Hans Carl von Carlowitz

His book Sylvicultura oeconomica, oder haußwirthliche Nachricht und Naturmäßige Anweisung zur wilden Baum-Zucht (1713) was the first comprehensive treatise about forestry.

The Thirty Years' War had caused much trouble and the Rabenstein Castle was also damaged leading to the family moving to Altschönfels in 1652.

Fiver years later he went to study law and public administration in Jena, learned foreign languages, travelled as part of the grand tour to France, Russia and Italy.

First, the river systems in the Erzgebirge was engineered, so logs could be transported from ever more distant forest areas, but these measures only postponed the crisis.

He traveled widely in his youth and learned much from the forced discipline of the French minister Jean Baptiste Colbert, who had enacted a forestry reform in France.

"The full title of his book loosely translates as: Sylvicultura Oeconomica, or the economic news and instructions for the natural growing of wild trees, besides thorough explanation how with gods good will the ever stronger scarcity of timber is to be managed by sowing, growing and planting of seedlings, also through wild and planned cultivation of a once cut and barren land can again be made useful as timber land - through the collection of seeds from seed trees, the preparation of soil for sowing and the care of seedlings.

To be the best utility for the heating, building, brewing, mining and smelting activities requires the careful management of sustainable forestry resources.