The Impact of Industry on the Landscape and Environment of Austria Prior to the First World War

Abstract

Forests have always played an important role in modeling Austria's landscape, protecting against erosion and safeguarding against avalanche, as well as providing important economic resources. Austrian forests are largely mountain forests. One third of the 156 million acres in the former Austro-Hungarian monarchy is more than five hundred meters above sea level. Most of this acreage was located in the "Empire of Austria;' which consisted of the "Austrian Alpine Provinces" (such as Styria, Salzburg, Tyrol, and Carinthia), the "Danube Provinces" (Lower and Upper Austria), and the "Northwest and Northeast Provinces" (Bohemia, Moravia, and Silesia). Within the Austrian Empire, forests covered an average 32.6 percent of the total landscape, i.e., twenty-five million acres. Those provinces with forest cover far above the average were Styria (48 percent) and Carinthia (44 percent), and those below the average were Moravia (27 percent) and Bohemia (29 percent). The portion of privately owned forests was highest in Bohemia,