Forest Understory

Forest Understory:

HJA 1

1. When I visit Andrews the thing that I expect to see the most is a massive amount of green everywhere.  To go along with this, I also expect everything to be in a perpetual state of dampness.  In addition to the lush green, I am picturing huge trees that are relatively close together and create a dark and shady forest.
2. There are many different ways of telling the story of these forests, with the most obvious being through data collection and analysis.  However, by combining this with creative literary methods, a more human story of the forests can be told.  These other ways of telling the story are necessary because they relate the scientific elements to humans in a way that would be impossible to do with just raw data.
3. The long view is critical because society and the environment are intertwined, and because both of them are constantly changing, the relationship between the two is also changing, and thus cannot be fully understand in a short term view alone.  Many environmental processes are so long term that looking at them in small increments of time would not yield useful results.

HJA 2

1. The name “Research and Revelation” was chosen to illustrate the relationship between time spent studying specific parts of the forest and the understanding of how the whole ecosystem functions.  Research is also tied to the societal understanding of forests and influences the way that humans interact with their forested surroundings.  This name demonstrates these concepts, and offers a motivation as to why the Andrews research was started in the first place.
2. Based on these passages, I expect the landscape to be covered with many decaying trees and plants that have been not moved by humans.  While they have not been moved, from the amount of research going on that these passages suggest, I am picturing the forest to also be filled with man-made items which take away from the natural beauty but are essential for research purposes.
3. The Ground Work essay “Old Growth” explains the need for old growth and the intricacy of the forest processes.  These processes are expressed in a creative manner in “Log Decomposition”.  The creative storytelling here offers an artistic view of the scientific explanations in “Old Growth”.  Here, the human emotion and feelings that arise from taking in the described landscape are expressed to create a tie to humanity.
4. I would like to know what, if any, effects does the presence of the researchers and the research station have on the forest and what efforts are taken to eliminate those effects from the data results.

HJA 3

Change and Continuity:

1. This theme was chosen to show the path that the Andrews Experimental Forest has undergone throughout history.  It has been continuously been affected by numerous environmental disturbances.  These disturbances create a changing environment that can often not be easily predicted.  The disruptive floods and volcanic formations change Andrews experimental forest but are instrumental to its actuality as a place.
2. I expect the landscape to be more torn apart than I originally thought.  The aftereffects from the logging and the flash floods would seem almost out of place in what is a protected environment.  This would be a stark contrast to a lot of forests on the East Coast that do not have to deal with flooding as much.
3. The natural disruptive changes described in “Disturbance” are paralleled with changes in “Ten-Foot Gnarly Stick”.  The author in this section is using a piece of nature to reflect on the many changes and unexpected experiences in his life.  He is also acknowledging his inability to know what is yet to come.
4. I would like to know the exact frequency of major disruptive changes and how the researchers deal with them impacting their experiments.

HJA 4

Borrowing Others’ Eyes

1. These theme was chosen because it describes how, by noticing small fragments of an environment, we can use those little bits as “eyes” to see the inner connections of the forest.  The many connections found in the forest then can be viewed in a way that creates a big picture and furthers the general understanding of our natural environment.
2. From this passage, I expect the landscape to be filled with a wide variety of plants and animals.  The trees and rock formations will appear to be scattered across the landscape and will have streams crossing back and forth through them.
3. The Ground Work essay “Soundscapes” describes the techniques used to capture forest sounds and turn them into usable data by extracting individual bird or insect sounds.  Many of the creative passages in the whole book describe the sounds of the forest, and in this section, “Listening to Water” describes ecological reflection with the sounds of the streams and the rain.
4. After reading this section, I would like to know if there are any specific areas of Andrews that naturally draw the creative writers to them.