Our Place in History

Four Centuries of Forest Use (and Abuse)

Chaplin CT, 1938

Cathedral Pines, 1988

Cathedral Pines, 1990

“The forest is not choked with an undergrowth of brambles and bushes, but as if laid out in by hand in a manner so open, that you might freely drive a four horse chariot in the midst of the trees."

Andrew White, 1633

“The Indians are accustomed to set fire of the Country in all places where they come, and to burne it twize, in the year, vis: as the Spring and fall of the leafe....so that hee that will looke to find large trees and good tymber...will not finde them on upland ground"

Thomas Morton, 1637

“We have hardly any wild animals remaining besides a few small species of no consequence…… Hunting with us exists chiefly in the tales of other times.”

Timothy Dwight, 1821

Hamden, CT - 1907

Scotland, CT 1906

Middlebury, CT - 1910

Simsbury, CT - 1911

Mohawk Mountain

1923

View from Soapstone Mountain, 1934

Portland, CT 1930

Pomfret, CT 1978

Scotland, CT 1978

Woodstock, CT - 1979

Eastford, CT

2002

Take Home Messages?

Human land use impacts have dwarfed all others, and continue to

Sustainability and stewardship notions have rarely driven decisions

Take Home Messages?

Population growth & the era of the automobile have placed unprecedented pressures on our land & water

There has never been a more important time than NOW