Heinrich Cotta, German Forestry Pioneer

Heinrich Cotta (1763-1844), some call the “pioneer of forestry”, established the first private German forestry school in 1811 in what was called the Forestry Town of Tharandt near Dresden. It later became the Royal Saxon Forestry Academy. Cotta studied forestry all his life and has had a profound influence on the profession of forestry and foresters in Europe who eventually brought these concepts to North America.

Several quotes from his Cotta's Preface in “Anweisung zum Waldbau”:

• On the need for foresters:There would be no physicians if there were no diseases, and no forestry science without deficiency in wood supplies.
• On why forestry is backward: The forester who practices much writes but little, and he who writes much practices but little.
• On the "good" forester:The good forester takes the highest yield from the forest without deteriorating the soil, the poor one neither obtains this yield nor preserves the fertility of the soil.

More forest history:

• The First North American Forestry School
• Brief History of American Forestry
• Biography of Gifford Pinchot, a Pioneer of American Conservation and Forestry

Forest History Society Archive Illustration