perceptions of forest health among pre-service … · this thesis is the culmination of many...
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PERCEPTIONS OF FOREST HEALTH AMONG PRE-SERVICE EDUCATORS AND IMPLICATIONS FOR TEACHING YOUTH
By
SARAH L. HICKS
A THESIS PRESENTED TO THE GRADUATE SCHOOL OF THE UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT
OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF SCIENCE
UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA
2011
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© 2011 Sarah L. Hicks
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To my mom and dad
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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This thesis is the culmination of many peoples’ support and effort. I would like to
give a special thank you to Dr. Martha Monroe for guiding me through graduate school
and encouraging me along the way. I would like to thank Dr. Jason Smith and Dr. Brian
Myers for serving on my committee and offering insightful suggestions and assistance.
I thank my parents who have supported me unconditionally throughout my
scholastic career. They helped me realize my dreams and encouraged me to reach for
the stars. I thank my fiancé, Matthew Lauretta, who has supported me through a few
trying moments. He encouraged me to push through the rough patches and helped to
celebrate my successes.
I thank my lab mates for always being so willing to help in any way possible. My
interview and analysis would not have been the same without them! I sincerely thank all
of the study participants who dedicated their time and thoughts to this study.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
page
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS .................................................................................................. 4
LIST OF TABLES ............................................................................................................ 6
ABSTRACT ..................................................................................................................... 7
CHAPTER
1 ISSUES OF FOREST HEALTH IN EDUCATION: AN INTRODUCTION .................. 9
Statement of Problem ............................................................................................... 9
Research Objectives and Questions ....................................................................... 11
2 PRE-SERVICE TEACHERS’ CONCEPTIONS OF FOREST HEALTH ................... 12
Background ............................................................................................................. 12
Methods .................................................................................................................. 15
Participants ....................................................................................................... 15
Study Design .................................................................................................... 16
Data Analysis ................................................................................................... 17
Results .................................................................................................................... 18
Participant Background and Experiences ......................................................... 18
Learning about Forests from Experiences ........................................................ 19
Forest Health Knowledge ................................................................................. 20
Teaching about Forest Health .......................................................................... 26
Background, Experience, and Knowledge Relationships ................................. 29
Discussion .............................................................................................................. 31
3 IMPLICATIONS FOR FOREST HEALTH AND OTHER ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION ........................................................................................................... 37
APPENDIX: INTERVIEW CODING WORKSHEETS ..................................................... 42
LIST OF REFERENCES ............................................................................................... 76
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH ............................................................................................ 79
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LIST OF TABLES
Table page 2-1 Participant educational background. ................................................................... 16
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Abstract of Thesis Presented to the Graduate School of the University of Florida in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Science
PERCEPTIONS OF FOREST HEALTH AMONG PRE-SERVICE EDUCATORS AND
IMPLICATIONS FOR TEACHING YOUTH
By
Sarah L. Hicks
May 2011
Chair: Martha Monroe Major: Forest Resources and Conservation
Forests are economically, ecologically, and socially important systems around
the world. Threats such as pollution, invasive species, and development jeopardize the
health of forests, particularly in Florida. Citizens have the ability to influence these
threats through government policy and personal action, but must know about forests
and understand forest health to make informed decisions. Education is an essential tool
for developing a knowledgeable public. It is important to understand how educators
think about forest health to understand how information will be shared with learners.
The objectives of this study were to (1) determine pre-service educators’
perceptions of forest health, (2) define the experiences which may have influenced their
understanding, and (3) identify the approaches they envision using to convey forest
health information. Twelve interviews were conducted with pre-service science and
agriculture education students at the University of Florida who are likely to teach about
forest ecosystems. Results suggest that many respondents understand how
ecosystems function, the importance of insects, and the threat of invasive species in
forests. Most respondents demonstrated little knowledge of diseases, fungus, and
appropriate ways to use the analogy of human health when teaching about forests.
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Several findings suggest these perceptions could be related to the types of experiences
respondents had that formed their understanding of forests.
Effective curriculum on forest health should establish a foundation with
ecosystems, since this may be familiar to most educators, and then integrate new
information about health. Unfamiliar concepts, such as diseases and fungi, can be
taught with concrete examples. Finally, the meaning of forest health and how it differed
from human health should be explained explicitly to avoid misunderstandings or
misconceptions. These recommendations can be applied to developing curriculum and
teaching other complex environmental issues.
