As appears from the foregoing sketch of early attempts at forest
control, no uniformity existed in the empire, each province being
treated differently and the regal rights being applied differently in
each case.
Originally the regular circuit or district governments had charge not
only of the management of State forests but also of the forest police
and the regulation of the management of communal forests. This
supervision was exercised by the political administration, often without
technical advisers, and the different provinces had developed this
service very variably. While in some provinces no special effort was
made to look after these interests, the laws remaining mainly dead
letters, in others a better system prevailed. In Styria, for instance,
in 1807, five forest commissioners and 20 district foresters were
employed; but this organization was of short duration. A loose
administration of the forest laws was most general. The movement for
reform and to secure a general law for the empire controlling forest use
dates from the year 1814; but, only after the political reaction of
1848, and when the severe floods of 1851 had forcibly called attention
to the unsatisfactory state of things was the necessity of change
recognized. In 1852, such a general law was enacted, supplanting all the
forest ordinances (with minor exceptions).
This law, which in the main is still in force, distinguishes between ban
forests and protective forests. The former are such as require in their
management consideration of their protective value to adjoining private
or State property and personal safety, e.g., to prevent landslides,
snowslides, avalanches, etc. Protection forests are specially located
forests which for their own continuance as well as for that of
neighboring ones must be managed under special restrictions, e.g., on
sand dunes, shores of waters, steep slopes. The dangers which they are
to prevent being more of an indirect or hidden nature, and only produced
by their mismanagement, the control also is of a more general nature,
the owner being allowed to manage his property within general
prescriptions, while the ban forests are protective forests of a higher
order and are more strictly and more directly controlled by the
authorities. The declaration of a ban forest and the prescription for
the conservative management depend on the findings of a commission
assisted by experts (since 1873).
The execution of the law however, being left to the political
administration of the provinces, jealousies between imperial and
provincial governments, and fear of resistance and ill will of forest
owners prevented a strict and uniform application of the law. Hence,
from time to time, we find ministerial rescripts, and special provincial
legislation to secure a more energetic enforcement of the law.
At first, the reform had reference mainly to the Alp districts, which
had suffered the most, and, in Tyrol, at least, an organization was
created in 1856 which was to manage the State forests, supervise the
management of corporation forests and exercise the forest police. Not
until the years 1871-74, however, was a similar service extended to
other portions of the empire, but at the end of that period the entire
empire had been placed under the administration of a “forest protective
service.” an organization quite distinct from the State forest
administration.
In 1900, there were placed under this service nearly two million acres
of protective, and somewhat over 150,000 acres of ban forests, but some
5 to 6 million acres of private or communal forest was under some other
restrictive policy.
In 1888, this service consisted of 14 forest inspectors, 56 forest
commissioners, 63 forest adjuncts and 80 assistants and forest guards;
in addition 252 special appointees and officers of the State forest
administration were doing duty in this service, so that altogether
nearly 500 persons were then employed in carrying on the protective
forest policy of the State. In 1910, there were 388 technical attachés
to the provincial authorities employed, and 124 on reboisement work,
while the State administration employed only 297 officials of the higher
grade.
The law declares the function of this technical service to be: “to
assist the political government by technical advice and observation in
supervising forest protection, and in the application of the forest
laws.”
In 1883, the functions of this organization were extended “to instruct
and encourage forest owners in forest culture, and to manage forests
designated to be so managed.” The service has been so satisfactory that,
while at first much complaint against the enforcement of the regulations
was heard, owners now ask constantly for its extension.
The details of the duties devolving upon this organization are found in
a series of laws, applicable to different parts of the empire, which are
based upon the recognition of protection forests, in which sanctioned
working plans regulate the management. Forcible reforestation and
employment of competent foresters in these are obligatory. Now,
altogether about 60% of the Austrian forest area is managed under
working plans.
A special reboisement law for the extinction of destructive torrents was
the result of unusual damage by floods in Tirol and Karinthia, in 1882.
The basis for this legislation was laid by a translation from the French
of Demontzey’s great work on the reboisement of mountains, by v.
Seckendorff in 1880, and a subsequent report by the same author in 1883.
A law, similar to that of the French was enacted in 1884, for the
regulation of torrential streams. A special fund for the work was
created to which the interested parties are required to contribute,
assisted by annual subventions from the State. The contributions of the
State have averaged from 40 to 60%, of the provinces 20 to 50%, the
interested parties having contributed 30% of the round five million
dollars expended on this work by 1901. In 1910, the contribution to the
melioration fund by the State had grown to 1.6 million dollars. At the
same time, for the regulation of the lower rivers an appropriation of
$1,350,000 was made, of which $400,000 was to be used for reforestation
work.
This work as well as the reforestation of the Karst (see p. 173) under
the laws of 1881, 1883, 1885, is carried on by the forest protective
service.
On the whole, the forest policy of Austria tends toward harmony with
forest owners and liberation of private property. By reduction of
railroad freights, which are under government management, by abolition
of export duties, by reasonable tax assessments, etc., the wood export
trade (now exceeding 30 million dollars) is favored; by the extinction
of rights of user under liberal laws improvement in forest management is
made possible, the Emperor setting a good example by having renounced,
in 1858, his superior right to forest reservations in the Alp districts.
The best exemplification of the spirit of the Austrian forest policy and
of the methods of forest organization and administration is to be found
in the administration of the provinces of Bosnia and Herzegovina
described in a volume published in 1905 by the veteran Austrian
forester, Ludwig Dimitz.[6]
[6] _Die forstlichen Verhältnisse und Einrichtungen Bosniens und der
Herzegovina_, LUDWIG DIMITZ, Vienna, 1905, pp. 389. See Forestry
Quarterly, Vol. III, p. 113.
Here, the Austrian government has in the short time of 25 years
succeeded in bringing orderly conditions into the forest management.
Until 1878, these countries were provinces of Turkey and were placed
under Austrian suzerainty as a result of the Russo-Turkish War. The
Turks had already attempted a management of the forest lands, which were
in their entirety claimed by the Sultan. Property conditions being
entirely unclear when the Austrians assumed the administration, these
questions had first to be settled by a survey. This survey resulted in
showing a forest area of 6.3 million acres, 51% of the land area, of
which probably all but about 1.5 million acres is private or communal
property; half of the state property is fully stocked and it is
estimated that about 100 million cubic feet is the annual increment.