Forest Use and Management in Early Modern Tyrol

Several forest descriptions from the former Tyrolean area have survived since the second half of the 15th century, depicting the condition of the forests and thus allowing estimations as to the actual as well as future profit. Furthermore, information on the various tree species and their characteristics are included as well as suggestions regarding a sustainable exploitation of the forests. In comparison to other regions, the reports stand out through their great wealth of detail. This is mainly due to the necessity to provide for the operation of the financially lucrative, yet wood devouring saline in Hall in Tyrol and the mining and smelting works in Schwaz, Kitzbühel, Klausen, Gossensaß, Ahrntal, etc. Since the late middle ages Tyrolean mining had boomed, leading to special orders and the implementation of a comprehensive administration, which was to control forest exploitation and decree sustainable measures of forest protection at a relatively early time. Nevertheless the forests and the tree population were subject to major interventions, their effects being still noticeable today. During the most intense mining activity at the beginning of the 16th century, the precious logs had to be rafted more than 220 kilometres on the river Inn, all the way from the Swiss Engadine to the smelting works of Brixlegg in the Tyrolean Unterinntal, due to the pressing problem of wood shortage. The research on primary sources will focus on the wood supply of the mining districts in todays South and North Tyrol as well as on the saline operations in Hall in Tyrol. On the basis of the numerous, so far only marginally analysed, forest descriptions and other sources, the planned project wants to discuss questions of mining-related forest exploitation and forest development between 1450 and 1750. Aspects of structural change of forests, the connection between forest exploitation and natural catastrophes, the spacial dimension of wood supply as well as the perception and sustainability are of special interest. Mag. Mag. Dr. Georg Neuhauser from the Institute of Historical Sciences and European Ethnology will hold the position of principal investigator, having intensively worked on the history of mining at the turn from the late medieval to early modern times. The exploitation of wood resources was thoroughly researched throughout his recently completed research project on the mining district of Klausen in South Tyrol (funded by the Science Fund of the Autonomous Province Bolzano - South Tyrol), which was conducted in cooperation with MMag. Bettina Anzinger. The latter will again function as a project collaborator in the planed project. Univ. Prof. Dr. Patrick Kupper, head of the department for social- and economic history at the Institute of Historical Sciences and European Ethnology at Innsbruck University, will contribute his environmental historical expertise as a cooperation partner.

The economic history of the pre-industrial era is above all a history of wood as a georesource. Whether as a source of heat and energy, as timber for construction or as a raw material for tools and implements - wood was an indispensable raw material in all areas of life. It is no coincidence that scientists refer to the Middle Ages in particular as the 'wooden age' or the 'age of wood', although this quote is certainly still valid for the Alpine region right up to the 19th and 20th centuries. Already in the early Middle Ages, specific forms and concepts of forest ownership crystallised in order to regulate the use of wooded areas. The Carolingian kings had enforced that all ownerless forest areas were imperial property and were labelled 'forestis' in the documents. Only the king or his feudal subjects had access rights to these areas. Bishops and monasteries also had forest estates or special wood utilisation privileges. These manorial forests were contrasted with the customary land regulations of the village communities, the so-called commons. This was understood to mean the communal pasture and forest areas of the communities, which were used to cover timber requirements, but also for leaf and litter collection, resin extraction, as forest pasture areas and for collecting honey, fruit and herbs. In order to ensure fair use of these areas by the village community, separate forest utilisation regulations were included in the village ordinances (Weistümer) as early as the High and Late Middle Ages. As a result of the increasing fuel requirements of the salt and ore mines from the 13th century onwards, the Tyrolean forests and their timber stocks became a highly contested resource and their utilisation increasingly became a political issue. The provincial princes reserved ever larger areas of forest for mining purposes, as there will be 'shortage of wood rather than mines'. In the interests of short-term profit maximisation for the ruling elite, supplying these companies with the resource of wood was therefore given top priority. Although, as could be worked out in the course of the project, the forest-related laws of the time also occasionally testify to an understanding of the protective functions of the forest (against avalanches and mudflows) and nature conservation measures were also taken, overall it was nevertheless questions of ownership, distribution and exploitation of resources that shaped and characterised the forest as a legal space in the Middle Ages and early modern period. This intensive exploitation of the forests has left its mark on our landscape and the structure of the forest areas right up to the present day.