a million jobs and about billion in yearly turnover.
A deciduous beech forest in Slovenia
History
Background
The preindustrial age has been dubbed by
Werner Sombart and others as the 'wooden age', as timber and firewood were the basic resources for energy, construction and housing. The development of modern forestry is closely connected with the rise of capitalism , economy as a science and varying notions of land use and property.
Roman Latifundiae, large agricultural estates, were quite successful in maintaining the large supply of wood that was necessary for the Roman Empire. Large deforestations came with respectively after the decline of the Romans. However already in the 5th century, monks in the then Byzantine Romagna on the Adriatic coast, were able to establish
stone pine plantations to provide fuelwood and
food . This was the beginning of the massive forest mentioned by Dante Alighieri in his 1308 poem Divine Comedy.
Similar sustainable formal forestry practices were developed by the Visigoths in the 7th century when, faced with the ever-increasing shortage of wood, they instituted a code concerned with the preservation of oak and
pine forests. [8] The use and management of many forest resources has a long history in
China as well, dating back to the Han Dynasty and taking place under the landowning gentry . A similar approach was used in Japan . It was also later written about by the Ming Dynasty Chinese scholar Xu Guangqi (1562–1633).
In Europe, land usage rights in medieval and early modern times allowed different users to access forests and pastures. Plant litter and
resin extraction were important, as pitch (resin) was essential for the caulking of ships, falking and hunting rights, firewood and building, timber gathering in wood pastures , and for grazing animals in forests. The notion of " commons " (German "Allmende") refers to the underlying traditional legal term of common land . The idea of enclosed private property came about during modern times. However, most hunting rights were retained by members of the nobility which preserved the right of the nobility to access and use common land for recreation, like fox hunting .
Early modern forestry development
Timber harvesting, as here in Finland , is a common component of forestry
Hans Carl von Carlowitz
Systematic management of forests for a sustainable yield of timber is said to have begun in the German states in the 14th century, e.g. in Nuremberg , [9] and in 16th-century Japan . [10] Typically, a forest was divided into specific sections and mapped; the harvest of timber was planned with an eye to regeneration. As timber rafting allowed for connecting large continental forests, as in south western Germany, via Main, Neckar, Danube and Rhine with the coastal cities and states, early modern forestry and remote trading were closely connected. Large firs in the black forest were called „Holländer“, as they were traded to the Dutch ship yards. Large timber rafts on the Rhine were 200 to 400m in length, 40m in width and consisted of several thousand logs. The crew consisted of 400 to 500 men, including shelter, bakeries, ovens and livestock stables. [11] Timber rafting infrastructure allowed for large interconnected networks all over continental Europe and is still of importance in Finland.
Starting with the sixteenth century, enhanced world maritime trade, a boom in housing construction in Europe and the success and further Berggeschrey (rushes) of the mining industry increased timber consumption sharply. The notion of 'Nachhaltigkeit', sustainability in forestry, is closely connected to the work of
Hans Carl von Carlowitz (1645–1714), a mining administrator in Saxony . His book
Sylvicultura oeconomica, oder haußwirthliche Nachricht und Naturmäßige Anweisung zur wilden Baum-Zucht (1713) was the first comprehensive treatise about sustainable yield forestry. In the UK, and to an extend in continental Europe, the enclosure movement and the clearances favored strictly enclosed private property. [12] The Agrarian reformers, early economic writers and scientists tried to get rid of the traditional commons. [13] At the time, an alleged tragedy of the commons together with fears of a Holznot , an imminent wood shortage played a watershed role in the controversies about cooperative land use patterns. [14]
The practice of establishing tree plantations in the British Isles was promoted by John Evelyn , though it had already acquired some popularity. Louis XIV's minister Jean-Baptiste Colbert 's oak Forest of Tronçais , planted for the future use of the French Navy, matured as expected in the mid-19th century: "Colbert had thought of everything except the steamship,"
Fernand Braudel observed. [15] In parallel, schools of forestry were established beginning in the late 18th century in Hesse , Russia ,
Austria-Hungary , Sweden , France and elsewhere in Europe.
forests and associated resources to meet desired goals, needs, and values for human and environment benefits.
Forestry is practiced in plantations and natural stands . The science of forestry has elements that belong to the biological, physical, social, political and managerial sciences.
Modern forestry generally embraces a broad range of concerns, in what is known as multiple-use management, including the provision of timber , fuel wood, wildlife habitat , natural water quality management, recreation , landscape and community protection, employment, aesthetically appealing
landscapes , biodiversity management,
watershed management, erosion control , and preserving forests as ' sinks' for atmospheric
carbon dioxide. A practitioner of forestry is known as a forester . Other terms are used a
verderer and a silviculturalist being common ones. Silviculture is narrower than forestry, being concerned only with forest plants, but is often used synonymously with forestry.
