Full resolution (JPEG) - On this page / på denna sida - Second part - VII. Forestry - 1. The Forests. By Th. Örtenblad, Chief Master of Forest, Umeå - Private forests
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PRIVATE FORESTS.
631
within the borders of the Läns of Vesterbotten and Norrbotten, that farm-owners
in those districts should not enjoy other rights to the woods on their farms
than those of taking, without previous official survey, such timber as they might
require for household needs and for fuel, and of appropriating, subsequent to
official surveying and marking, for the purpose of selling, such timber in addition
as can be annually felled without injury to the future preservation of the forest.
Also at the delimitation in the parish of Särna and the subparish of Idre, both
in Dalarne, homesteaders were only granted a similarly restricted right of disposal
of the woods falling within the bounds of their allotments, and that in accordance
with their own expressed agreement. In this way a very considerable section of
the forests of North Sweden has been subjected to regulations ensuring system
in the working up of them. The immense importance of this will be seen more
clearly when it is remembered that the locality of these forests in the immediate
neighbourhood of the Scandinavian Alps renders their preservation invaluable, as
a protection against over-severity of climate.
The general legislation of 1903 refers to laws for the promotion and
protection of regrowth of forest. Its first paragraph decrees: "In forests owned by
private persons, lumbering must not be carried on, nor subsequent to the
lumbering the ground be treated in such a way that the regrowth of wood is
endangered.» This ordinance does not, however, prevent the cultivation of wooded
ground into garden, field, or meadow, nor its use for building plot or kindred
purposes, or its use for pasture ground. The right to pasturing may, however, when so
be necessary for the protection of regrowth, be limited to a certain time of the year.
In marshy woods, where the growth and regrowth evidently are made impossible,
owing to the character of the ground, the law is not applicable. If there has
been mismanagement of woods, the person guilty is obliged to take the necessary
measures for securing the regrowth. If the person guilty be not the owner but
the holder of the right of lumbering, the former is, subsequent to the law having
been put into force, responsible for the taking of the measures, still with the
right for the owner to obtain reimbursement from the person guilty. Any definite
regulations concerning the measures which are deemed necessary in this respect,
have not been laid down, this being left to the person in question.
It is incumbent on Forest Conservation Boards to control the wood
proprietors" performing their duties. There is to be such a Board in each
Län-where the law is applied. The members of a Board, who are to be three persons
well acquainted with the forest conditions of the Län, are appointed for three
years at a time, one by the Government (the chairman), one by the County
Council, and one by the Managing Committee of the Agricultural Society of the
Län. By the side of the Boards and their officers and overseers, the supervision
with regard to the observance of the law may be excercised by Forest
Conservation Commissions, which are formed in the communities so desiring. The
Commissions consist of three persons elected for three years, one by the Forest
Conservation Board, and two by the Communal Assembly (see p. 251). When
mismanagement of woods has been proved, it is the immediate duty of the Board
to seek to bring about necessary measures for the regrowth, through voluntary
agreement with the person responsible. If such an agreement cannot be established,
or if the measures stipulated are not taken, the Board has to enter on legal
proceedings against the person concerned. Before judgment has been given, the
Court may inflict prohibition of lumbering. Such prohibition may be recalled
when pledge or caution with regard to the taking of the necessary measures be
deposited. If lumbering has taken place in spite of prohibition, the person guilty
is to be punished with a fine of 25—500 kronor, and the timber that has been
lumbered is confiscated and judged forfeited. If the timber be no longer in the
possession of the person responsible, he has to reimburse its full value.
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