Picea abies – Norway Spruce Pinus sylvestris. – Scots pine or Baltic pine Larix decidua European Larch Source Wikipedia.
A series of Acts of Parliament between 1698 and 1785 also encouraged tree planting in Ireland where large areas of Scots pine and European larch were planted by landlords in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. From about 1809, enclosure and planting were increasingly adopted in the crown forests and oak (Quercus spp.) and subsequently Scots pine were planted. There was increasing interest in growing conifers for timbers, and this received a great stimulus form 1827 onwards when Douglas fir, Sikta spruce and other conifers were introduced from Western North America. In the latter part of the nineteenth century this major afforestation effort began to wane. Many reasons including other forms of investment made possible by the Industrial revolution and the growth of international commerce. Clear cutting native forests followed by planting or artificial seeding became increasingly common in the middle of the eighteenth century, notably in parts of Germany and adjacent countries where German foresters were influential. In Saxony there was widespread planting of Norway spruce (Picea abies) on sites formerly occupied by degraded hardwood or mixed hardwood-conifer forests. The first rotation grew fast but in places there was a serious decline in subsequent plantings in part due to problems with cycling of nutrients and organic matter. The important lesson from the Saxony experience was the need to understand the biological processes of the plantation ecosystem as the basis for sustainable management. Prior to 1880, forestry practice in Germany and France had been developing and this played a crucial role in the development of forestry elsewhere in Europe, North America, and tropical countries as India. Development of Tropical Forest Tree Plantations. Turnbull described development of tropical plantations can be traced back to the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries with the expansion of European influence as colonial powers. From about 1600, the spread of European navies and colonizers from Portugal, Spain, holland, France and Britain around the globe encouraged exploitative timber export trade. The colonizers encouraged an exploitative timber export trade, often seriously damaging natural forests. Until the late 1800’s there was generally sufficient tropical natural forest and little need to plant trees for industrial wood production.
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