Show FOREST PROTECTION LAWS FORBIDDING THE DESTRUCTION OF TIMBER IN EUROPE Governments Have Supervision Over Private Pri-vate as Well as National and Communal Forests Reforesting Carried on by Established Es-tablished Departments In Germany tho various governments own and manage in a conservative spirit about onethird of the forest area and they also control the management manage-ment of another sixth which belongs to villages cities and public institutions in so far as these communities are obliged to employ expert foresters and must submit their working plans to the government for approval thus preventing prevent-Ing improvident and wasteful methods The other half of the forest property in the hands of private owners is managed man-aged mostly without interference al though upon methods similar to those employed by the government and by trained foresters who receive their education edu-cation in one of the eight higher and several sev-eral lower schools of forestry which the various governments have established I The several states differ in their law regarding forest property Of the private pri-vate forests 70 per cent are without any control whatever while 80 per cent are subject to supervision so far as clearing and devastation are concerned The tendency on the part of the government gov-ernment has been rather toward persuasive persua-sive measures Thus in addition to buying buy-ing up or acquiring by exchange and reforesting re-foresting waste landssome 800000 acres have been so reforested during the last 25 yearsthe government gives assistance as-sistance to private owners in reforesting their waste land During the last 10 years 300 000 was granted in this way In Austria by a lawn opted in 1852 not only are the state fo ts comprising compris-ing less than 30 per eel pf the total forest arearationally feTnaged and tho management of the communal forests for-ests nearly 40 per ce tofficially supervised su-pervised but private owners holding about 32 per centare revente r 0 dovnstatju 6 i c detriment of adjoin 9 t t agricultural use can De 4 f de WI ofit the consent of the disc cq nthoritics from which however peal to a civil judge is possible who adjusts the conflict of interests Any cleared or cut forest must be replanted re-planted or reseeded within five years On sandy soils and mountain sides clearing clear-ing is forbidden and only culling of the ripo timber is allowed In Hungary also where liberty of private property rights and strong objection ob-jection to government interference had been jealously upheld a complete reaction reac-tion set in somo lo yeasfiJigo which led to the law of 1880 givi tJl tho state control con-trol of private forest propertyas in Austria Aus-tria Under a law adopted in Italy in 1886 tha department of agriculture in cooperation coop-eration with the department of public works and in consultation with the for estal committee of the province and the respective owners is to designate the territory which for public reasons must be reforested under governmental control con-trol The owners may associate themselves for the purpose of reforestation and for the purpose may then borrow money at low interest from tho State Soil Credit Institution the forest department contributing con-tributing threefifths of the cost of reforestation re-forestation upon condition that the work is done according to its plans and within the time specified by the government In Russia until lately liberty to cut burn destroy aria devastate was unrestricted unre-stricted but in 1888 a comprehensive and well considered law cut off so fai as this can be done on paper this liberty of vandalism For autocratic Russia this law is rather timid and is in the nature na-ture of a compromise between communal commu-nal and private interests in which much if not all depends on the good will ol the private owner A federal law was adopted in Switzerland Switzer-land in 1876 which gives the federation control over the forests of the mountain region embracing eight entire cantons and parts of seven others or over 1000 000 acres of forest federation itself does not own any forest land and the cantons hardly 100000 acres somewhat over 4 per cent of the forest area two thirds of which is held in communal ownership and the rest by private owners own-ers The federal authorities hve isUpervJ sion over all cantonal communal and private forests so far as they are protective pro-tective forests but the execution of the law rests with the cantonal authorities under tho inspection of federal officers In France not quit es the state manage man-age its own foYcock v nude loved oneninth of the forest areoph S roved manner and supervise thr o ss l fcement of for ests belonging to Qiecrtll cites and othoi public institntlonvvtniWble the area of state forests in a a gulp similar to the regulation of forests jv Germany but it extends its control ihtf the large area of private forests by f ridding any clearing clear-ing except with the Clnsent of the forest administration Ceitury Magazine l |