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CHAPTER 1 ISSUES OF FOREST HEALTH IN EDUCATION: AN INTRODUCTION
Statement of Problem
Ecosystems are complex, dynamic systems which contain interacting biotic and
abiotic components and processes (Levin, 1998). Ecosystem health is a weighted
measure of function of the interactions, processes, and components in an ecosystem; it
incorporates the relative importance of proper functioning of each part to the whole
(Costanza, Norton, & Haskell, 1992). Management goals, which are influenced by social
and political systems, reflect the importance placed on certain parts of an ecosystem
and can contribute to or impair its health. For example, a forest that is managed for
utilitarian gain might yield the maximum amount of products, goods, and services for
human benefit. In other instances, a healthy forest could be any one that maintains its
function, complexity, structure, and resilience (Kolb, Wagner, & Covington, 1994), a
definition which most likely excludes highly managed systems like pine plantations.
Forests are important ecosystems that provide food, products, and shelter for
humans and other organisms. The health of forests throughout the world, however, is at
risk from many threats, such as development, invasive species, pest outbreaks, and
pollution (Contreras-Hermosilla, 2000; Klein, Perkins, & Liedeker, 1988). When the
ecological function of a forest deteriorates, biotic diversity, ecosystem services, and
products derived from the system decline. Scientists recognize and are concerned
about these issues. In addition to research and management regimes, society can play
a significant role in the conservation, preservation, and restoration of healthy forest
ecosystems.
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Public opinion has the ability to drive government policy regarding management
and conservation of resources and influence the development of environmental
educational programs (Patel et al., 1999). Children are an important audience for
increasing forest health awareness because they represent the next generation of
foresters, law makers, and citizens who will influence management. Therefore, it is
important to instill an understanding and sense of appreciation for forests and forest
health (Patel, Rapport, Vanderliden, & Eyles, 1999). As the conduits of knowledge,
teachers are a vital link in relaying information about forest health to our youth.
Teachers, however, may not have a thorough understanding of the topic of forest
health. Several studies have shown that educators do not always hold correct
understandings of the topics they teach (Khalid, 2001; Kikas, 2004; Yip, 1998). In these
cases, teachers are not likely to recognize erroneous ideas in students’ work and might
even contribute to perpetuating misconceptions. Misconceptions can create problems in
understanding related issues or even making informed legislative votes linked to forests.
Therefore it is important to understand how teachers think about forest health to better
prepare them to teach youth, and to develop instructional materials that may be helpful
in teaching.
Recently, a forest health education packet was developed by researchers at the
University of Florida. This material includes engaging activities for middle school and
high school youth. By understanding teachers’ knowledge of forest health, topics which
are familiar or foreign to educators will be more apparent. This information will be used
to enhance the educational packet to better convey concepts related to forest health in
a manner that educators can understand.
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Research Objectives and Questions
The objectives of this study were (1) to determine how pre-service educators
perceive forest health, (2) to identify the interactions and experiences that respondents
think may have influenced their knowledge of forest health, and (3) to characterize the
approaches educators may utilize to convey information about forest health to youth.
Three main questions are addressed in this study:
1. What do pre-service educators know about forests and forest health?
2. How have previous experiences in forests influenced pre-service educators’
understanding of forest health?
3. What information do educators feel is important to convey to students and how
do they envision communicating those ideas?
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CHAPTER 2 PRE-SERVICE TEACHERS’ CONCEPTIONS OF FOREST HEALTH
Background
Forests cover about 47% of the total land, or 16 million acres, in Florida (Hodges,
Mulkey, Alavalapati, Carter, & Kiker, 2005). These forests, which provide citizens with
wood products, recreation, and ecosystem services, are estimated to be worth over $20
billion (Hodges et al., 2005). While some of Florida’s forests are healthy, many others
are threatened by development, invasive plants and insects, and pest outbreaks. The
health of Florida’s forests is important to ensure the continued sustainability of goods
and services across the state. Citizenry can be instrumental in approving policy, using
best management practices, and enhancing forest health, only if they have an
understanding of current and potential threats to Florida’s forests.
Education is necessary to develop an informed public. One strategy to educate the
public is to develop school curriculum materials that address the health of Florida’s
forests and work with educators to support its implementation. Although training
educators to use the curriculum is important, research suggests the success of effective
educators is linked to their own knowledge (Khalid, 2001). Particularly with current
issues or complex topics, teachers’ knowledge is an important factor in student learning.
Therefore it is important for educators to understand forest health if they are to succeed
in teaching students about forest health. Although it was previously believed that
understanding of a topic simply involved knowledge acquisition, learning is now viewed
as a process of gaining knowledge and assimilating it into a cognitive structure (Bodner,
1986).
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Early cognitive theories suggested that learners are passive receivers of
knowledge. The historic role of teachers was to provide information from texts and
facilitate knowledge acquisition (Even & Tirosh, 1995). Psychologists and educators
today, however, think quite differently about knowledge and learning; learning is an
active process that is influenced by experiences and interactions with people and the
environment (Putnam & Borko, 2000). The information gathered from these experiences
is processed, stored, and organized in a unique system within a person’s brain. When
new information from an experience is presented, it must be assimilated into a person’s
existing cognitive structure. If the information conflicts with existing knowledge, it is
either rejected or modified to fit in the existing structure (Bodner, 1986).
