'The land,’ wrote one traveler in 1852 of the country around Mantiowoc, Wisconsin, ‘is heavily timbered, generally, with pine, oak, maple, and other varieties…’ To perceive this forest as this traveller did through the lens of the word ‘timber’ was already a shift into the domain of resources, commodities, and second nature… When most nineteenth century Americans saw a white pine, they could summarise their reaction with a single compelling word: ‘lumber’.

- Nature's Metropolis, William Cronon