Trees, Forests, and the Making of a Nation Like many of us,
historians have long been guilty of taking trees for granted.
Yet the history of trees in America is no less remarkable than
the history of the United States itself—from the majestic white
pines of New England, which were coveted by the British Crown
for use as masts in navy warships, to the orange groves of
California, which lured settlers west. In fact, without the
country’s vast forests and the hundreds of tree species they
contained, there would have been no ships, docks, railroads,
stockyards, wagons, barrels, furniture, newspapers, rifles, or
firewood. No shingled villages or whaling vessels in New
England. No New York City, Miami, or Chicago. No Johnny
Appleseed, Paul Bunyan, or Daniel Boone. No Allied planes in
World War I, and no suburban sprawl in the middle of the
twentieth century. America—if indeed it existed—would be a very
different place without its millions of acres of trees. As Eric
Rutkow’s brilliant, epic account shows, trees were