The topic of forest–water interactions has a lengthy and fascinating history. Yet historical work in many languages remains unknown to most researchers. Using the primary literature in French, German, Czech, Japanese, Russian, and Turkish, this paper examines the pretext and describes notable examples of forest–water interactions research in each of the above six languages through historical vignettes that are of relevance today. For example, the French vignette focuses on the search for the hydrological role of forests, while the Russian vignette conveys an interesting example of phytoremediation and the role of evapotranspiration in decreasing malaria risk. In conjunction with a timeline for historical context, along with the identification of some seminal papers, these vignettes convey the important hydrological work of these earlier researchers, bringing some largely unrecognized work to light, thereby illuminating the historical scientific development of forest–water interactions and giving rightful credit to those pioneers who conducted the work.

KN wishes to recognize Prof. Emeritus Masakazu Suzuki (The University of Tokyo) for his advice and information regarding the history of forest–water interactions studies in Japan. MA is grateful to Prof. Dr Ferhat Gökbulak (Istanbul University, Forest Engineering Faculty, Watershed Management Department) for his generous help and guidance with the Turkish section of this manuscript. The authors thank Amirreza Meydani for his assistance with Fig. 1.

Peer reviewed