Personal experiences are often the source of acquired knowledge and can lead
people to retain factual information or reinforce misconceptions (Brown, Collins, &
Duguid, 1989). Misconceptions are not a result of a lack of knowledge, factual errors, or
incorrect definitions; rather, misconceptions are the result of the inappropriate
assimilation of new information into an existing cognitive structure (Driver & Oldham,
1986; Brody & Koch, 1990; Munson, 1994).To prevent or at least address
misconceptions, it is important for previous experiences to be utilized and referenced in
teaching (Lewis & Williams, 1994). When the learner is a student, teachers must be
able to recognize and acknowledge existing knowledge. When the learner is a teacher,
the curriculum itself should be designed to introduce concepts in a fashion that respects
the likely existing perceptions of teachers. When conveying information to students,
teachers must also think about how their own experiences have molded their mental
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models. What teachers have learned will in fact affect their teaching practices and the
information they can effectively teach students (Putnam & Borko, 2000).
The purpose of this study was to determine how educators think about forest
health, discover what kinds of experiences may have influenced their knowledge, and
determine what information they feel is important to relay to youth and how they can
envision doing so. This study was designed to inform curriculum efforts to convey forest
health concepts.
Quantitative methods use predetermined response categories to fit a wide variety
of possible answers or thoughts. These methods allow researchers to sample large
numbers of people, thereby enabling statistical analysis and generalization of the data
(Patton, 1987). Qualitative methods, on the other hand, facilitate a thorough, in-depth
evaluation of specific issues or topics (Patton, 1987). However, this rich dataset is
typically gathered from a smaller number of people. Their experiences are not grouped
into standardized categories and, therefore, cannot be generalized to a population. For
this study qualitative methods are appropriate to obtain open-ended, in-depth
information from the educators.
The questions in this study are best answered with exploratory interviews using
open-ended questions to guide individual conversations (Ernst, Monroe, & Simmons,
2009). In interviews, open-ended questions guide the conversation but do not limit the
answers or topics. Interviews allow researchers to explore possible understandings and
perspectives without the influence of pre-constructed answers (Patton, 1987).
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Methods
Participants
Data were gathered from students enrolled in agriculture and life science
education programs at the University of Florida who intend to become teachers. As
educators, these students will be likely to teach middle school life science, high school
biology, or agriculture and forestry classes at middle and high school levels. Because
the curriculum for these classes includes forest ecosystems, these students’
conceptions about forests and forest health are of interest.
The interviewees were selected opportunistically based on availability during the
study period. Recruitment of agriculture education students was accomplished using list
serves and course announcements in January 2011. During the same time, graduate
life science education students were directly informed about the study during a science
education course. All students who expressed interest were contacted and their
questions were answered about the study. If they were willing to participate after
learning about the study objectives according to approved IRB protocol #2010-U-1111,
a convenient time was arranged for an in-person interview.
A total of 15 students contacted the interviewer and expressed interest in
participating in the study, 12 of whom completed interviews. The interviewees included
life science education graduate students as well as junior, senior, and graduate
agriculture education students listed in table 2-1. All participants planned to begin their
careers as educators within eighteen months of this study.
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Table 2-1 Participant educational background.
Participant number Degree Status Education Major
1 Graduate student Agriculture 2 Graduate student Science 3 Undergraduate student Agriculture 4 Graduate student Science 5 Undergraduate student Agriculture 6 Undergraduate student Agriculture 7 Undergraduate student Agriculture 8 Graduate student Science 9 Graduate student Science
10 Undergraduate student Agriculture 11 Graduate Student Science 12 Undergraduate student Agriculture
Study Design
This exploratory study used interviews as the data collection tool to understand
pre-service teachers’ perspectives of concepts related to forest health. A semi-
structured interview was conducted using an interview guide that provided specific
topics to discuss while maintaining flexibility to explore topics of interest (Patton, 1987).
This interview guide was reviewed by three experts, including professors of forest
health, environmental education, and agriculture education. The guide was finalized and
pilot tested in December of 2010. The interview guide was revised to reduce the number
of questions and include prompts to illicit further information about the participants’
thought processes about forest health.
Interviews were conducted orally by the researcher in January 2011. Each
interview was recorded with the consent of the participant. The interviews averaged 20
minutes in length; however one concluded in just nine minutes due to childcare
constraints.
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A defined population and the recruitment method are limitations of this study. The
selected population of pre-service agriculture and science educators may not effectively
encompass the entire audience of educators who are likely to teach about forest health.
