FORESTRY IN SWITZERLAND. 24I 



Art. 4. Under the term " protective forests" are to be understood those which by reason 

 of the great altitude of their location, or of their situation on steep mountain shelves, rising 

 grounds, ridges, and projections in marshy tracts or narrow passes, or crusted earth, or the banks 

 of brooks or rivers, or owing to a deficiency of woodland, serve as a protection against injurious 

 cHmatic influences, and damage by winds, avalanches, falls of rock or ice, landslides, wash- 

 outs, or inundations. 



Art. 5. Within a limit of two years the protective forests are to be set off from the other 

 forests by the cantons. Such separation, when made, is subject to examination and approval 

 by the national council. 



Art. 6. The several cantons shall issue the necessary decrees and ordinances for carrying 

 out the present law, and transmit the same to the national council for examination and 

 approval. The latter shall superintend their execution, appointing for that purpose an inspector 

 of forests and providing him with the requisite number of assistants. 



II. — Classification of forests and forestry officials. 



Art. 7. The cantons and parts of cantons embraced in the federal forestry system are to 

 be districted by the cantonal governments according to the requirements of the organization of 

 their several forestry systems. 



Art. 8. For the maintenance and administration of the forestry law, the cantons shall 

 employ and pay the requisite number of trained foresters. 



Art. 9. It shall be incumbent upon the cantons to train subordinate forestry officials by 

 holding councils of instruction. 



III. — Regulations concerning the maintenance of forests and rights of ownership therein. 



Art. lb. Within a period not to exceed five years all forests subject to federal supervision 

 shall be marked out. In a case where forests adjoin, the marking of the outer boundary line 

 of the forestry district to which they belong will sufiice. 



Art. 1 1 . Within the established limits no diminution of forest area is permissible without 

 the consent of the canton, and in future barrens and clearings shall be replanted where no 

 equivalent area of other land is turned over for tree-planting. The digging out of roots is 

 prohibited, (a) in protective forests, (V) when it imperils the welfare of protective forests. 

 Exceptions to this rule can only be allowed by special consent of the national council. 



Art. 12. There shall be no distribution of cantonal, township, or corporation forests, either 

 for purposes of usufruct or ownership, save in extraordinary cases, and in such the decision 

 shall be vested in the cantonal government. 



Art. 13. Township and 'corporation forests shall only be sold with the consent of the 

 cantonal governments. 



Art. 14. ^Vherever rights of pasturage, leaf-gathering, or otherwise pertain to protective 

 forests, the same are to be dissolved wherever incompatible with the purposes for which the 

 forests serve. This provision shall be carried into effect within a period not exceeding ten 

 years. Wood-cutting rights in forests subject to federal supervision can be dissolved by the 

 owners of the land. Indemnification may be made either in money, or, when that, under 

 existing circumstances, is impracticable, by the transfer of an equivalent area of land. The 

 manner of dissolving the rights above mentioned, and the legal steps to be taken in regard 

 thereto, shall be determined by cantonal legislation. It is forbidden to contract any new rights 

 of the character mentioned. 



Art. 15. All businesss rights conflicting with articles 11, 12, 13, and 14 are null and void. 



IV. — Forestry regulations. — Netu inclosures. 



Art. 16. All government, township, and corporation forests shall be surveyed, their man- 

 agement regulated, and plans for their cultivation introduced. The fixed tributes imposed on 

 a basis of the deficiency in yield shall not be exceeded. Whenever, owing to extraordinary 

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