Acta Scientiarum Polonorum
Silvarum Colendarum Ratio et Industria Lignaria

Larch balm (larch resin) is used in natural and porcelain paints as a binder for paint production, as a plasticiser in elastic varnishes, and as an active ingredient in pharmaceutical and cosmetic products. Due to its optical properties, Venetian turpentine extracted from larch was of great importance for a long time in the past as a putty and sealant in optics. Larch resin is considered particularly valuable in folk medicine because of its preserving and healing properties. Larch resin (local name Lörget, Loriet) is extracted by drilling the trunks into the resin canal. Drilling to harvest larch resin is one of the oldest uses of the Austrian mountain forests. Written reports about this form of forest use date back to the 14th century. Larch resin was originally extracted by shepherds. They used an axe to make deep holes in the trunk until the resin cracks were opened and the resin running out could be collected. This tree-damaging procedure was forbidden several times by law already in the 16th century but was gradually permitted from the second half of the 18th century through an imperial privilege under improved technical requirements. This was often practised at that time by woodworkers, who either paid the forest owners an annual rent or leased certain forest plots for a flat rate. Due to the rising prices for larch wood, the extracting of larch balsam declined from the 1860s onwards. Today, larch resin is only turpentined in some mountain forests. For the farmers who cultivate their larch forests between 1,000 and 1,300 m above sea level, drilling to gain resin from larch is still an interesting additional income today. The study focuses on traditional forest-related knowledge and its applications. Learning about the diverse production concepts of the past will not only point to the safeguarding of cultural heritage today in important ways but also to future strategies towards sustainable raw material supply.