Sara S
07-13-2012, 08:49 AM
In today's excerpt - trees have shaped America more than most other nations. It
has some of the most spectacular tree resources on the planet -- forests once covered
a staggering 950 million acres. For Spain in the 1500s and 1600s, the New World
meant gold. For the English, the more important treasure was wood. By then a century
of deforestation had left England as a net importer of wood, leaving their vaunted
sea power at risk and their poor freezing at night:
"North America, [English geographer Richard Haykuyt wrote in 1605], was 'infinitely
full fraughte with sweet wooddes ... and divers other kindes of goodly trees.' Colonists
could immediately be put to work 'settynge upp mylles to sawe them' and producing
boards 'ready to be turned into goodly chests, cupboordes, stooles, tables, desks,
etc.' ... Trees, Hakluyt assured, were the guarantee that the colonial venture would
succeed financially. ...
"In truth, England was suffering from a severe timber crisis that, at the time of
his writing, left the poor literally freezing to death in wintertime for want of
firewood.
"Originally, the British island had been a woodland. Forests of oak and other hardwoods
had filled the southern lands, while conifer stands populated the higher latitudes.
Sheepherders over the centuries converted much of this to pastureland, but the domestic
wood supply remained great enough to handle timber and firewood demands. Then, beginning
in the 1540s, came new manufacturing industries that razed the forests for their
fuel. This new wave of deforestation started with the iron industry, an early royal
effort to boost manufacturing in accord with the trade-based economic theory --
the production of iron required immense amounts of heat and, initially, used charcoal
(which is derived from wood) as fuel. ...
"The situation worsened during the long reign of Queen Elizabeth I (1558- 1603).
She promoted numerous other wood-fuel-driven manufacturing industries, including
copper smelting, salt making, and glass production. ...One writer from this period
commented, "Never so much [oak] hath been spent in a hundred years before as is
in 10 years of our time." The price of firewood doubled between 1540 and 1570. This
pushed some citizens out of the firewood market, and it became commonplace for the
poor to shiver through the winters. The timber shortage had commoditized a product
once freely available for the cutting.
"But fuel needs did not fully account for England's timber demand. Wood was also
necessary in the construction of ships. And Queen Elizabeth, in addition to promoting
domestic manufacturing, had championed shipbuilding, part of the Crowns long-term
strategy to contest Spanish sea power and strengthen English commercial trade.
"Few industries in history have depended on wood quite like shipbuilding (at least
before the conversion to iron and steel hulls in the mid-nineteenth century). A
large naval warship, known as a ship of the line and constructed almost entirely
from wood, weighed over one hundred tons in Hakluyt's day. The bodies of such vessels
required about two thousand mature oaks, which meant at least fifty acres of forest
had to be stripped. While oak supplied the timber for much of the ship, it was too
inflexible and heavy for ship masts, the poles that supported the canvas sails.
Instead, these required lighter and more shock-resistant softwoods, such as pines
and firs. The largest masts were more than three feet wide at their base and over
one hundred feet tall -- roughly one yard in height per inch in width. ...
"The twin demands of shipbuilding and wood-fuel-hungry manufacturing had turned
England into a net wood importer. In particular, the country had to trade for masts
and naval stores, since it had no suitably commercial conifer forests. The preferred
mast trees, called Riga firs or Scotch pines, came from an Eastern European region
around the city of Riga (in present-day Latvia), but several northern countries
had giant spruce forests that were also exploited for naval stores. The trade centered
on ports in Scandinavia and the Baltic Sea -- the latter, which included Riga, was
accessible only through narrow straits between Denmark and Sweden. Rulers who controlled
the various ports and access to the straits knew that England's sea power depended
on forest products and, consequently, kept duties, taxes, and shipping fees high.
The Danish, for example, collected tolls for each crossing. If England ever lost
access to these ports, it would cripple the entire shipping industry, and with
it the Royal Navy.
