American Canopy: Trees, Forests, and the Makings of a Nation

“My cabin at Beaver Brook is in a forest that used to be mostly dominated by white pines, the tallest trees in the Eastern United States. The forest was nearly clear cut and the logs were floated down the nearby Delaware River to Philadelphia where they were used as structural beams for buildings and British ships. ... Now, BB’s trees are mostly 40-50 years old, though I’m grateful there are still a few old growth trees to remind me of the previous magnificence of this historic forest.”

What struck me about this post as I scrolled through Cabin Porn earlier this morning was not the sad story, but the cover of Erik Rutkow’s book: featuring two cowboys, for lack of a better term, amidst a huge forest of leviathan trees. It saddens me to think that today, we lack both.