Non-formal and elementary educators probably convey information about forest health
as well. Finally, the recruitment method of opportunistically choosing students limits our
data. The 12 respondents in this study showed interest in participating. These students
may be interested in forest health or they may be highly motivated and academically
engaged students. These respondents may represent a more success-driven sample
rather than a representative sample of the pre-service teachers. While these limitations
affect the generalizability of the findings, they do not necessarily affect the interpretation
of the data. The most interested and motivated students are likely to voluntarily use
curriculum of forest health. Therefore, this small and opportunistic sample represents
the population of teachers most likely to implement the new curriculum.
Data Analysis
The data in this study were analyzed according to grounded theory (Corbin &
Strauss, 1990; Sandelowski, 2000; Strauss & Corbin, 1998). Each interview was
transcribed by the interviewer within seven days. The transcribed interviews were
coded independently by both the interviewer and a colleague to enhance theoretical
sensitivity (Strauss & Corbin, 1998). Each distinct thought in an interview was marked
and given a descriptive code name. Codes from the interviewer and colleague were
compared for differences. Small variations between coding existed; however both
interviewer and colleague codes were incorporated into the analysis. Using the constant
comparative method, codes were then analyzed again for similar ideas and re-grouped
into general themes (Burnard, 1991; Sandelowski, 2000; Strauss & Corbin, 1998).
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Quotes from the transcripts are used in this chapter to illustrate the themes discovered.
Each quote is referenced with a code consisting of the respondent number and line
number within the transcription. For example, if a quotation was taken from participant 2
beginning at line 20, it would be referenced (2/20).
To better understand why respondents answered questions as they did, probing
questions were used and an analysis of relationships between themes was performed.
Similar background or thoughts as well as those who responded differently are reported
and discussed as potentially meaningful.
Results
Participant Background and Experiences
Half of the participants grew up in an urban or suburban area, while the remaining
six grew up in working landscapes. Working landscapes, for the purpose of this study,
are defined as rural areas and the wildland-urban interface. Most of the participants
from working landscapes (n=4) had families that derived their living from the land; these
businesses included farms, a timber plantation, and a plant nursery. Responses from
these individuals often referenced their family business and information they ―just knew‖
from growing up in close proximity to a functional resource.
Participants described a wide variety of experiences in forests that helped form
their conceptions. These experiences were grouped into three categories—recreational,
academic, and work-related. Most of respondents (n=10) spent time in forests
recreationally; these ventures included camping, hiking, hunting, and extracurricular
club excursions. Most of the recreational adventures were experienced with family;
however, several were experienced with friends. Half of the participants (n=6) had
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university-level academic experiences in forests which included observational
assignments and laboratory experiments.
So last year I took general ecology which did a really good job of the lab for that. The class had an individual or...either with a partner or group research project where you were supposed to be choosing your own ecological [community]....We surveyed tree species near Lake Alice and then [compared them to species at] the Natural Area Teaching Lab. (9/23)
This same individual also discussed an experience in elementary school during
childhood.
Growing up, I remember in elementary school we did a field trip to a nature area near us. So there was some forest type stuff then….When I was younger I didn't learn much about [control burns]. I think we kind of went out. ―Here's trees and this bird over here.‖ And not much deeper than that. (9/21)
This respondent, like many other participants, mentioned their university experience as
influential more often than a grade-school experience. Finally, four individuals had
experiences working in forests. All of these experiences occurred in working landscapes
and included tasks such as installing fences and vegetation management.
Learning about Forests from Experiences
Although many of the participants mentioned relatively similar experiences in
forests, they discussed learning a range of concepts from their experiences, from
general ecology and management information to stewardship and appreciation. More
than half of all participants (n=8) learned about general ecology of forests, such as plant
identification, diversity of forest ecosystems, and changes in forests over time.
I learned a lot about the ways of the land from my dad. He never went to any schooling but he was a big naturalist. He could tell you what time of day it was even if we were standing under complete canopy just by the shadows and everything. So, I learned a lot of non-book stuff in that sense. Then going into the horticulture part with the business I learned more about the layers of a forest and the actual types of trees you'll find in a forest.... (8/57)
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Five respondents learned to appreciate nature and gained a sense of stewardship from
their experiences in forests.
I think you have a greater appreciation for nature when you spend time out in it. So, that's kind of what has me in this conservation and environmental education is because I grew up with an appreciation for forests. I think it's something worth saving. (2/42)
A total of seven participants learned about management practices such as prescribed
fires and invasive species management through their experiences in forests.
I took (the) Wildlife of Florida (course) and there was a lot in there about burns for the health of forests…. We talked about how there's a lot of ecosystems in Florida that rely on wildfires. There was a long period of time where that wasn't happening before we realized it was an issue. So now there are a lot of the prescribed burns. (9/29)
Forest Health Knowledge
When asked to describe the meaning of forest health, half of the respondents
(n=6) shared an ecosystem-level perspective of forest health. These participants
described forest health holistically, incorporating trees as well as many other organisms.
