THE FOREST CODE AND THE REGIME FORESTIER 



BY W. B. GREELEY, LIEUT.-COL. OF ENGINEERS, U. S. A. 



THE "regime forestier" means to the French the sum 

 total of laws and administrative decrees applicable 

 to forests under all forms of public ownership. It 

 thus actually governs about one-third of the forested area 

 of France ; but the public administration of this third, 

 affording opportunity to standardize and demonstrate 

 cultural methods in every section of the country, is the 

 core of French forestry. 



The requirements and protection of the "regime" ex- 

 tend to all state forests, to all communal forests which 

 are adapted to forest management, and to the forested 

 properties of public institutions like hospitals, charitable 

 organizations, and ecclesiastical foundations. They may 

 be extended to communal lands whose reforestation is 

 deemed desirable by the Government. They are applied 

 automatically to all forests and planting areas within the 

 limits of national projects which are undertaken for the 

 stabilization of sand dunes or for the checking of erosion 

 on mountain slopes. They may be extended to private 

 forests at the voluntary choice of the owner, but other- 

 wise have no direct application in the handling of tim- 

 bered lands in private ownership. 



The basis of the "regime forestier" is the forest code 

 of France, which stands today in substantially the form 

 in which it was adopted in 1827. This detailed and com- 



prehensive code is deeply rooted in the forestry laws of 

 the old imperial days, particularly in Colbert's Ordinance 

 of Waters and Forests of 1669, which dealt minutely with 

 waterways, fishing, and hunting as well as with forests. 

 Many penal provisions of the forest code are taken bodily 

 from Colbert's Ordinance and preserve — in the liberty- 

 loving France of today — much of the harsh and arbi- 

 trary conceptions of penal law characteristic of the times 

 of Louis XIV. In this as in other respects, the code is 

 a striking expression of the French attitude toward their 

 forests — as a resource which the common law alone is 

 inadequate to conserve and protect. Because of the ease 

 with which the productivity of forests may be impaired, 

 because of the long time required to restore it, once re- 

 duced, and because of the far-reaching public and eco- 

 nomic interests at stake, forests stand apart from other 

 forms of land and require a special code exceptional in 

 its restrictions and in the severity of its punishments. 

 French discussions of the code refer constantly to the 

 necessity for restraining the "juissance" (enjoyment or 

 use) of forests by their owners in order that their national 

 utility may not be destroyed. Nothing else in French 

 jurisprudence is comparable to this body of special laws 

 created for the conservation of their forests. 



The "regime forestier" is applied today to about 



A FRENCH LOGGING RAILROAD 



These railways of 60 centimeter gauge (24 inches) are quickly built, the rails and ties being light. Somewhat similar roads were built for carry- 

 ing ammunition and supplies to the troops and where there were woods they were easy to hide from enemy observation. 



1451 



