Acclimatisation and Environmental Renovation: Australian Perspectives on George Perkins Marsh

• Published in: Environment and history Vol. 10; no. 2; pp. 153 - 167
• Main Author: Tyrrell, Ian
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Cambridge, UK The White Horse Press 01-05-2004; White Horse Press
• Subjects: Acclimatization; Australia; Biodiversity; Colonial history; Conservation; Ecology; Environment; Environmental change; Environmental conservation; Environmental management; Environmental Renovation; Environmentalism; Eucalyptus; Flora; Forest conservation; Forest restoration; Forestry; George Perkins Marsh; History; Human ecology; Man/nature relationship; Marsh, George Perkins; Marsh, George Perkins. Man and Nature; Marshes; Nature; Plants; Renovation versus restoration; Renovations; Trees; Australia; George Perkins Marsh; Environmental renovation; acclimatisation
• ISSN: 0967-3407; 1752-7023
• DOI: 10.3197/0967340041159812

This article explores the global dimensions of the thought of George Perkins Marsh and his Man and Nature (1864). It argues that Marsh was not simply influenced by American versus European contrasts in environmental change, nor was his work based only on
conservation ideas, being influenced also by the examples of acclimatisation movements within the British empire settlement colonies. He incorporated material on acclimatisation from Australia into his major work, and his acceptance, with reservations, of aspects of acclimatisation practice, for
example global eucalyptus plant transfers, was a key factor making his work influential within those settlement colonies after publication of Man and Nature . This global context reinforces the sense of Marsh as a thinker of his times, embedded in a larger and older
discourse over the fate of forests and other natural resources. Marsh's attempts to promote balance in humans' relations with nature led him to explore a renovationist and improvement oriented ethic as much as a restorationist or preservationist one. Though widely regarded as the father of
conservation, his legacy is more ambiguous and more complex, and his influence reflects changing perceptions of European colonial impacts in the nineteenth century.