American Canopy: Trees, Forests, and the Making of a Nation by Eric Rutkow (review)

American Canopy: Trees, Forests, and the Making of a Nation is the first comprehensive cultural-historical study of North America’s trees and forests. As Rutkow argues, “how easy it is to forget that much of American history has been defined by trees” (page 5), with trees “the loudest silent figures in America’s complicated history” (page 9). While an established literature exists which focuses on sylvan history (Rackham 1976 1986), tree cultures (Jones and Cloke 2002), and landscape history more generally (Hoskins 1955; Schama 1995), American Canopy presents a retelling of such history—focusing on the stories of American trees and of personal drama, and how this contributed to an evolving American culture and identity.

The chapters in American Canopy reflect the stages in America’s development as a nation, and how this shaped understanding, engagement, and experience with trees and forests. Chapter 1 examines early perceptions of America’s trees through the lens of empire, colonization, and revolution; and this thread continues into Chapter 2 through discussion of plant exploration, trade, collection, and distribution. Chapter 3 explores the issue of nature, while Chapter 4 focuses on the consequences of industrial advances in the late nineteenth century for the nation’s trees, especially in terms of demands from the railroads, logging, the paper industry, and the risk posed by fires. Chapter 5 examines early conservationism and an emergent forestry movement. Chapter 6 revisits industrial concerns, moving beyond the ecological implications to wider social and economic issues. Chapter 7 focuses on plant diseases and the subsequent crises for tree stocks. Later chapters focus on the militarization of the nation’s forests during times of war (Chapter 8); the post-war period, prosperity, and an increased demand for timber for suburban living (Chapter 9); concluding with an examination of the place and role of trees in the modern environmental era (Chapter 10).

Rutkow also selects key events and figures from history to frame his discussion of American trees, and it is an approach that adds much to the study. As illustration of some of the stories that unfold in American Canopy:

The Sons of Liberty used a famous tree as a center for popular protest that helped spark the American Revolution. George Washington and Thomas Jefferson were avid horticulturalists who traded tree specimens as they negotiated the Constitution—Jefferson even considered the introduction of the olive tree to South Carolina as one of his greatest achievements. [. . .] Henry David Thoreau helped awaken a nation to the beauty of woodlands. John Muir then used his passion for trees and unbounded nature to champion the creation of national parks. [. . .] Later, President Theodore Roosevelt, with his close confidant Gifford Pinchot, struggled to save the great western forests from industrial ruin. And in the following generation, President Franklin Roosevelt—a tree lover if ever there was one—looked to the nation’s woody resources as a way to ameliorate the Great Depression.

(page 8)

While the above events, and the people involved, are not new to restorationists, American Canopy is nevertheless a useful study, because it revisits and reimagines episodes in the nation’s history by placing tree and forest stories center stage. It explores how trees have shaped society and how society, in turn, has shaped the forests. Emphasised throughout are the political and environmental implications of society’s relationship with trees. The study also reveals how thinking on forestry, and understanding of forestry practices/management and forest services, has changed over time.

Although American Canopy does not specifically address ecological restoration practice, the many anecdotes and accounts of tree planting schemes provide important insights into how, why, and in what circumstances restoration takes place. These range from George Washington’s landscape gardening at his Mount Vernon estate, to the creation of Arbor Day, to the efforts of the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) under Franklin Roosevelt. For restorationists, the value of this study rests with being able to trace...