Although certain districts, like Attica, were already practically
denuded in Plato’s time, there is little doubt that originally the whole
of Greece with small exceptions was a continuous forest. The destruction
of the forest, protected by thousands of gods and nymphs in holy groves,
proceeded slowly under the regime of the ancient Greeks, until the
fanaticism of the Christian religion led to a war against these pagan
strongholds, and the holy groves were reduced by axe and fire. Turkish
misrule for centuries, over-taxation, reckless cutting, extensive
herding of goats and sheep, and fires have reduced the forest area until
now it occupies only 12 or 14 per cent. of the land area (25,000 square
miles). In 1854, a survey developed about 2 million acres of woodlands
(probably an excessive figure) for the now 2.5 million people, while 67
per cent. of the surface is a useless waste, and only 20 per cent. under
cultivation, so that the general aspect of the country is desolate. The
many islands are entirely deforested, and so are the seashores. “Where
in olden times dense shady poplars stood, now only infertile sand and
dreary rock waste remain.”
The forest in northern and middle Greece is confined to the two rugged
mountain ranges with numerous spurs which run parallel, north and south,
with Mt. Olympus (nearly 9,000 feet) and Mt. Pindus (6,000 feet) the
highest elevations. The large fertile plains of Thessaly and Boeotia are
forestless. So is the large Arcadian plateau of the Peloponnesus, and
the other smaller, hot but fertile plains and plateaus. The most
valuable conifer forest is found on the higher ranges between the 2,500
and 5,000 foot level, below the snow-clad mountain tops, where
especially two species of fir, _Abies Apollinis_ and _Abies reginæ
Amaliae_ (a species remarkable for its sprouting habit), with other firs
and several species of _Juniperus_ and _Cupressus_, form sometimes
extensive forests. Other common trees are chestnut, sycamore, several
species of oak and poplar, and, on the coast, _Pinus halepensis_.
The firs occupy about 35 per cent. of the forest area, oaks and
deciduous forest 45 per cent. Among the forest products which are
exported, we find galls, vermillion and sumach prominent.
It is believed that Greece in ancient times was more fertile than it is
now, and that the deterioration is due to deforestation. Undoubtedly
soil conditions favored such deterioration, for, with the exception of
the Pindus range, which is composed of metamorphic rock, a poor, dry
limestone is characteristic of the country except where fertile,
alluvial and diluvial deposits cover it in valleys along the coast. The
climate is, however, so favorable that even the poor soil would readily
reclothe itself if left alone. The winters are short, hardly three
months, and with hardly any snow or ice except on the high mountains,
making the vegetative period nine months; and, with temperature ranges
from 20 to 106 degrees F.; rainfall average 400 mm.; the summers, to be
sure, rainless and dry, but the other seasons humid, somewhat less than
in middle Europe, rapid growth is the result of these conditions. But
the continued pasturing of goats and sheep--some six million--prevents
any natural reforestation. Increased taxation on this industry has had
no effect, and the practice of permitting the people to gather dry wood
for fuel is an incentive for making dry wood by setting fires, which
also serve to improve the pasture; perhaps nowhere are forest fires more
frequent, in spite of heavy penalties. That a baneful influence on the
water condition and river flow has been the result is historically
demonstrated by Chloros.[13]
[13] See _Allgemeine Forst- und Jagdzeitung 1884_, p. 183 ff., and
1887, p. 327 ff. for interesting details.
In the mountains some fine and quite extensive bodies of fir still
exist, lack of transportation having preserved them. Elsewhere the
rights of user, and the herding of goats are so well established that
reforms appear, indeed, difficult.
Firewood, 3 loads for each person, supposed to be taken from the dead
or otherwise useless trees, and small dimension material is free to all.
For the right to cut workwood, the government charges a tax of 25 to 30
per cent. of the value of the material, the price for this being
annually determined. On the material cut in private forests, the
government also levies a tax of from 12 to 18 per cent. of its value.
This pernicious system of promiscuous cutting leads to the most wasteful
use imaginable, not only high stumps, but large amounts of good material
are left in the woods so that it is estimated that hardly 50 per cent.
of what is cut is really utilized. The cut, as far as the tax gives a
clue to it, amounts to around 2.7 million cubic feet workwood, but with
the firewood included it was estimated that near 90 million cubic feet
are cut annually. Importation to the amount of 1.5 million dollars,
mostly from Austria and Roumania, makes up the deficit in work material,
especially for the box factories which manufacture the packages for the
large export of currants, some 2 million boxes. The tax during the
decade from 1862 to 1871 produced an annual income of $600,000, a little
less in 1895.
The forest has been from olden times, and is now almost entirely, State
property (some 80 or 90 per cent.) and in nearly all the remaining,
private, communal and cloister property the State has a partial
ownership or supervision. The waste land of probably 3 million acres
extent also belongs to the State, the whole State property covering over
30 per cent. of the land area.