PrintScarcity and Government Intervention in Colonial Massachusetts
Serious European settlement of Cape Cod in Massachusetts, USA began with the arrival of the Pilgrims in 1620. The land was almost totally tree-covered, but logging for fuel and building material, and to clear fields for cultivation, quickly became widespread. Wood was burned in great amounts, boiling sea water to obtain salt for packing cod for shipping and to 'try' whale meat to extract the valuable oil. The consequences of deforestation, including soil drying and erosion, as well as the scarcity of fuel, became so severe that government actions were quickly taken.
In Eastham, the freedom-loving pioneers banned cutting of wood on the common lands in 1690 except to supply wood for sales out of town. In 1694, this prohibition was extended beyond the common lands to any source of wood. In 1695, cutting wood on the common was prohibited even for outside cash sales. Similarly, in 1711-12, Truro on the Cape was requiring Court-granted permission before people could cut wood for certain uses. (Rubertone, P. E., 1985, 'Ecological Transformations,' in Part II: Changes in the Coastal Wilderness: Historical Land Use Patterns on Outer Cape Cod, 17th - 19th Centuries, in McManamon, F.P. (ed.), Chapters in the Archaeology of Cape Cod, III: The Historic Period and Historic Period Archaeology, Cultural Resources Management Study Number 13 (Division of Cultural Resources, North Atlantic Regional Office, National Park Service, U.S. Department of the Interior, Washington, DC), p. 78.)
Interestingly, the scarcity was overcome, in part by the reliance of 'renewable' resources. With windmills to pump seawater into solar drying troughs, the Cape Codders secured large quantities of inexpensive salt, without cutting trees.