COAZ

SWITZERLAND (see also List of Individuals)

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31.5.1822 Antwerpen/B - 18.8.1918 Chur/CH

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Johann Coaz was born of Swiss parents in Belgium. He graduated from the Forest School Tharandt close to Dresden in 1844, and spent the following year with the forest department of the Saxon Kingdom. Upon return to Switzerland, he joined the federal mountain survey troops and collaborated with the Swiss general Henri Dufour (1787-1875). Coaz was appointed forest engineer of Graubünden Canton in Eastern Switzerland, and developed the reorganization of the service perfectly within 15 years. The Swiss Federal Council appointed him in 1875 Federal Forest Engineer, a task that demanded patience and skill, next to excellent professional knowledge. Based on the Forest Law of 1902, the Swiss government expanded its supervision over the entire country, with widespread consequences for the Swiss forest and landscapes. Coaz retired in 1914 at the age of 92. He was an Honorary Member of the Swiss Association of Forests, of the Swiss Alps Club in whose journal he had published a number of articles, of the Swiss Association of Natural Sciences, and was awarded the Honorary Doctorate from Berne University.

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Coaz was a man who loved mountains. He was shocked to see in the 1850s the Swiss mountain forests, which had partly been cleared and left in a terrible state. Coaz recognized the important interaction between such deserted forests and floods that eroded steeper slopes resulting in large devastation downstream. Besides forest rehabilitation, Coaz also aimed to collaborate with educated people and thus organized courses for forest personnel. He introduced systematic obstructions against avalanches to protect settlings and infrastructure from those natural hazards. He also supported education in forest sciences at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology ETH in Zurich to bridge the gap between theory and application. Coaz may thus be considered a pioneer in the Swiss protection of nature, particularly of the Swiss Alps.

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_{Anonymous (1918). Dr. J. Coaz. Österreichische Vierteljahresschrift für Forstwesen 68: 81-82. Coaz, J.W. (1861). Der Wald - Zwei Vorträge gehalten zu Chur. Engelmann: Leipzig.}

_{Coaz, J.W. (1869). Die Hochwasser im September und Oktober 1868 im bündnerischen Rheingebiet vom naturwissenschaftlichen und hydrotechnisch-forstlichen Standpunkt betrachtet. Engelmann: Leipzig.}

_{Coaz. J.W. (1881) Die Lawinen der Schweizeralpen. Dalp: Bern.}

_{Schröter, C. (1919). Dr. Johann Coaz. Verhandlungen Schweizerische Naturforschende Gesellschaft 100: 1-13. P}