Yup, it's all about population density.
At the turn of the century, Canada was >70% rural or some such. Now, it's reversed. >70% urban.
When you live on a farm, in the county, and own 100 acres, a few extra acres for wood provides a long supply of wood, with time for more to grow.
Every farm tended to have rocky, unusable bits, but still ok for trees. Back then, before everyone had backhoes, removing large rocks, even small rocks, was work.
So some fields were best left for trees.
And one of your neighbours would likely own 1000 acres or more of bush land, ok for trees, but too rocky or swampy for farming. Or local crown land would be used for harvesting trees.
Back when people went in with sleighs in the winter, felled trees by hand with axe and hand saw, no one strip cut. Why would they?
(It is easier with horses to pull logs out on sleigh, in winter, than over uneven, soft ground. Especially in frozen swampy land. Even today, people will use snowmobiles and sleigh to get trees out for personal use.)
Anyhow back then, it was only people living in higher density locations, away from nature, which exceeded easy supply.
Of course, population growth happens, and wood burning can be dirty, so now we warm homes with other methods typically.