Pollen records show that destruction of Easter's forests was well under way by the year A.D 800, just a few centuries after the start of human settlement.
Not long after 1,400, the palm finally became extinct, not only as result of being chopped down to clear land for agriculture and provide wood but also because the growing population of rats devoured the nuts necessary for regeneration.
The hauhau tree did not become extinct in Polynesian times, but its numbers declined drastically until there weren't left to make ropes from.