THE INITIAL STAGE OF FORMATION OF THE FOREST PROTECTION SCIENCE IN RUSSIA

Forest protection, being a practically oriented discipline of forestry, has a rich and interesting history. The first attempts to describe forest pests and measures to control them were made in the work of F .G. Fokel «Collection of Forest Science», published in 1752. «Manual for Officers of the Corps of Foresters «Forest protection»» published in 1843 by V. S. Semenov can be considered the starting point of forest protection. The tenth chapter of the work became the first instruction in Russia on the identification of harmful organisms. In 1843-1845, the Department of Ship Forests issued a «Forest Dictionary» prepared under the guidance of V. E. Wrangel. The dictionary contains a description of 76 pest species and more than 20 species of entomophages, and also describes the causes of diseases for the first time. In 1869, the «Reference book on foresters. Part 1» by A. F. Rudzkiy was published, it includes a significant section on forest protection from pests. The first specialized manual was published in 1872 - «Forest Protection» by N. S. Shafranov. This book discussed in details the causes of the insect pests outbreaks, as well as technologies to reduce their impact. Also, for the first time, attention was paid to reducing the marketable value of wood, issues of its subsequent sale, as well as the mechanisms of trees weakening and dieback. In 1875, the second edition of «Forest Protection» was published, in which a separate part was devoted to fungi that cause diseases and rot of trees. The book of N. S. Shafranov was based on the studies of G. A. de Bari, G. M. Wilkomma, and R. Hartig. In 1880 P. V. Baranetskiy published a handbook for forest owners, foresters and students of the forest protection courses. This book has set a bases for contemporary system of forest pathology.