When asked to define forest health, these participants replied:
How well the ecosystem is doing – the soil, the trees, the plants, and animals that live in it. (4/1/27)
Forest health. I guess when I hear that I take that to mean the health of the forest ecosystem in general. So that would include how both animal and plant species in that area are doing. (9/59)
These respondents made direct connections between multiple biotic components, such
as birds, insects, and mammals, and often included abiotic components such as climate
or soil, and used both to describe the health of a forest. These participants’
understanding of health is based on their view of the ecosystem.
A majority of participants (n=8) expressed a belief that forest health differs from
forest to forest. While this belief may illustrate a basic understanding of the dynamic
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nature of the term ―forest health,‖ it may alternatively suggest the respondents’ are
unable to generalize to a broad concept of forest health. Many of these respondents
talked specifically about familiar forests and how they differ in health:
It definitely looks different for different types of forests. You have the ones that you have to go in and burn all of the brush and stuff every year or you have to extract certain things so that they can grow. So you don't want to go into one forest and start burning where there [are] no pine needles…So, it definitely is different for each type of forest, for each different type of tree you have… (3/54)
Because forests vary so much in the kinds of plants that live there, and the soil types and the hydrology and everything, I’d imagine [forest health] would be completely different in every forest. (4/1/31)
While these experience-based ideas are certainly true, respondents were unable to
think about forest health more generically in terms of organisms meeting their needs,
competing for resources, coping with dynamic ecosystems, or management regimes
that affect health. McKeough, Lupart, and Marini (1995) suggest that generality of a
concept is a measure of the breadth of knowledge transfer; these participants’
comments may indicate a limited amount of knowledge based on little exposure to or
basic awareness of forest health. A lack of exposure, experiences, and thinking about
forests can limit people’s ability to generalize and apply the idea of health in forests.
Although half of participants demonstrated a strong ecosystem-perspective of
forest health, respondents exhibited a range of knowledge regarding the actual factors
that contribute to the health of forests. Half of all responses (n=6) illustrated a general
understanding of forest health indicators. These individuals exhibited some broad
knowledge of how ecosystems can generically be monitored for health, but were not
able to elaborate or apply specifically to forest health.
I guess…a healthier forest might have higher growth rates of species that are native to that area. So you [can look] at plants to see if they had
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been…growing at least the yearly average….If the animals in the area seem to stay constant over time as opposed to if you have a lot of species moving out. That might indicate there's a problem in the forest. (9/79)
The introduction of certain species that don't belong there. The loss of species that do belong there. Keeping track of those things….Making sure that all the resources are there for the forest. (6/126)
Several students (n=3) expressed having minimal knowledge of specific factors related
to forest health, were not able to name more than one indicator, or offered inappropriate
indicators of health.
That one I'm not sure about that. It depends on what forest because recently they showed us pictures of what a forest looks like and what it would look like without a prescribed burn. They all start to look the same and overgrown so I guess you just look for what native species are supposed to be there and their health. I'm not really sure. (1/31)
Simple stuff with plants is looking at if they're growing and look healthy. If they're all wilted and falling over, it's probably not healthy. (5/48)
At the other end of the spectrum, three participants were able to identify multiple correct
indicators scientists study to determine the health of forests – such as the abundance of
dead or dying trees, insect infestation, woody fuel load, and the presence of invasive
species. These participants’ answers indicate a greater understanding of the specific
indicators of forest health:
To me, when you're diagnosing a forest as healthy, you're looking at different indicators of health, like number of tree species, the age of tree species, the amount of brush, the amount of species of animals living in the trees. So it's different indicators that would determine the forest's health. (8/66)
I guess you could look at the diversity of species and see if there’s one dominant species that’s taking over….Invasive species-see if they’re there. And [determine if] native species are there and if they’re able to be healthy. I guess if you wanted to look at indicators you study health over time. Maybe just looking at it once wouldn’t tell you much if you didn’t know the history of the forest but look at how the species are doing and see what changes happen over a few years. (4/1/36)
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Even with a range of understanding of forest health indicators, almost all
participants (n=10) identified animals as an important component in healthy forests.
Some respondents indicated that increases in animal populations lead to an increase in
forest health. For example, ―If there’s a high animal population that means there’s
enough to support them living there….Forests that don’t have animals at all would be a
problem‖ (2/72). While animal populations are sometimes used as indicators of overall
forest health, such as the decline of grizzly bear populations resulting from the white
pine blister rust (Tomback, 2002), a change in animal populations can also be
independent of forest health. Therefore, respondents may not fully understand the
implications of changing animal populations on the overall health of forests. Regardless
of this incomplete understanding of the relationship of animals to overall health, all
responses indicate a fundamental understanding of the close relationship of animals to
other elements in forests. This confirms the earlier observations that participants have
a general sense of forests as ecosystems, but little understanding of specific forest
health challenges or indicators.
