What and How We Think of

Forests

Week 1: Historical basis for modern day forestry

Foundations in Forest Resources and Conservation

Summer B, 2011

Today’s Agenda: June 27th, 2011

• Welcome! Syllabus & logistics

• What and how we think of forests

• Simple criteria used to describe any forest– Our preferences

• Class Introductions

• Break (around 10:30/45 AM)

• “How to survive a plane crash”

Representations of what and how we think of forests

• All images, media, objects, and writings are historically rooted = “Cultural Artifacts” – Artifacts of time, place, way of thinking– Reflect and symbolize their cultural context– Change over time

• Why is it important to pay attention to these?– Influence beliefs/ attitudes/ public opinion about

forests– Beliefs and attitudes drive forest use and policy,

impacting us as forest resource managers and scientists

What is a forest artifact?

From Objects to Popular Media

Forests represented in our most prevalent cultural artifact…motion picture media

• 1) What does the forest represent?

• 2) What is the relationship between people and forests?

• 3) How does the artifact make people think about forests?

EXAMPLES

Other Examples• TV

– Car commercials e.g. Lexus driving through wilderness• Luxury, Freedom, Entitlement

– Mountain Dew-type commercials • Adventure, physical challenge and courage• Male bonding/ masculinity• Man’s leisure time is spent inhabiting the forest (a

19th Century development inspired by the Transcendentalists)

• Books, Fairy Tales

Artifacts reflect how people have varied in their response to forests throughout

history

– Dante (c. 1310-1320) Inferno "Midway upon the journey of our life/ I found myself within a forest dark/ For the straightforward pathway had been lost. Ah me! How hard a thing it is to say/ What was the forest savage, rough, and stern/ Which in the very thought renews the fear. So bitter is it, death is little more.”

– Patrick Gass of Lewis and Clark Expedition, at the mouth of a mountain river in Montana (1805), “A country which presents little to our view but scenes of barrenness and desolation”

– Paul Simon (1963), environmental movement of 1960s, "I'd rather be a forest than a street..... "

Why? Psychological Theory

Basis for our response and use of particular forest communities and types

• “Nurture, not nature” theory1. Early childhood experience (Clare Cooper

Marcus, UC Berkeley)

• Bioevolutionary theories2. Collective unconscious (Carl Gustav Jung, )

3. Prospect-refuge (Jay Appleton, 1975)

1. Early Childhood Experience

• We bond with the forests of our youth, and tend to idealize them; all other forests are evaluated in comparison to that “template” forest– E.g. Warner Herzog, prolific German film

maker (e.g. Grizzly Man)• Template: Germany; grew up in very orderly,

intensively managed forests of Germany

Black Forest, Germany

• Pastoral landscape• Human elements interwoven

• Security, comfort

• Wilderness tamed by order

•Little undergrowth•Unimpeded movement• High light penetration at eye level- exposure

2. Collective Unconscious

• Carl Gustav Jung: Inherited sense of aesthetics of landscapes based on survival…the Collective Unconscious, “A reservoir of the experiences of our species” – Forests hide wild animals and outlaws

• Example From T. H. White The Once and Future King (1939) “The mad and wicked animals were not the only inhabitants of the crowded gloom. When men themselves became wicked they took refuge there, outlaws cunning and bloody...”

3. Prospect-Refuge

• Jay Appleton (1975)• The right balance of trees and open spaces, so

we could see but not be seen• Oldest human settlements were in savannas of

East Africa, & as a species we have spent MOST of our time living outdoors

• “Habitat Theory” also maintains that humans preferred edge habitats – High plant and animal diversity– Building materials from younger trees on edge– Both access and shelter

How are forests described?Characterization of forest attributes

• Basic tool-less assessments allow for descriptions and comparisons between forests

• Relationship between characteristics of forest communities and human preference for recreation sites – A. Dominant and characteristic species – B. Density – C. Pattern – D. Structure

A. Dominant and Characteristic Species

• Dominant species - because of their size and density, they control the microclimate and ecological character of the plant community

• Characteristic species - the most common species in the plant community

Example: Pine Flatwoods Trees: Slash pine (Pinus ellioittii) Shrubs: Saw palmetto (Serenoa repens)Gallberry (Ilex glabra)

Human Preference• Conifer (e.g. pine) stands > hardwood

(e.g. oak) stands

B. Density - the number of trees per unit area of a forest stand

• Density varies among the species in a forest stand

• Example: Redwood stand along San Leandro Creek in Alameda County, CA

• Species Density(#/acre)

• Redwood 98• California bay 43• Madrone 2

Human Preference

• Low density > high density

Incense cedar stand Sand pine stand

C. PatternPattern - the arrangement of trees on the horizontal plane of

the forest stand; 3 main types

Random patternWhy? Wind-blown seeds, or random

pattern of seed lodgement

Regular pattern– rare in natureWhy? Competitive exclusion

• In harsh environments (competition)• Allelopathy (FL rosemary)

• Plantation Forestry (why?)

Random

Regular

Contagious pattern

Why? 1. Clustering of offspring around parent plant,Vegetative reproduction (Oak, Redwood) 2. Inefficient seed dispersal (e.g. California buckeye) 3. Influence of one species in creating "islands" of

environments especially favorable for the establishment of other species (nurse logs in Pacific Northwest)

Contagious pattern- (nurse log- cedar, with hemock)

Contagious pattern- (veg. reproduction

redwood)

Contagious- seed dispersal California Buckeye

Human Preference

• Contagious or random > regular

D. Structure

• Structure - arrangement on a vertical plane

• Variations of structure in forest stands

Human Preference

• Tree / herb structure preferred

• Low preference for forest stands with well- developed midstory or shrub layer

Class Introductions

• What was the forest of your childhood?– What is your preferred forest?

• Does your preference uphold/ disprove any of the three theories?

• Use the descriptive tools you learned: What is its pattern, structure, dominant species (if known), and density?

Your Instructors: Our Childhood Forests

Maxwell Wightman

Outside of the forest– short/ tall grass prairie (Dr. Tim Martin a.k.a. Dr. Xylem)

Hometown: Oklahoma City

Post Oak, Blackjack Oak

Silver Maple

Red PineAnd finally…Longleaf Pine

Tim Martin

BBMH- Mixed Hardwood/

Coniferous NE Forest (Max and Leda)

Hometown: Ithaca, NY

Leda Kobziar

White Pine Siding

BirchBirch, Maple

2nd Growth Eastern Deciduous

Class Introductions

• What was the forest of your childhood?– What is your preferred forest?

• Does your preference uphold/ disprove any of the three theories?

• Use the descriptive tools you learned: What is its pattern, structure, dominant species (if known), and density?

Your Forest Preferences?

• Recreation

• Wildlife habitat

• Timber supply

• Preservation

• Prospect/refuge

• Early childhood

• Collective unconscious

• Conifers > hardwoods (dominant/ charac. Spp.)• Open forests (density)• Not regular spacing (pattern)• Overstory w/ herbs, low shrubs (structure)

1. Use2. Theories

3. Forest Attributes