Metla´s history

by Olli Heikinheimo

The first movement towards the setting up of a forest research institute in Finland dates back to the year 1866, when the question was discussed at a conference of forest officers. Thereafter it was brought up from timt to time on different occasions and from different quarters, but plans did not take definite shape until 1906 when, at the instance of P.W. Hannikainen, at that time General Director of the State Forest Department, the Senate commissioned Dr. A.K. Cajander to visit forest research stations abroad and formulate proposals for a similiar institution in Finland. Cajander´s detailed report on his tour, and the original and comprehensive proposals he based upon it, were ready in 1909, and provided the foundation on which the Research Institute was to be established. The setting up of the Institute was postponed from year to year during the world war until the 24th October, 1917, when the Senate passed the Ordinance relating to it, followed a little later by the Statutes of the Institute. Owing to the Finnish War of Liberation it was not possible to give effect to these until the 1st July, 1918.

The name of the Finnish Forest Research Institute has been changed twice in its history. Its first name was Experimental Forest Institute. It was changed in 1928 to Institute in Forest Science, and again in 1953 to Forest Research Institute.

A.K. Cajander