One specific type of animal received additional positive emphasis by
respondents: insects. When asked about the role of insects in forest health, all
respondents mentioned that insects play a positive roles in forest ecosystems such as
decomposition, nutrient cycling, and pollination; nearly every respondent (n=11)
specifically identified at least one beneficial aspect of insects. Furthermore, most
respondents (n=11) also mentioned that insects play a negative role in forest health.
They specifically spoke of invasive species (n=6) and outbreaks of insect populations.
Oddly, responses did not include feeding on and harming trees. This may suggest an
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incomplete understanding of insects and their role in forest ecosystems; alternatively,
respondents may have felt these roles are implicit and not worth mentioning.
One respondent, however, offered a different understanding of insects from other
participants. ―You have termites as a bad indicator [of forest health] … because they're
just breaking it down.‖ (3/66). This statement suggests that the respondent views the
presence of termites negatively, regardless of the population level. However, Lee and
Wood describe the relationship between termites and soil and their important role in
ecosystems (as cited in Matsumoto & Abe, 1979, p.261). This is not true in human-built
structures, however, and this respondent may have gained a negative impression of
termites from personal experience with a home. Regardless of how this notion came to
be, it is a basic misconception of the complex role of insects in forests and the
limitations of good/bad value judgments. The majority of respondents, however, were
able to describe the importance of insects in forest ecosystems with both positive and
negative values, again reflecting their comfort with considering health holistically.
Although most respondents demonstrated a general understanding of insects in
forests, knowledge of disease formation and spread was not nearly as common. Only a
few of the participants (n=3) were able to articulate thoughtful responses about the role
of diseases in forest ecosystems:
In a recreational setting…a tree with a disease is just part of nature. And note that I'm talking about diseases and not pest infestation. There's a big difference there. With disease, the diseases can help to provide habitat for wildlife. If you have a tree that…has a Cronartium spot [fusiform rust] that breaks out and falls on the floor that can provide groundcover and habitat for a time. The tree trunk that's left standing can provide nesting places and dens for a number of animals and birds. (12/182)
I think [diseases] play a natural role as long as we're not contributing to them. Less resistant strains of species might succumb to a fungus versus other stronger individuals within the species. But when we reduce the
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amount of land there is left to forests, we sometimes have to artificially protect against some of those funguses …so that way we don't lose all of our forests. (8/141)
Many other respondents (n=8) were not able to offer much of an explanation of disease
and may have thought very little about diseases in the past: ―if the forest doesn't have a
disease it would be healthy‖ (5/62). Diseases, however, play an integral role in the
health of forests; diseases cull out weak individuals, help maintain strong populations,
and provide habitat for organisms. Consequently, it would be helpful if teachers were
more aware of diseases and their role within forests to truly convey a complete
understanding of forest health.
A few topics, such as invasive species and forest management in a general sense,
were not directly addressed through the interview guide but were brought up by many
respondents. This may suggest their familiarity with these topics. The majority of
respondents (n=8) understood and indicated how invasive species can affect forest
health. All respondents who mentioned invasive species described the detrimental
effects they can have on native ecosystems.
Essentially to me, it's [forest health]…I'm looking at it from an entomologist's point of view, is that you have a lot of these invasive species that are killing off the forest and you have a lot of, not just insects, but invasive plant species as well which are essentially killing the forests. (7/43)
I would guess over time…if something comes in and it doesn't have its natural predators …it can take over and really mess with the insects that are already there which might be needed for the forest to stay healthy. (9/97)
Interestingly, one of these respondents mentioned the beneficial role of exotic species
for biological control of invasive menaces. Five respondents discussed invasive
insects, three mentioned invasive plants, one referred to invasive diseases, and one
talked about invasive animals. These respondents demonstrated an awareness of how
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invasive species are affecting and changing forest landscapes. In addition, several
respondents spoke generically about management throughout their interviews. These
participants discussed the role of management in maintaining healthy forests.
Teaching about Forest Health
Participants in this study were asked to think about important topics that should be
taught to students about forest health and how that information could be conveyed.
They responded with a wide variety of concepts. These answers included the
interconnected nature of elements within forests, human impacts, types of forests,
management, safety, forest ecology, indicators of health, and the importance of forests.
As was noted, half of the participants in this study demonstrated ecosystem-level
perspectives of forest health. Comfort with this viewpoint was again illustrated through
what respondents would choose to teach students about forest health. One respondent
offered, ―I would show them how a forest functions—the natural processes involved with
forests growing and being systems‖ (1/63). The majority (n=7) of participants expressed
the importance of teaching students about the interconnected nature of elements within
forests.
