“We discovered an island triangular in form, distant ten leagues from the continent … full of hills, covered with trees, much populated judging by the continuous fires along all the surrounding shore which we saw they made…” -Giovanni da Verrazano, Explorer for the King of France, April 1524, as quoted in Robert Downie’s “Block Island the Land.”The first European settlers moved to Block Island in 1661 when there was an “abundance of timber” for at least 60 years. “Oak, hickory, elm, ash, cedar, and pine were abundant,” according to Livermore’s “History of Block Island.”
These rich forests were tapped for trees for building materials, ship masts, fences, and most commonly, fuel. It has been estimated that it only took the settlers 150 years to almost totally deforest the island.
“So long has the destitution of native timber here existed that when the writer came upon the island in 1874, not an inhabitant knew where, or when the forest trees were standing,” Livermore wrote.Livermore posits that if it hadn’t been for the presence of peat for fuel, the island would have been abandoned as incapable of supporting life.Old photographs and post cards show a land barren of trees as
