![Map of eastern Lake Zurich at the time of the First War of Villmergen, 1656 (detail).](https://blog.nationalmuseum.ch/app/uploads/ortsnamen-obersee-titel-300x225.jpg)
“Rüti” and “Schwand” indicate historical clear-felling of forests
The forests of Switzerland have been managed since time immemorial – and for centuries, they were also cleared on a large scale. The complex relationship between humans and the forest is immortalised in the names of towns and localities.
![Land reclamation through deforestation. Sachsenspiegel, ca. 1230.](https://blog.nationalmuseum.ch/app/uploads/dorfgruendung-sachsenspiegel-300x165.jpg)
![Colourised wood engraving from 1859.](https://blog.nationalmuseum.ch/app/uploads/rutli-gbe-65923-lm-62609-300x217.jpg)
![Schwende near Appenzell, ca. 1870](https://blog.nationalmuseum.ch/app/uploads/schwendi-bei-heiden-300x209.jpg)
![A man felling a tree with an axe. Illustration of forest management from the Codex Granatensis, ca. 1400.](https://blog.nationalmuseum.ch/app/uploads/mann-fallt-einen-baum-codex-granatensis-300x193.jpg)
![The forest has always played an important role in the day-to-day life of humankind. In the upper Sihlwald near Zurich, ca. 1760.](https://blog.nationalmuseum.ch/app/uploads/sihlwald-300x253.jpg)
![Chopping, sawing, splitting: forestry work in the 17th century. Woodcut from the Georgica curiosa, an encyclopaedic textbook on all aspects of housekeeping and agriculture, ca. 1685.](https://blog.nationalmuseum.ch/app/uploads/waldarbeit-im-17-jahrhundert-georgica-curiosa-aucta-300x216.jpg)