Resumen de The Australasian-Californian Forest Exchange: Ecological Exchanges, Novel Ecosystems and Attitudes Towards Nature
This paper examines the exchange of trees and forests that began during the Victorian era and is ongoing between South-eastern Australia, California and New Zealand. This exchange predominately featured eucalyptus trees, Monterey pines and Monterey cypress, but increasingly is also featuring Californian coastal redwoods. The continuing, transnational history of this exchange is situated within a context of changing attitudes toward nature, environmental management, economic and commercial interests and cultural and historic heritage in these regions. Conceptions of novelty, hybridity, métissage and authenticity as they are found in both ecological theory and the historical and social sciences are applied to the exchange and its cultural and historical contexts. A transnational historical perspective regarding this exchange and its context within evolving attitudes to nature is of interest not only to the environmental historian, but also to historians and philosophers of science. Such a perspective may also be useful for environmental and cultural heritage managers and stakeholders involved in managing the impacts and ecological transformations resulting from this and other similar ecological exchanges.
