One major lumber sink before the industrial revolution (especially then!) was iron production. The "How did they make it" series posted on HN earlier has wonde

One major lumber sink before the industrial revolution (especially then!) was iron production. The "How did they make it" series posted on HN earlier has wonderful detail on that topic [1]. Apparently the supply chain even in Roman times required a staggering amount of trees to the point parts of the UK ran out. > The ecological impact of pre-modern iron production was also significant. We know, for instance, that Elba was almost totally deforested during the Roman period to fuel the bloomeries smelting the ore and Pliny notes in his Natural History that smelting (not always of iron) had substantially reduced forest-stocks in parts of Gaul and Campagnia. Roman iron production in the eastern High Weald of England may have deforested something like 500km2 over the course of three centuries and there is reason to believe that Roman-period iron production in this area stopped because of scarcity of fuel, rather than ore. Iron-working was hardly the only factor in the steady deforestation of Europe, but it was a major factor. [1] https://acoup.blog/2020/09/25/collections-iron-how-did-they-make-it-part-ii-trees-for-blooms/ https://acoup.blog/2020/09/25/collections-iron-how-did-they-...