It’s interesting to see how a lot of the places that we know of were named because of the trees that were in that area. The name of many had a connection with trees and nature. For example, Bushwick comes from the Dutch word Boswijck which means place of woods. This is similar to “Holland” which means “land of forests”. Today when we think of these places, we don’t make a connection to trees However, back in the days, the trees in a certain place gave it its identify. A lot of the meanings don’t make sense now because a lot of the forests have been depleted and trees have been chopped down.
When the Dutch and English explored the coasts of America, they reported a lot of trees and forests. However, when the time came, the trees were chopped for selfish reasons. When there were fuel shortages in Europe, trees were cut. When shipbuilding became an essential industry during the years of expansion and empire building, trees were cut. Sawmills started being built in New Amsterdam in order to export lumber. These events were the beginning of the destruction of nature, trees, forests, etc. Once selfishness starts playing a role, it’s almost impossible to conserve trees and forests. For example, Native Americans viewed trees as a source of food, fuel, tools and construction material. The Lenapes stripped tree bark so that they could cover their houses and/or make canoes. Many would argue that this was necessary so that the Lenapes could have housing and/or a method of transportation. However, this is not entirely true because we see that the Indians did not cut trees for profit. They didn’t have any selfish motives that would force them to do so. They learned how to mange without destroying trees because they respected nature and thought of trees as their elders. This kind of mentality is not present today because we are more concerned with skyscrapers and urban life. In order to make these urban areas, trees and forests have to be destroyed. It’s not very likely that we will ever be able to reforest the land but the only thing we can do is preserve the few forest remnants that are left. If we are to no preserve these remnants, our earth is going to die sooner than we’d ever want it to.
