Károly Bund (4 June 1869 – 16 May 1931) was a Hungarian professional forestry engineer and an early environmentalist, serving as executive secretary of Hungary's

National Forestry Association National may refer to: Common uses * Nation or country ** Nationality – a ''national'' is a person who is subject to a nation, regardless of whether the person has full rights as a citizen Places in the United States * National, Maryland, ce ...

(''Országos Erdészeti Egyesület''), from 1900 until his death.

Early life and education

He was born in Besztercebánya, Austria-Hungary (now

Banská Bystrica Banská Bystrica (, also known by other alternative names) is a middle-sized town in central Slovakia, located on the Hron River in a long and wide valley encircled by the mountain chains of the Low Tatras, the Veľká Fatra, and the Kremnica Mo ...

, Slovakia), the only child of Emanuel Bund and Zsófia Ingruber, who had come from Elsaß-Lothringen, Germany. Bund graduated in 1890 from the

Academy of Mining and Forestry An academy (Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of secondary or tertiary higher learning (and generally also research or honorary membership). The name traces back to Plato's school of philosophy, f ...

in Selmecbánya (now

Banská Štiavnica Banská Štiavnica (; german: Schemnitz; hu, Selmecbánya (Selmec), ) is a town in central Slovakia, in the middle of an immense caldera created by the collapse of an ancient volcano. For its size, the caldera is known as the Štiavnica Mountain ...

). After a year in the military, Bund became a technical clerk at the Forestry Directorate of Besztercebánya. In 1893, Bund passed Hungary's national forestry examination with a perfect score. This led to his appointment to the Ministry of Agriculture's forest planning and management division. Bund married Irén Palmer, the daughter of a mining engineer in Szatmár County. They had four children. Their daughter Sarolta married Béla Horváth, a public servant and Secretary of State for the Interior.

Career

In 1900, Bund was elected executive secretary of the National Forestry Association. Under Bund's direction, the National Forestry Association worked to increase tree-planting in the Hungarian Plain, drafted new forestry laws, intensified efforts to protect natural forests and indigenous tree species, and protect the interests of forestry workers, both professional and skilled non-professional. Bund's main professional interest was forest planning and management, but he also was an expert in the study of tree growth, dendrology,

phenology Phenology is the study of periodic events in biological life cycles and how these are influenced by seasonality, seasonal and interannual variations in climate, as well as environmental factor, habitat factors (such as elevation). Examples includ ...

and genetics. In 1906, at the Imperial Palace-Hofburg of Vienna,

Franz Josef Franz Joseph I or Francis Joseph I (german: Franz Joseph Karl, hu, Ferenc József Károly, 18 August 1830 – 21 November 1916) was Emperor of Austria, King of Hungary, and the other states of the Habsburg monarchy from 2 December 1848 until his ...

, Emperor of Austria and King of Hungary, conferred knighthood upon Bund, for his service to the country. During Bund's career, he published 56 articles in which he was sole author, co-authored three others, and co-authored several books. With a colleague, he translated the Grundner-Schwappach tree-growth tables (''Massentafeln'') from German into Hungarian. These have been used in Hungary since that time. Bund was also editor of the '' Forestry Journal (Erdészeti Lapok)'' for 20 years.

Late years

After the Treaty of Trianon in 1920, which deprived Hungary of 84% of its forest land, the National Forestry Association and the science of forestry in Hungary were in decline. The National Forestry Association could no longer afford to pay Bund a salary, so he worked evenings in part-time jobs in order to support his family. The strain of excessive work led to his death from heart failure in 1931 at the age of 62 in Budapest, Hungary.

References

Országos Erdészeti Egyesület

Keresö Online Lexicon (Encyclopedia)
* Teszár, Tibor, 1991. 125 éves az Országos Erdészeti Egyesület (125 years of the National Forestry Association). In ''Mikológiai közlemények'', Clusiana 1–3. pp. 135–139, ISSN 0133-9095. {{DEFAULTSORT:Bund, Karoly 1869 births 1931 deaths 19th-century Hungarian botanists 20th-century Hungarian botanists Hungarian environmentalists Hungarian ecologists Forestry academics Hungarian-German people Hungarian people of German descent People from Banská Bystrica Forestry in Hungary Hungarian foresters Forestry in Slovakia