Thomas R. Cox

Encountering the past in nature : essays in environmental history

A deeper understanding of contemporary environmental problems requires us to know where we come from, and the study of environmental history will help us in that quest. Environmental history, in short, may be described as an attempt to study the interaction between humans and nature in the past. How have human societies affected their environment and vice versa? What does history tell us about ecological change? The essays in Encountering the Past in Nature provide various approaches to the new discipline. Experts with diverse educational backgrounds tackle important issues in environmental history, ranging from the intellectual formation of environmental concepts to case studies of forest history and animal extinction. Most essays in the collection focus on the issue of wilderness and the various uses of forest resources. Encountering the Past in Nature also offers introductory essays on the historiography and methodology of this field of historical study. Encountering the Past in Nature is a useful addition to the introductory texts currently available in the United States.

The North America-Japan timber trade: the roots of Canadian and U.S. approaches.

Japan is a heavily wooded country, but when its economic growth accelerated rapidly in the 1960s, its domestic timber supply could not meet the burgeoning demand for building materials and other wood products. When Japan turned to timber imports from North America, the abrupt increase in the transpacific timber trade had disruptive effects on both sides of the ocean. In Canada and the United States cries soon arose to restrict the outflow of logs to Japan. These calls led to action, but the action taken was of a different character north and south of the forty-ninth parallel. Succinctly put, Canada discouraged log exports but encouraged the shipment of lumber and other manufactured wood products. Canadian industry and government alike gave a relatively high priority to developing the lumber trade with Japan. By contrast the United States encouraged the log trade but gave more lip service than sustained attention to developing a commerce in sawn wood. Furthermore, government and industry in the United States more frequently worked at crosspurposes than did those in Canada, and both were more concerned with the domestic lumber market than with the market in Japan.