Where are the Trees?

The Kentucky cycle has been a beneficial tool in recognizing changes in the American Society over the course of time.  One of the most dominant themes throughout 200 years of history was land: land accumulation, land value, and landscape.  I would like to focus on the latter option: landscape.  The play is set in the “Cumberland plateau” of Kentucky an area that closely mimics mountains.  The area was once dominated by lush trees and rivers.  Michael Rowen, an Irish indentured servant expresses his admiration for the environment “look at the size of them trees. Sure, but that’s the King of Oaks there”(23).  These trees seem to captivate and impress Rowen.  As he says ‘Kings of Oaks’, ‘kings’ meaning the greatest and most superior.  Therefore Rowen sees something special in the environment something that stands above the rest.  Over one hundred years later in 1890 these trees seem to have the same captivation on Mary Jane Rowen “I jist love them old trees. ‘Specially that oak there? That’s my favorite… I don’t think there’s a tree in these hills comes close to touchin’ it for size…(145)”.  Similar to Michael, Mary Jane recognizes the same dominance the tree holds by setting the tree apart from all the others as she says no other ‘comes close’.  

Today Americans seem to be less impressed by their environment. This is addressed in the play "A War On Poverty" that takes place in 1975, Joshua Rowen describes the mountains as ‘useless’.  Which shows how little value he places in the landscape, the word ‘useless’ means lack of purpose.  Joshua expresses an ideal that is prominent today; if something isn’t producing or benefiting human kind it possesses little value.  This ideal that seems to be taking over Americans today is evident through our treatment of the environment. Deforestation is defined as the “permanent removal of standing forests”.  America comes in seventh place for the county with the highest rates of deforestation of natural forests, losing  215,200 hectares of land each year.  Deforestation produces wood products such as timber for construction, furniture, pencils, and books, all items with are important to humans lives, yet this is disregarding the lives of Animals and plants.   Americans only value what will directly effect them, and have little regard for bigger issues.  In the process we are loosing the majesty of the landscape that impressed the Rowens 200 years ago.

Deforestation in America