Logging in the Northwestern United States has been a major part of its economy almost since it's settlement. In the movie they noted that most of the mainland had been cleared for housing developments and high-rises. This interested me, in the movie they used the cedars to protect them from the prejudiced society, the trees became a place they could live without fear of being torn apart by an unjust world. On the mainland they had removed all the trees, and so they had removed they"re innocence. When the two young lovers left the shelter of the trees they also left behind they"re innocence. I think the logging industry in America helped removed the innocence of the country, but at the same time instilled a more realistic perspective in the people of this country. How was this accomplished, was the first question that occurred to me. How did they remove the majority of the forests in America? What techniques did they use both now and then to go about cutting down and removing the trees? What did they do with all of the wood?.
People started cutting down the tree in the America's nearly as soon as they got off the boat. They used the lumber to construct they"re first houses, and other essential buildings. The forestry industry got its official start in 1633 with the construction of the first sawmill in the colonies. Today approximately 12,000 sawmills are operating in the United States (logging book). Soon though the colonies were shipping lumber back to England for they"re buildings and ships (Encarta forestry industry). They cleared all the land up to the Appalachian Mountains with little resistance. After the American Revolution they began crossing these mountains and settling the plains for farming this demanded land free from trees. The farmers used a technique called cut and burn. This is when the lumber people go through and cut the best trees for their use and burn the rest in an effort to clear the land for some other use.