In addition to teaching about systems in forests, half of the respondents (n=6) also
felt that educating students about human impacts is important. These respondents
recognized the influence of humans on nature and felt students should learn about how
humans have changed forests and the ways in which humans can contribute to the
positive and negative health of a forest.
When discussing the best way to convey concepts of forest health, several
respondents (n=4) mentioned the importance of making the topic relatable and showing
how students can help improve forest health. They commented on the importance of
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eliciting a sense of ownership and urgency and that with a sense of responsibility for
forest ecosystems, educators should also present practical solutions and ways that
individuals can make a difference.
Well…you always want to make it relevant to the students. So by word or by teaching near a forest….With different people you really have to get in there and make it relevant to them. If they don't think it's relevant they're not going to want to save it. They're not going to want to do anything with it. The health of a forest is really important so I would definitely…say, "This is healthy. This is unhealthy. This is what we can do to preserve it. This is what we are doing to help. This is what you can do. Go out and enjoy it…." For us to be good teachers, we should make sure they're good consumers. We should make sure they're more educated as far as the environment and everything else. (10/164)
This need for enabling students to see a topic as relatable, however, may carry over to
forest health in unsuitable analogies.
In thinking about appropriate ways to present the ideas of tree and forest health,
11 respondents discussed comparing these to human health. While this analogy may be
appropriate in some instances, there are several significant differences between human
health and tree or forest health which may easily be misunderstood. Several
participants (n=3) demonstrated erroneous understandings of these similarities. In one
case, the participant likened managing unhealthy trees to unhealthy humans, but did not
realize that the analogy falls apart when thinking about harvesting old trees.
There are certain things that make trees healthy and certain things that make trees unhealthy. There are certain choices you make in managing a forest just like in managing your own health that [affect] the health of that forest just like they affect the health of your own body….Cutting down a tree isn't necessarily a bad thing. Trees don't live forever and at a certain point a tree has done all that it's going to do. It's produced all that it's going to produce. To take that tree out of the forest and turn it into a resource that can be used is a good thing. So that analogy does have merit. (12/325)
The second participant felt that humans need insects on their bodies to survive like
trees do and did not appreciate the roles of microbes in either system. This is a difficult
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analogy to use, however, because insects can be negative for tree health but positive
for forest health.
Certain insects are good for forest health….We have millions of little bugs and stuff that are on our skin…. At first you might think that it's bad for you but without those, we wouldn't be able to survive and the same with the forest. We need those certain insects on us just the same as a tree would. (3/234)
The third respondent compared caring for a human to maintain health to caring for the
environment to maintain forest health.
You could do the human itself and that...you need to be healthy but if you drink bad water of breathe bad air or…get a rash that’s invasive for you, you're not going to be healthy. So you need to take care of yourself in order to stay healthy. (7/133)
While the participant may simply be trying to instill a sense of stewardship and
responsibility to care for forests, this analogy wrongfully suggests that forests will be
healthy if we clean up polluted air and water. Although these analogies may just be a
result of careless articulation, the thoughts may also suggest flaws or problems with the
way these participants think about forest health.
In addition, several respondents (n=5) described the systems and processes
within a forest as similar to the function of systems with a body.
A forest is like…a whole person because you have different skeletal system, and the epidermis of the forest could be the biggest part of the forest. Like when you think of forest you think of trees. When you say body, you think on the outside of skin essentially….But then there are different levels to it….Without one…the whole body can't function. It's the same with the forest. Without one of those things, another species would die without it…. So it all affects each other. (6/257)
This again reinforces participants’ familiarity with thinking holistically about ecosystems.
An analogy between forest health and human health is useful to think about how
systems work. However, this analogy can easily be misinterpreted because human
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health is typically refers to an individual while forest health refers to an ecosystem.
Therefore, it is important the differences between individual and population levels are
made clear. Teachers should not liken functions between the human body and a forest,
but rather use this analogy to discuss the connections between systems.
Background, Experience, and Knowledge Relationships
The data in this study suggest several relationships between backgrounds,
experiences, and knowledge. Those who grew up in working landscapes had some
different ideas and experiences that were not expressed by respondents from urban or
suburban homes, despite their similar academic preparation. These data suggest a
relationship between the participants from working landscapes and those with a strong
understanding of diseases. Of the three individuals who demonstrated an understanding
of disease, all came from working landscapes. Farms, nurseries, and timber plantations
commonly deal with disease; so it is no surprise that the students living in these
landscapes had greater familiarity and knowledge of how diseases spread and function
in forests. Secondly, all of these students who discussed forest management were from
working landscapes. With such a close association with management, these
participants appear to have a greater understanding of the ways in which humans
impact forest ecosystems. These findings imply that growing up in a working landscape
fosters an understanding of specific forest health topics that is not replicated in other
environments or experiences.