Forest ecosystems have come to be seen as the most important component of the
biosphere , and forestry has emerged as a vital applied science, craft , and technology .
Forestry is an important economic segment in various industrial countries. For example, in Germany, forests cover nearly a third of the land area, wood is the most important
renewable resource, and forestry supports more than a million jobs and about billion in yearly turnover.
A deciduous beech forest in Slovenia
History
Background
The preindustrial age has been dubbed by
Werner Sombart and others as the 'wooden age', as timber and firewood were the basic resources for energy, construction and housing. The development of modern forestry is closely connected with the rise of capitalism , economy as a science and varying notions of land use and property.
Roman Latifundiae, large agricultural estates, were quite successful in maintaining the large supply of wood that was necessary for the Roman Empire. Large deforestations came with respectively after the decline of the Romans. However already in the 5th century, monks in the then Byzantine Romagna on the Adriatic coast, were able to establish
stone pine plantations to provide fuelwood and
food . This was the beginning of the massive forest mentioned by Dante Alighieri in his 1308 poem Divine Comedy.
Similar sustainable formal forestry practices were developed by the Visigoths in the 7th century when, faced with the ever-increasing shortage of wood, they instituted a code concerned with the preservation of oak and
pine forests. [8] The use and management of many forest resources has a long history in
China as well, dating back to the Han Dynasty and taking place under the landowning gentry . A similar approach was used in Japan . It was also later written about by the Ming Dynasty Chinese scholar Xu Guangqi (1562–1633).
In Europe, land usage rights in medieval and early modern times allowed different users to access forests and pastures. Plant litter and
resin extraction were important, as pitch (resin) was essential for the caulking of ships, falking and hunting rights, firewood and building, timber gathering in wood pastures , and for grazing animals in forests. The notion of " commons " (German "Allmende") refers to the underlying traditional legal term of common land . The idea of enclosed private property came about during modern times. However, most hunting rights were retained by members of the nobility which preserved the right of the nobility to access and use common land for recreation, like fox hunting .
Early modern forestry development
Timber harvesting, as here in Finland , is a common component of forestry
Hans Carl von Carlowitz
Systematic management of forests for a sustainable yield of timber is said to have begun in the German states in the 14th century, e.g. in Nuremberg , [9] and in 16th-century Japan . [10] Typically, a forest was divided into specific sections and mapped; the harvest of timber was planned with an eye to regeneration. As timber rafting allowed for connecting large continental forests, as in south western Germany, via Main, Neckar, Danube and Rhine with the coastal cities and states, early modern forestry and remote trading were closely connected. Large firs in the black forest were called „Holländer“, as they were traded to the Dutch ship yards. Large timber rafts on the Rhine were 200 to 400m in length, 40m in width and consisted of several thousand logs. The crew consisted of 400 to 500 men, including shelter, bakeries, ovens and livestock stables. [11] Timber rafting infrastructure allowed for large interconnected networks all over continental Europe and is still of importance in Finland.
Starting with the sixteenth century, enhanced world maritime trade, a boom in housing construction in Europe and the success and further Berggeschrey (rushes) of the mining industry increased timber consumption sharply. The notion of 'Nachhaltigkeit', sustainability in forestry, is closely connected to the work of
Hans Carl von Carlowitz (1645–1714), a mining administrator in Saxony . His book
Sylvicultura oeconomica, oder haußwirthliche Nachricht und Naturmäßige Anweisung zur wilden Baum-Zucht (1713) was the first comprehensive treatise about sustainable yield forestry. In the UK, and to an extend in continental Europe, the enclosure movement and the clearances favored strictly enclosed private property. [12] The Agrarian reformers, early economic writers and scientists tried to get rid of the traditional commons. [13] At the time, an alleged tragedy of the commons together with fears of a Holznot , an imminent wood shortage played a watershed role in the controversies about cooperative land use patterns. [14]
The practice of establishing tree plantations in the British Isles was promoted by John Evelyn , though it had already acquired some popularity. Louis XIV's minister Jean-Baptiste Colbert 's oak Forest of Tronçais , planted for the future use of the French Navy, matured as expected in the mid-19th century: "Colbert had thought of everything except the steamship,"
Fernand Braudel observed. [15] In parallel, schools of forestry were established beginning in the late 18th century in Hesse , Russia ,
Austria-Hungary , Sweden , France and elsewhere in Europe.
