Changes in the Land: Chapter 6 Summary & Analysis

The population of wild mammals in New England did not just decline because of the fur market, but also because of the destruction of edge habitats. Colonizers were aggressive in cutting down trees for several reasons, among them that timber was one of the first commodities that could be sent back to Europe to be sold. Beginning in the 1630s, commercial lumbering was mostly concentrated in Maine and New Hampshire, where trees far bigger than any species in Europe grew. For the first time, ship masts could be constructed from a single tree rather than joining two different pieces of wood together. A royal charter decreed that the very biggest masts could be used for the Royal Navy only. 

The colonizers lumbered as if the forest was an infinite resource, often wasting entire trees in their rush to access the most valuable timber. This continued into the nineteenth century. Similar to how the colonizers saw beavers, types of trees came to be seen as commodities, each with a particular value. Over time, certain species began to disappear and parts of the forest became barren. Species that became much rarer include pine and cedar trees. Starting in the 1790s, certain colonizers argued that measures should be taken to protect part of the forest from being lumbered. Yet the main factor leading to the disappearance of trees was not even lumbering—it was actually farming.

After settlements had already appeared on all the land that was already clear, settlers began clearing the forest in order to farm, a process that depleted the fertility of the soil in these areas. Clearing was achieved in two ways, the first of which was girdling, which was slowly killing trees by stripping off their bark, combined with burning undergrowth. This method didn’t require much labor and was better for maintaining soil nutrients for longer, but it wasted trees. The dead trees also caused damage when they fell, sometimes even killing people and livestock.

The second method became increasingly popular over time to the point that, by the late 1700s, it was the only one used. It involved cutting trees down with an ax in summer and leaving them where they’d fallen until the next spring, at which point they’d be burned. This created a single blast of nutrients in the soil that was ultimately less long-lasting. The ash from dead trees was sold as fertilizer, charcoal, and potash, a substance used in soap and gunpowder. Using this method, land could make a lot of money very quickly, which led to forests being destroyed in this manner at significant rates.

Colonizers imitated the practice of forest burning from Native people, but instead of restricting this to undergrowth they burned the entire forest. This was wasteful, destructive, and dangerous. Laws were passed in order to restrict burning to a given property, with penalties if the fire reached neighboring properties. Rather than abiding by agricultural principles, the colonizers’ form of burning conformed to their strict definition of private property. Timber had at first seemed so infinitely plentiful in New England that colonizers used it in an excessive, wasteful manner, to the point that construction came to require untenable amounts of timber. Fences, for example, were made of timber, whereas back in Europe they would have been made of hedges or stone.

However, the most significant use of timber was as a fuel. This was in part because New England colonizers had open fireplaces, which were very wasteful in comparison to the enclosed stoves popular in Northern Europe. As a result, colonizers burned through a staggering amount of wood. Wood shortages were a common problem and as the forest was steadily destroyed, lumberers had to travel farther and farther for timber. Over time, fuel prices rose enormously. As deforestation proliferated, profound ecological consequences ensued, to the point of even causing climate change. There were more forest fires in spring and deeper layers of soil froze in the winter, which increased flooding. There was also a corresponding drying up of streams and springs.

In other places, however, previously dry land got turned into swamps, which led to disease caused by the mosquitoes that proliferated around poorly drained areas. As the land became drier, those working in sawmills found that there was not enough water to keep the mills functioning. Together, these consequences highlight how drastically the deforestation committed by colonizers transformed the New England landscape. Europeans, however, chose to interpret deforestation constructively—it was their way of transferring their “old and familiar way of life” into the New World.