Zur Geschichte der Waldnutzung im Gebiet des heutigen Schweizerischen Nationalparks

The peripheral site of the Swiss National Park of today, situated between the communes of the Engadine, Val Müstair, Valtellina and Iivigno, gives the impression of an extensively exploited area or even of a natural landscape hardly affected by man. This impression is true if the exploitation of subsistence is considered exclusively. The commune of Zernez, proprietor of an important part of the forests of the area under investigation, owned sufficient other forests and was therefore, not much interested in wood use within this area consisting mostly of the economically insignificant mountain pine. Wood was only exploited by local alpine farming, which had been expanding up until 1600, by the Single farm Settlements and the smaller hamlets, and, to a certain extent, by the charcoal plants and the limekilns. These aspects of history of land use are not unusual for a peripherally situated area in the Alps. Some particular preconditions and circumstances, mainly of natural, topographical and economic origin were, however, decisive for the intensive and varied use in this area. From the 14th up to the 17th Century, a first important possibility of exploitation resulted from the existence of minable ore and the forest riches within this area. The mining industry not only gave its name "il Fuorn" (melting furnace) to a part of the area, but also brought along the first larger changes within the forests and the other natural landscapes. The direct link between this area and the saltworks in Hall in Tirol (Austria) by water was another important precondition for the exploitation of firewood. New developments in wood transportation technology, e.g. the construction of dams for driving timber as well as timber shoots, made possible the transport of wood from the remote areas by smaller streams and the river Inn to Hall. These costly installations forced extensive exploitation in order to ensure the yield of the Clearings. Up until 1652, the year of the buy-up of the Tirolian regales in the Lower Engadine, the Count of Tirol partly claimed the mining and forest regale in the region, thereby Controlling metal production and wood supplies for the large-scale saltworks in Hall. This preponderance of the Count of Tirol, however, encountered increasing Opposition by the communes of the Lower Engadine. When the Tirolian regalities became invalid, the communes, led by the commune of Zernez, sold their wood directly to the saltworks of Hall. From the second half of the 17th Century to the first half of the 19th Century, a major part of the forests of this area were used extensively. The purchase of wood by the local population was at the same time subordinated to a severe use regulation. The complaints on the wastage of wood, which the inhabitants were partly made responsible for, are remarkable. At the same XIII time, however, entire valley slopes were completely deforested.Wood sales were one of the important sources of income of these forest owning communes. All interventions of superior authorities to bring under control this deforestative use, therefore, encountered the Opposition of municipal representatives. Some written sources about the procedure of wood sales and the establishment of wood prices, however, make clear that the Lower Engadine was economically dependent of the saltworks of Hall. It was only after 1835 that the Canton of Grisons took the first measures to bring under control deforestation effectively. After the restriction of drifting timber in wild water and the establishment of regulated forest use in the second half of the 19th Century, the profitability of Single Clearings decreased noticeably. Particularly in the 20th Century, large amounts of firewood were increasingly difficult to seil. An other important land use in the investigated area, the demise of pastures to Bergamask sheepherders, had its prime in the 18th and 19th Century. Due to the dispersion of the foot-and-mouth disease from Italy, however, this kind of land use was definitely prohibited in 1910. The communes were noticeably deprived of their income sources. The search of the pioneers of nature conservation for an appropriate area for the planned Swiss National Park came to meet the communes' needs. Although the demise as a nature reserve guaranteed a fixed annual rent, the communes did not want to spoil all the possibilities of future alternative uses. The issue of hydraulic power exploitation, therefore, proved to be a crucial source of conflict. Economic considerations were the main driving force behind the actions of the entitled forest and land users from the late medieval times to the 20th Century. A peripheral area could visibly gain importance and was, therefore, subject to struggles for power. The communes knew how to seil their natural goods which were not useful to their rural economy. As the profitability of the traditional forest and pasture use was no longer guaranteed, establishing the Swiss National Park within these Valleys became a possibility. Thanks to the importance of this nature reserve for tourism, nature conservation and science as well as to the restriction of hydraulic power use, this territory of marginal economic significance became a mainstay of the regional economy. The intensity and diversity of the uses, to which it is subjected, make the Swiss National Park anything but a virgin territory. A strongly used natural Space and a cultivated land in a comprehensive way of meaning would be a much better description of this area.