Natural Notes: How Trees Built America
This blog post consists of notes from a lecture on the cultural significance of certain trees in the early stages of the United States. The slideshow lecture took place at Sand Ridge Nature Center in South Holland, Illinois on 13 January 2016. The speaker was Michael Panygnot, a resource technician with the Forest Preserves of Cook County. Ship and Housing Construction When pioneers established cities in the "New World", they often developed areas that were former Native American settlements. Many early settlers were sponsored by companies to log and clear forests. Pioneers were not generally good with axes and did not know how to properly nor safely fell trees. It generally took pioneer families one year to clear land, built houses, and plant crops. Certain tree species served an important economic and cultural purpose to pioneers. An important task for early colonial Americans was to build a fleet of navy ships to defend themselves against enemies. Am