Species moving is nothing new and I was glad to read about serious efforts to think ahead and planting trees in new environments to adapt to global warming. The tree you plant today will be around for a long time and if the climate changes it will still be there. Of course, humans moving tree species is really nothing new. Foresters have pushed the loblolly pine north and North American trees dominate the plantation forests in South America, Australia and South Africa. Sometimes trees grow better someplace other than their native range. A most famous case is the Monterey pine, which grows poorly in its narrow native range in California, but thrives magnificently (some think invasively) in the Southern Hemisphere.
As environments shift, global warming will redefine what we mean by “natural” or “native.” Environments won’t merely shift north or uphill. They will be different from what we have today. We will soon be seeing environments that have not been around for millennia or maybe even millions of years. There have not been temperate forests north of the Arctic Circle for millions of years, for example. The relationships among species will be new. It will be an interesting time to be alive and we have to be involved in the dynamic of changing environments.
Anyway, read the article.