:The trees on Easter Island (Rapa Nui)are thought to have been cut to enable the transport and up-ending of the huge stone heads (no spacemen required ;-) If so, the resource was lost due to fanatical religious demands, not subsistence-oriented manufacturing (like building canoes). Check out the slightly over-the-top, but fairly accurate (in terms of what archaeologists think occurred)movie called "Rapa Nui".

This raises an interesting point regarding the cause of resource depletion! Cheers, Chuck