Forestry and Timber Technology Education

the training of engineers, technicians, and qualified workers for forest management, for cutting, hauling, and floating timber, for mechanical and chemical processing of wood, for building and operating machines, devices, and equipment, and for the automation and comprehensive mechanization of logging and wood products enterprises, as well as chemical technology enterprises that use wood.

In Russia systematic education in forestry originated in 1803 with the organization of a school of forestry in Tsarskoe Selo (the present-day town of Pushkin). After several reorganizations it was named the St. Petersburg Institute of Forestry (the present-day S. M. Kirov Leningrad Academy of Timber Technology). In addition, a higher education in forestry was offered at the Petrov-skii Academy of Agriculture and Forestry (founded in 1865; the present-day K. A. Timiriazev Moscow Academy of Agriculture) and at the Novaia Aleksandriia Institute of Agriculture and Forestry (founded in 1869). The only secondary educational institution in forestry was the Lisino School near St. Petersburg (1875–88). Forest wardens, forest guards, and forest rangers, who studied for two years in elementary forestry schools, played an important role in Russian forestry. The first schools of this type were opened in 1834 in small cities, villages, and forestry sections. There were 43 schools in 1913. Between 1888 and 1913 they graduated about 5,000 students, most of whom were from peasant families. Such well-known scientists as N. V. Shelgunov, A. F. Rudzkii, G. F. Morozov, D. N. Kaigorodov, M. K. Tur-skii, K. A. Timiriazev, L. A. Ivanov, V. N. Sukachev, M. E. Tkachenko, and M. M. Orlov taught at the St. Petersburg Forestry Institute and at the Petrovskii Academy. The schools of science founded by them contributed a great deal to the development of the natural sciences and forestry. Higher education in forestry overemphasized biology. The development of a scientific technology for establishing forests and for the comprehensive mechanization of logging, the wood products industry, and the chemical processing of wood had only begun in prerevolutionary Russia.

Radical qualitative and quantitative changes took place in forestry education after the October Revolution of 1917. Between 1918 and 1922 the Soviet government passed a number of decrees and resolutions intended to strengthen and develop the timber industry and forestry and supply them with qualified personnel. To train specialists with a higher education in forestry and timber technology, departments of forest management were organized at the Voronezh Institute for Agriculture (1918) and the University of Kazan (1920). The Moscow Institute of Timber Technology was founded in 1919. In 1923 the Petrograd Forestry Institute shifted its curricular emphasis to the training of forest engineers with various specialties. Institutes of timber technology were opened in Arkhangel’sk in 1929, in Sverdlovsk (the Urals Forestry Institute), Krasnoiarsk, Voronezh, and Ioshkar-Ola (the Volga Forestry Institute) in 1930, and also in L’vov in 1945. Under Soviet power a broad network of forestry and timber technology technicums was created. The establishment and improvement of Soviet forestry and timber technology and of education in these fields is associated with the work of Professors A. V. Tiurin, N. P. Anuchin, I. S. Melekhov, S. N. Rim-skii-Korsakov, A. S. Iablokov, D. A. Popov, N. N. Chulitskii, V. P. Timofeev, M. A. Deshevyi, S. F. Orlov, and P. P. Patsior. In 1972 about 30 schools were training engineers for the timber industry and forestry, including the S. M. Kirov Leningrad Academy of Timber Technology, the Moscow Timber Technology Institute, the V. V. Kuibyshev Arkhangel’sk Forestry Institute, the Urals Forestry Institute (Sverdlovsk), the Voronezh Institute of Timber Technology, the L’vov Institute of Timber Technology, and the Leningrad Technological Institute for the Pulp and Paper Industry. Other schools for forestry engineers are the Siberian Technological Institute (Krasnoiarsk), the Briansk Technological Institute, the S. M. Kirov Byelorussian Technological Institute (Minsk), the Khabarovsk and Volga polytechnic institutes (in Ioshkar-Ola), and several other higher educational institutions, most of which specialize in agriculture. Higher education in forestry and timber technology includes a number of specialties: forest management, forest engineering, wood products technology, the technology of processing plastics, chemical technology of wood, and chemical technology of the pulp and paper industry. Other special fields are machines and devices for the timber and wood products industry, machines and equipment for the pulp and paper industry, automation and comprehensive mechanization of technological processes, economics and organization of the timber industry and forestry, and economics and organization of the wood products and pulp and paper industries. In 1972 students received intermediate training in forestry and timber technology (in 24 specialties) in 78 specialized forestry, timber technology, forest mechanics, and other technicums administered by the USSR Ministry of the Timber and Wood-Products Industry, the Ministry of the Pulp and Paper Industry, and republic ministries of forestry. In addition, secondary training is offered in 100 other technicums, including polytechnic, technological, construction, agriculture, and industrial ones. Workers qualified for forest management and branches of industry related to it graduate from vocational schools. (In 1972, students of forestry graduated with certificates in more than 70 fields of specialization offered by more than 300 vocational schools.)

In 1972, 76,500 students were studying special fields of forestry and timber technology in higher educational institutions, and 47,100 students were enrolled in various fields of forestry in technicums. More than 9,000 students graduated with higher degrees in forestry in 1972, and more than 10,500 graduated from technicums with degrees in forestry and related fields. In 1972, 16,800 students were admitted to higher educational institutions in forestry, and more than 13,000 were admitted to forestry technicums.

Researchers and teachers with an education in forestry and timber technology are trained in postgraduate programs. The Leningrad Academy of Timber Technology and the Moscow and Voronezh institutes of timber technology can accept doctoral and candidate’s dissertations. The Urals Forestry Institute accepts only candidate’s dissertations.

Foreign centers of forestry and timber technology education are located in Eberswald and Dresden in the German Democratic Republic, in Prague and Brno in the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic, in Warsaw and Poznań in the Polish People’s Republic, and in Sofia in Bulgaria.

In the capitalist countries, where, as a rule, there are no independent schools of forestry and timber technology, specialists usually study in departments, colleges, and schools that are part of universities: Yale and Syracuse universities, the University of Oregon, and the University of Georgia (USA), universities in Vancouver and Ottawa, (Canada), the School of Forestry in Stockholm (Sweden), the University of Munich in the Federal Republic of Germany, and the School of Forestry in Nancy (France).