Protecting Nature in Colonial America

In 1681 in Pennsylvania, William Penn issued an order requiring his colonists to preserve one acre of trees for every five acres removed in his new proprietary colony of Pennsylvania. Two years later, in a letter to the Free Society of Traders, Penn noted, “[T]he country itself, its soil, air, water, seasons, and produce, both natural and artificial are not to be despised.” With his 1681 order, Penn issued one of the first documents focused on the maintenance of the natural habitat.

Penn and other European settlers would inherit lands that the indigenous people such as the Lenape had carefully cultivated with sophisticated land management practices such as controlled forest fires to create what is known as the edge effect. The burnings helped to populate the forest with a variety of animal species hunted by indigenous communities. As the American Environmental History textbook notes, “[F]ire kept forests open and encouraged the growth of foods preferred by wildlife, creating the park-like woodlands so admired by European settlers.”

Half a century later, another famous Pennsylvanian named Ben Franklin petitioned the Pennsylvania Assembly to stop dumping waste into the Philadelphia harbor. Franklin urged the closing of the tanneries and slaughterhouses polluting Dock Creek and the Delaware River. Franklin argued it had “poor smells” and violated “public rights.” An English visitor in 1769 described the Delaware River as “a mess.” In his will, Benjamin Franklin left funds to build a system for clean drinking water in Philadelphia. The Delaware River was no longer the pristine bay Henry Hudson explored in 1609 before departing in his search for the Northwest Passage.

Hudson named this waterway “South River,” while the Lenape and other indigenous people called it Pautaxat, Lenape, or Whittuck among other names. The Dutch following Hudson called it Zuyt, meaning South River. The river became known as the Delaware in 1610 when British Captain Samuel Argall named it after the Jamestown governor Lord De La Warre. In 1634, a Dutch settler wrote in his logbook, “[T]he river aboundeth with beavers, otters, and other meaner furs...I think few rivers of America have more.”

In addition to the rivers and fish, timber proved to be a valuable resource for ship building, particularly masts. In 1645, members of the Winthrop family and other merchants began supplying Maine with pine trees for ship masts. When William and Mary assumed the English throne in 1688, they imposed restrictions on the use of lumber in the colonies. Both the Massachusetts and New Hampshire charters imposed regulations and fines up to 100 pounds per tree illegally cut down. The crown issued a decree in 1702 stating “for the better preventing the further Spoil of those Woods, and for the preserving a Nursery of Such Trees.” Parliament passed the White Pine Act in 1711, covering New England colonies as well as New York and New Jersey.

Various colonies in New England and in the southern colonies undertook a variety of drainage projects beginning in the middle of 17th century up to the time of the American Revolution. Historians debate whether the colonial authorities attempted to preserve natural wetlands, but there is documented evidence that colonies desired to keep the waterways clean. A 1705 Virginia Law prohibited shipmasters from dumping gravel, ballast, and dead bodies into rivers, creeks, and harbors with a penalty of 10 pounds, later raised to 50 pounds.

The earliest environmental protections covered the hunting of livestock, like deer, Rhode Island passed a 1640 law restricting this form of hunting. The last few decades of the 17th century witnessed the passage of laws restricting particular forms of hunting and fishing, and the protection of certain fish as well.

A final environmental and legal protection was the growth of nuisance laws defined as “an unreasonable interference with a right common to the general public.” Industries like butchering, distilling, candlemaking, and tanning were governed by these statutes. While these statutes did not have the same power and scope as laws and regulations passed in the 19th and 20th centuries, they demonstrate an awareness of the importance of natural resources and the importance of environmental stewardship.