Witness Tree: Double Bit Axe, 2022
Maple head and Ash sapling handle
Forest cutting was used as a means for creating tillable farmland for colonists moving to the “Green Mountain State'' in the early 18th century. But as the industrial revolution grew in the United States and wood consumption skyrocketed from the 1760’s to the 1830’s, logging quickly became the largest industry in New England and heavy deforestation followed suit. It is estimated that 36 million board feet of lumber and 300 ship masts were being exported from the American Northeast annually. New tools such as the double bit axe were introduced, streamlining hand felling and splitting causing a 60% decrease in forest cover statewide between 1800 and 1880. Within a span of 80 years Vermont's forest cover had declined drastically, from 80% to 20%.
George Perkins Marsh, credited with writing the first book related to the idea of conservation in the United States, wrote his text in 1864 which began a cultural shift in humans' approach to forest resources in the American Northeast. His book challenged the common and accepted idea that humans made no impact on nature, especially in the realm of forest ecology. Man and Nature was a foundational text for many of the stewardship programs we know today at every level of government such as the National Park Service to private forestry firms and land owners alike. Today, the forest cover of Vermont has been regenerated to 90%, better than it was before colonialism.
To explore this decline and following increase I made an “axe”. The double bit style head of this tool was carved from maple wood which came from a tree previously standing in the Marsh Billings Rockefeller National Historical Park. In contrast, the handle growing from the head is made from an ash sapling that I harvested during a visit to the park. The sapling was cleared from a historical stand of Norway spruce planted by Fredrick Billings in 1887. This stand borders a viewshed envisioned and created by Billings overlooking Mt. Ascutney in the distance. The Norway Spruce are getting older, and the decision to cut the hardwood saplings was made in an attempt to further their life as a historical record of the Billings Era of authorship on the land. The head and handle are joined together how an axe would be traditionally, with a wedge. This “axe” is to be stored with its head down, in permanent waiting as the reforested handle grows out of its history.
