I'm Australian, have travelled the world (incidentally since 1988), and have noted across the globe the eucalyptus spread before me .. it has been both a welcom

I'm Australian, have travelled the world (incidentally since 1988), and have noted across the globe the eucalyptus spread before me .. it has been both a welcome and a tragic sight along the way. Australians generally, these days, know that eucalyptus are dangerous but Australians didn't generally, as a culture, get recognized by their peers for great management of their unique eco-system during the formative periods of the nation, for good reason - and indeed Australians themselves had to learn a lot about the native flora, having ignored completely the original occupants own vast and valuable knowledge. It is only relatively, recently rediscovered knowledge, all this talk of ecosystem management being healthy in the southern land, particularly with fire. Australias atrocious recent fires were a result of a complete lack of management even in the home grounds of the eucalyptus and other firey species. Australia is a land of many eco-management mistakes and lessons, and even still much great ignorance. Australians are waking up to this. But just so its clear, Aussies don't really do land management great. The assumption that there would be sensibilities about the spread of invasive species is a bit naive. Australia has vast contrasts in this regard, throughout its culture and indeed history. And, alas, industry. >California Having lived quite some halcyon years in California, I got very accustomed to the welcome site (and smell) of the eucalyptus among those golden purple hills and valleys .. and alas, it wasn't until the first real fires I saw there, that I understood what a foolish thing it was, indeed, to let landscape gardeners plant things for which they really, really didn't understand. But hey, that's California in a nutshell: the ball-python crammed palm tree I once saw catch fire one night, producing an awesome parade of flaming rat and weed and snake showering down on the brand new Miata of a colleague, was also kind of a wake-up call. We (particularly, Australians[1]) have inherited the technical debt of poor ecosystem management, and need to refactor. Plant and encourage native species, always - and deter the intruders. [1] - Although in Australias case, there is much immense knowledge to be rescued, alas, were we actually a bit more cognizant of that value and gave the original gardners their voice back.