Found the wood brand marks of Foiana

After felling the trees and removing the branches in Spring, the trunks had their bark removed in order to reduce pest infestation and accelerate the drying process. This also reduced their weight, and meant that the smooth trunks were easier to transport down the valley. This took place in Winter when the ground was frozen: the logs were slid down snow-covered icy gullies toward the village, where there was a storage area near the Nagelehof. When in 1953 a timber merchant built a cableway to transport wood from the farms in Gall to the Nagelehof, this system of transporting the logs fell into disuse.
When felling was carried out, whether in the many strips of forest or also in the private sectors, each log had to be assigned to its owner, which is where the “branding” or timber marks came into play. Each farm had its own distinctive version, which once the bark was removed, the woodcutter would then carve into the thickest side of the log, slightly away from the end. A “T” for example indicated the Tribus Wiesgut farm, while “WI” referred to Wieser Gasser and “MT” for Mair am Turm. However, not all the marks contained the initials of the farm or family name: many were simple geometric shapes. They most likely date back to the 18th century, as the forests were first divided up in 1710.

If the brand or mark became illegible during transport, the log was stacked separately. Before the timber was measured and sold to the trader—or distributed to the farms—the pile was then divided into percentages based on the quantity of wood cut by each farm. Beginning in the 1960s, with the construction of forest roads and logging routes and the introduction of measuring wood directly on the stump, these markings gradually fell into disuse.
A few years ago, Josef Tribus of the Wiesgut farm in Foiana carved these “bar codes” into thick wooden boards, adding the names of the farms. The woodcutter Josef Margesin, also from Foiana, still remembered 31 of these markings. Today, they are on display in the Museo Contadino, or Farmer's Museum in Foiana, where they are being preserved so as to pass them on to future generations.