Environmental Policy in Early America: A Survey of Colonial Statutes

Abstract

Seen from the air on a clear night, the Atlantic Coast between Boston and Washington stretches 400 miles as an almost un broken sea of lights. Yet, less than 400 years ago a vast, brooding forest confronted European settlers, extending back from this very coast mile upon mile into the interior, "where many creatures never felt the full intensity of the sun."! The forest harbored a rich bounty of natural resources for Indian and European alike; it was not only a source of wood and timber but an invaluable hunting ground." Indeed, the variety of wild game and fowl, fish and shellfish, and other gleanings from the woods, streams, bays, rivers, and lakes provided a margin of subsistence that sustained settlers where meager first crops often did not. 3 The rich resources of the New World were exploited heavily by a growing number of white