Clearing the Northern Forests

While preparing the January BlueSky summaries, I omitted this post from Vince Mpls because I wanted to say more about it:

January 1899: Minneapolis becomes the nation's largest sawmilling center, as northern Minnesota lumber production reaches a frenzied peak, with the average annual cut of pine 2.3 billion board feet. By 1930, less than 1/3rd of the state's trees remain, very little of that virgin growth.

He included these two photos:

Saint Paul had its share of sawmilling and wood-processing industry at the time as well. Wisconsin was hard at the same kind of work.

Of course, the photos Vince shared were what grabbed me first — the idea that all that lumber was hauled out with horses, especially. 

But then the last sentence hit: "By 1930, less than 1/3rd of the state's trees remain, very little of that virgin growth." And I thought of how we in the global north criticize people in the Amazon and other rain forest areas for cutting down trees today, when we cleared a vast forest from the entire eastern half of the U.S. in just decades. 

It brought me back to one of my earliest posts, Cutting Down the Last Tree, Selling the Last Drop of Water.

It also reminded me that there was an alternative, as demonstrated by the Menominee Tribe of Wisconsin. Since 1908 they've been practicing sustainable forestry on their land, and operating a sawmill to process the wood.

There could have been another way, one that wouldn't have been so voracious, sure, and wouldn't have fed the profits of speculators and nascent corporations. We would have had a different history.

I think we can all see that it would have been better for the ecosystem, both human and beyond.