"Hakluyt saw the solution to this potential dilemma in the woods of North America
... If his travel narratives agreed on anything, they 'agreed that the New World
was an inexhaustible source of naval supplies.' "
Author: Eric Rutkow
Title: American Canopy: Trees, Forests, and Making of a Nation
Publisher: Scribner
Date: Copyright 2012 by Eric Rutkow
Pages: 12-14
American Canopy: Trees, Forests, and the Making of a Nation
by Eric Rutkow by Scribner
Hardcover ~ Release Date: 2012-04-24
has some of the most spectacular tree resources on the planet -- forests once covered
a staggering 950 million acres. For Spain in the 1500s and 1600s, the New World
meant gold. For the English, the more important treasure was wood. By then a century
of deforestation had left England as a net importer of wood, leaving their vaunted
sea power at risk and their poor freezing at night:
"North America, [English geographer Richard Haykuyt wrote in 1605], was 'infinitely
full fraughte with sweet wooddes ... and divers other kindes of goodly trees.' Colonists
could immediately be put to work 'settynge upp mylles to sawe them' and producing
boards 'ready to be turned into goodly chests, cupboordes, stooles, tables, desks,
etc.' ... Trees, Hakluyt assured, were the guarantee that the colonial venture would
succeed financially. ...
"In truth, England was suffering from a severe timber crisis that, at the time of
his writing, left the poor literally freezing to death in wintertime for want of
firewood.
"Originally, the British island had been a woodland. Forests of oak and other hardwoods
had filled the southern lands, while conifer stands populated the higher latitudes.
Sheepherders over the centuries converted much of this to pastureland, but the domestic
wood supply remained great enough to handle timber and firewood demands. Then, beginning
in the 1540s, came new manufacturing industries that razed the forests for their
fuel. This new wave of deforestation started with the iron industry, an early royal
effort to boost manufacturing in accord with the trade-based economic theory --
the production of iron required immense amounts of heat and, initially, used charcoal
(which is derived from wood) as fuel. ...
"The situation worsened during the long reign of Queen Elizabeth I (1558- 1603).
She promoted numerous other wood-fuel-driven manufacturing industries, including
copper smelting, salt making, and glass production. ...One writer from this period
commented, "Never so much [oak] hath been spent in a hundred years before as is
in 10 years of our time." The price of firewood doubled between 1540 and 1570. This
pushed some citizens out of the firewood market, and it became commonplace for the
poor to shiver through the winters. The timber shortage had commoditized a product
once freely available for the cutting.
"But fuel needs did not fully account for England's timber demand. Wood was also
necessary in the construction of ships. And Queen Elizabeth, in addition to promoting
domestic manufacturing, had championed shipbuilding, part of the Crowns long-term
strategy to contest Spanish sea power and strengthen English commercial trade.
"Few industries in history have depended on wood quite like shipbuilding (at least
before the conversion to iron and steel hulls in the mid-nineteenth century). A
large naval warship, known as a ship of the line and constructed almost entirely
from wood, weighed over one hundred tons in Hakluyt's day. The bodies of such vessels
required about two thousand mature oaks, which meant at least fifty acres of forest
had to be stripped. While oak supplied the timber for much of the ship, it was too
inflexible and heavy for ship masts, the poles that supported the canvas sails.
Instead, these required lighter and more shock-resistant softwoods, such as pines
and firs. The largest masts were more than three feet wide at their base and over
one hundred feet tall -- roughly one yard in height per inch in width. ...
"The twin demands of shipbuilding and wood-fuel-hungry manufacturing had turned
England into a net wood importer. In particular, the country had to trade for masts
and naval stores, since it had no suitably commercial conifer forests. The preferred
mast trees, called Riga firs or Scotch pines, came from an Eastern European region
around the city of Riga (in present-day Latvia), but several northern countries
had giant spruce forests that were also exploited for naval stores. The trade centered
on ports in Scandinavia and the Baltic Sea -- the latter, which included Riga, was
accessible only through narrow straits between Denmark and Sweden. Rulers who controlled
the various ports and access to the straits knew that England's sea power depended
on forest products and, consequently, kept duties, taxes, and shipping fees high.
The Danish, for example, collected tolls for each crossing. If England ever lost
access to these ports, it would cripple the entire shipping industry, and with
it the Royal Navy.
"Hakluyt saw the solution to this potential dilemma in the woods of North America
... If his travel narratives agreed on anything, they 'agreed that the New World
was an inexhaustible source of naval supplies.' "
Author: Eric Rutkow
Title: American Canopy: Trees, Forests, and Making of a Nation
Publisher: Scribner
Date: Copyright 2012 by Eric Rutkow
Pages: 12-14
American Canopy: Trees, Forests, and the Making of a Nation
by Eric Rutkow by Scribner
Hardcover ~ Release Date: 2012-04-24