{"id":4041,"date":"2016-08-12T20:49:55","date_gmt":"2016-08-13T00:49:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/james\/?p=4041"},"modified":"2016-08-25T08:20:54","modified_gmt":"2016-08-25T12:20:54","slug":"forest-under-story-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/james\/2016\/08\/12\/forest-under-story-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Forest Under Story"},"content":{"rendered":"

HJA 1<\/strong><\/p>\n

I expect to see huge trees born in a time before they were uncommon. I expect to see many flora and fauna not found on the east coast. I expect to see people who care intensely about preserving and discovering the forest and about sharing their observations. Based on the introduction, I expect to see a sort of magic that can never be adequately described, but only experienced.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

One way to tell the story of the forest is through quantitative measurements- variety of species, density of species, and change in water nutrient composition. Another is through qualitative description- to describe it, to create stories about or inspired by it, to draw it. The two methods of inquiry support each other by creating new approaches to measuring and defining the world. Both methods are about asking questions, and by integrating the methods new questions can be asked and answered.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The long-view is critical because our role in nature isn\u2019t stagnant. If our relationship with the natural world in the next two hundred years changes even a fraction of the amount it changed in the past two hundred, taking snapshots each year will help understand each small change in the context of movement that is impossible to fully understand as a whole. Not only will our relation with nature change in that time, but also our interpretation of our relation. Writing is critical to understanding the subjective feeling of society towards nature at a given time.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Part I- Research and Revelation<\/strong><\/p>\n

Research and revelation have two separate relationships. When scientific findings from places like the Andrews Forest concluded that old-growth forests were essential to maintaining their ecosystems, both scientists\u2019 and everyone elses\u2019 understanding of the forests changed sides. Scientific data led to a revelation. However, the pursuit of data through research can also suppress revelation. As Robin Kimmerer says, \u201c[Being in the forest] makes for better scientists, too, because the land is more than data and we are more than data analysts\u201d. Tracking data without experiencing the forest firsthand creates distance from the very data being collected. Data should be a tool to help ask questions and understand where to find revelations, but it shouldn\u2019t always be the source of revelations itself because it is just one way of observing something that can\u2019t be described by numbers alone.<\/p>\n

I expect the landscape to be varied. I didn\u2019t realize how much altitude difference there would be within the forest. I also didn\u2019t think fully about the aftermath of clearcutting, and what would be growing in the cleared parts of the forest. I didn\u2019t realize how important water, both in springs and rivers, was when measuring a forest.<\/p>\n

Vicky Graham, in her poem Cosymbionts, <\/em>compares the scientific study of decomposition and disection to the art of creating a poem. She asks, \u201cHow else, except by keeping whole through breaking down, can a forest grow?\u201d She might be saying that change is inevitable, and that by understanding the forest and its acceptance of change, we can understand our own lives.<\/p>\n

In the Old Growth ground work, It is stated that the canopy lichen lobara oregana <\/em>makes nitrogen usable for the entire floral ecosystem. I\u2019m sure this isn\u2019t the only species without which the forest would not exist, and I wonder how ecosystems develop so fully while depending on so many fragile links in a chain that would fall if one were broken.<\/p>\n

Part II- Change and Continuity<\/strong><\/p>\n

Although we generally think of change happening over long periods of time, the most drastic changes in the forest are in some ways the short term ones. Barred owls are replacing Spotted owls, but they will occupy the same niche. Swap six of one for half a dozen of another, and the forest will endure just as it has for thousands of years. The ground work about forest practices tells about the change in mindset from clearcutting to preserving forests, but also the change from focusing on what has been taken in a clear-cut site to what is left over that can thrive.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Jeff Fearnside admires the power of a flood to alter the landscape and create new beginning in his poem New Channel. <\/em>While appreciating the ruin that the flood causes, he also discusses the life starting anew as the \u201cmoss gorges itself\u201d and \u201ca stand of willows waves gently\u201d. As disturbance ecologists observe changes caused by floods and fires with changes in data and landscape, Fearnside questions why we focus on destruction and endings instead of regeneration and present life.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

I expect to see much more diversity on the ground than in the canopy. When I hear of a diverse forest my mind goes immidiately to the imposing trees, but the region is dominated by less than a dozen species. The animals and plants on the floor, though, give the ecosystem its diversity. I hope to see the interactions between all these small organisms. I expect to see barren land where clear-cut forest has not yet started to recover.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

I wonder how often now species enter the forest. Are invaders like the Barred owl a rare occurance, or do species swap places often? When invaders come does it disturb the ecosystem or do the settle in as the author thinks the Barred owls will take the niche of the Spotted owls? Is the old-growth forest, as a diverse and ancient ecosystem, more or less likely to be threatened by invasive species?<\/p>\n

\"IMG_2829\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Part III- Borrowing Other\u2019s Eyes<\/strong><\/p>\n

In this section, the focus is again on the long view. As Jane Hirshfield quotes, \u201cwe percieve acutely changes that are relatively quick, but are blind to the gradual\u201d. It takes research seen from the eyes of generations before to piece together a story and observe change in a forest that\u2019s on a completely different time schedule than our short lives. The theme also references the goal of resident writer project- to help both scientists and writers experience the forest in new ways with the help of a different perspective.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Robin Kimmerer uses hydrology to explain her own outlook on the passage of time. She observes throughfall and stemflow, and after deducing what controls the size of water droplets she wonders how time passes for plants that produce drops at different rates. Like a researcher she focuses on the individual moments of the forest, but with a less scientific outlook- the falling of a tree from the river\u2019s perspective instead of transpiration from the tree\u2019s stomata. To Robin, life is only experienced in moments that are nothing to the eternal flow of a river.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

I now expect the lines between water and land to be blurred by the everpresent rain and the hyporheic flow beneath the ground. I expect the sounds to be as diverse as the flora and fauna, and to create a background noise to the forest.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

I want to know what changes they\u2019ve witnessed in the parts of the forest least touched by humans. Are the measurements of water and land stagnant, do they vary greatly in the short run and equalize in the long run, or do they trend toward a certain direction? Are they free of humans\u2019 pollution, or have manmade chemicals permeated the deepest areas of the forest?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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