Making Dalmatia green again: reforestation at the ‘horrible edge’ of Empire 1870–1918

Abstract

Reforestation has been one of the main forestry activities in the karst terrain of Dalmatia, Croatia, for more than a century. This paper examines the history behind reforestation schemes in Dalmatia, a kingdom at the periphery of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. It explores how the ideas of Austrian foresters, based at the centre of Empire, were transmitted and put into practice. Late nineteenth-century forestry debates in contemporary forestry texts and the Šumarski lis,t the forestry journal published since 1877, are analysed and different narratives concerning the lack of woodland explored. The paper goes on to examine how reforestation of the karst was carried out in the region around Šibenik making use of local archives, historical maps, cadastral surveys, and photographs. Disputes between foresters and local villagers who wished to protect their grazing rights are uncovered and a link between the development of tourism and the selection of sites to be reforested is identified. KEYWORDSReforestation, Dalmatia, Šibenik, karst landscape, pine forests, forest history 1892). However, the Forestry College in Križevci in Croatia did not provide adequate training for the karst environment. Ettinger (1886) noticed that teaching largely focused on deriving value from timber, disregarding firewood collection and pastoralism which were the main woodland-based activities in karst areas. This is why Joseph Wessely (1814-98) (1877b), influential head of the Forestry Academy in Vienna, argued that it was imperative to establish a special forestry school in a karst area of the Empire; but this did not happen. Finally, with the establishment of a Forestry Academy in the University of Zagreb in 1898, Croatian (and Dalmatian) foresters were able to complete their education within Croatia (Anić et al. 2012).