The forester job position is 190 years old

The need to make the forests of Russia public, to regulate the forest use, and to compose the forest legislation was originated in the late XVII century when the Navy construction on the Voronezh shipyard began in 1685.

As late as 1702 Peter the Great introduced heavy government regulation of forest use along rivers, and ordered to make reserved forests public. In order to protect the shipbuilding timber, the forest guards and special public service of forest supervisors (waldmeister) was established.

In 1723 Peter I signed the “Instructions to Chief Forest Supervisors (Ober-Waldmeister)” – a document summarizing and clarifying many previously issued decrees on forest and laying the principle of permanent and non-exhausting forest use.

Under the Emperor Paul’s I rule the Forest Department to which all the officials, Forest Mangers (forstmeister) and Forest Supervisors refer was established. Thus, in 1798 the specially authorized state body was made responsible for forest management.

On June 19, 1826 the Emperor Nicholas I approved “Regulations on the New Arrangement of the Forest” assumed to divide the provinces into the districts, forestries, forest plots and distances. On the territory of Russia the forestry in its present sense has appeared. The execution of the Instructions prescribed by the Emperor, according to its “content”, has led to the renaming of Forest Manager to Forester.

In 1839, all the “ranks of the provincial forest management and forestry educational institutions, as well as the permanent forest guards” are combined into one “Foresters' Corps”.

On January 18, 1843 the Forest Department that ceased to be a “separate” by joining in 1811 to the Ministry of Finance, joined to the Ministry of State Property established in 1837. The head of the Forest Department is the director – the general of the Foresters’ Corps.

Over the almost 80-year history of the Foresters’ Corps the edifice of forest management and protection was established. The foresters were the basis of this system.

On May 27, 1918 the Decree of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee “On forests” was adopted; On August 1, 1923 the Forest Code of the RSFSR came into force. On August 26, 1939 the Regulation on the State Forest Service of the USSR was approved. The document set forth the main objectives of this service: “the struggle for the preservation and further development of forest resources of the USSR; wildfires fighting, fight against plunder and devastation of forests; taking preventive measures against wildfires, plunder and devastation of forests; control over the observation of the rules for the forest use; taking preventive measures against the spread of forest pests and diseases”.

In April 1947, on the basis of Glavlesookhrana the Union-Republican Ministry of Forestry was established. The Forestry Office has found its feet. The work with the Ministry of Forestry of the USSR has begun with the acceptance of forest reserves from all reserve holders.

It was necessary to step up efforts to protect forest. Goslesookhrana was entrusted with a task to raise the number of foresters and rangers to 149 thousand people. It was required to equip them with rifles, determine privileges on agricultural tax and the payment of salary increments for years of service, introduce personal ranks, rank insignia, and approve dress code. But in the middle of March 1953 the Ministry of Forestry of the USSR was liquidated and the forestry system was transferred to the Ministry of Agriculture.

The forestry returned its independent and autonomous control at the end of 1965, when the State Forestry Committee of the USSR was established, and Glavleskhoz of RSFSR was transformed into the Ministry of Forestry of the RSFSR.

On July 21-23, 1966 in Sverdlovsk a representational Russian meeting of foresters was held. 1110 delegates, including 670 foresters from all regional offices and ministries of forestry of autonomous republics of RSFSR took part in its work. In terms of the issues under consideration, their profoundness and significance, wide scope of almost all aspects of the timber industry of the country the Russian meeting of foresters of 1966 became a milestone event in the forestry and gave a powerful impetus to its development in the coming decades. It is in this year when the forest industry has found its professional holiday – the Day of Forest Workers.

As of early 2016 forests cover 46.4% of the country’s territory. Currently, 1779 foresters and 3580 district foresters work in the Russia’s forestry, in their jurisdiction there are 1,146.8 million hectares of the Russian forest reserve. On average, more than 200 thousand hectares of forest reserve is accounted for each forester.