Upbeat plants in times of forest crisis? On the material and discursive trajectories of black Locust in France - Archive ouverte HAL Accéder directement au contenu
Communication Dans Un Congrès Année : 2022

Upbeat plants in times of forest crisis? On the material and discursive trajectories of black Locust in France

Résumé

If trees and forests have arguably always been central to human societies, their fate has, amidst the congruence of climate and biodiversity crises, been recently linked to new and pressing matters of concerns: diebacks, megafires… As heightened anxieties come with a realization of timescale constraints and of the narrowness of feasible adaptation options, some trees may then be favored over others. Black Locust (Robinia pseudoacacia L.) an Appalachian species introduced in Europe ca 1620, may be such a candidate: hoped to withstand harsher climatic conditions, hailed as a workhorse for anthropocene forestries in need of durable timber and robust carbon infrastructures. Based on French archival data, we wish to bring to discussion a geohistorical account of the introduction history of Robinia sp. in France, putting into perspective a long timeline defined by fads, oblivion and rediscoveries. We turn our attention to 3 major material crises that were instrumental in enrolling a tree irreducible to simple labelling (peasant/forest, exotic/naturalized), acting as a window opportunity for further material expansion and social appraisal. The 1st crisis occurred in the post-revolutionary period, where wood shortages and discursive struggles shaped massive subsequent thrusts for reafforestation. The 2nd crisis is the Phylloxera outbreak, as Robinia sp., widely planted in Bourgogne or Bordelais as a provider of vineyards posts, had an intertwined trajectory with this industry in demise. The last crisis was due to storms that swept southwestern France in 1999 and 2009, prompting a quest for alternatives to dominant Pinus pinaster ligniculture. A pioneering, heliophilous and ruderal species, black Locust nurtured expectations and infrastructural imaginaries. We investigate for each configuration its temporal, social and natural dimensions, identify linkages between materialities and narratives, elements of continuity or disruption, highlight the nature of the reconfigurations.

Domaines

Géographie
Fichier non déposé

Dates et versions

hal-04523976 , version 1 (27-03-2024)

Identifiants

  • HAL Id : hal-04523976 , version 1

Citer

Zoé Ginter, Baptiste Hautdidier. Upbeat plants in times of forest crisis? On the material and discursive trajectories of black Locust in France. UGI-IGU Paris 2022 Le temps des géographes, UGI, Jul 2022, Paris, France. ⟨hal-04523976⟩
0 Consultations
0 Téléchargements

Partager

Gmail Facebook X LinkedIn More