Respondents who had forest-related academic experiences tended to explain
their knowledge and understanding of forest health in terms of general ecology and
ecosystems. Five of the six students who experienced forests through university-level
courses also viewed forests from an ecosystem-level. This may indicate forest-based
30
academic experiences are likely to help people consider a more holistic understanding
of forest health. This, however, does not necessarily suggest causation. While the
university forest experiences may have influenced the respondents’ ability to describe
forests as systems, interest in ecology and ecosystems may have alternatively swayed
the participants’ decisions to enroll in courses which allowed them to experience forests.
Academic experiences were not the only experiences that correlated to
knowledge and understanding of forest health concepts. All seven individuals who
named decomposition and nutrient cycling as a positive role also had recreational
experiences in forests. This understanding of decomposition may be a product of direct
observation of insects feeding on decomposing matter while collecting firewood or
hiking in forests.
Specific knowledge gained from forest experiences also related to the
understanding of other forest health concepts. All of the participants who believed
students should learn about human impacts also expressed learning about ecology from
their experiences in forests. The data does not show a clear relationship between
knowledge of ecology and academic, recreational or work experiences. Regardless,
direct experiences in forests in which respondents learn about ecology may foster a
greater awareness of their own role in ecosystems.
Finally, the ecosystem-level perspective of forest health was also related to the
respondents’ understanding of forest health indicators. Four out of the six students with
a moderate understanding of indicators also viewed forest health from an ecosystem
perspective. These students may be comfortable thinking generally about ecosystems
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and how they function but do not have strong knowledge of forest ecosystems
specifically.
Interestingly, however, there appears to be little relationship between students
who demonstrated an ecosystem-level perspective of forest health and those who felt it
is important to teach students a basic systems-view. This may imply that most
participants actually have a general understanding of ecosystems and recognize the
importance of this knowledge; however, not all respondents used this knowledge in the
same way. Participants who talked about forest health from an ecosystem-level may
consider this thinking second nature and overlook the importance of teaching children
the same. Similarly, respondents who felt an understanding of the interconnected nature
of biota is a necessary foundation for students to understand may have failed to realize
and articulate this concept in their understanding of forest health.
Discussion
Forests are important economically, ecologically, and socially. Landowners and
citizens should know about and understand these ecosystems to make informed
decisions which can affect their management. Providing education about forest health
allows citizens to understand the ecology of forests, the dynamism of forest systems, as
well as how human influence and other factors can contribute to their condition.
Therefore, educators are one key to developing citizens who are informed about forest
health. This study provides insight in how future teachers think about forest health, what
experiences they felt contributed to that knowledge, and the information they may
convey to students in the future.
Several themes emerged from interviews about forest health with pre-service
science and agriculture educators. First, half of the participants connected forest health
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with ecosystem function. These participants tended to view forests with a wide lens,
incorporating both plants and animals in their assessment of forest health. Because
forest health encompasses the function of many complex systems such as the
ecosystem and the human economic system, the complexity of the ecosystem is a
useful foundation to teaching others about forest health. An ecosystem perspective
allows educators to view and teach forest health more holistically and generally.
It is also important for educators to gain an understanding of forest ecosystems
specifically, and unfortunately, most respondents had little specific knowledge of forest
health. The majority of participants could not identify indicators of health and thought
they would be different in every forest. A detailed understanding should not be expected
of educators who have not had an opportunity to learn about forest health. The fact that
their varied experiences did not give them a chance to learn about forest health,
however, suggests curriculum materials must make that information available and
understandable to educators. These participants would benefit greatly from training
about forest ecosystems and forest health.
Secondly, school, home and life experiences appeared to contribute to the
knowledge and level of understanding of these respondents. Most of the individuals with
academic experiences in forests also conveyed ecosystem-perspectives. While
individuals with a greater understanding may be interested in taking courses which
enable them to experience forests, this knowledge may also be a result of the classes.
A relationship suggests that respondents were speaking from experiences and that it
may be possible for coursework to provide that experience.
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The data suggest that people from working landscapes obtain knowledge about
forest health that is not duplicated in people from urban or suburban settings and does
not appear to come from the courses taken by agriculture and science education
majors. These participants demonstrated a greater understanding of diseases and
management, both of which are important elements of working landscapes. This level of
familiarity does not appear to be replicated in any other experiences.
This study revealed unexpected knowledge held by pre-service educators. The
participants placed a heavy importance on the positive influence of insects. While
Kellert (1993) found the general public to largely express negative views of insects,
most all respondents in this study surprisingly valued insects and knew they were
important to maintain healthy forests. Although our sample may be biased with all
participants having at least two years of college education, this finding remains an
interesting and intriguing discovery. Further study is needed to determine if education
affects how people think about insects, and if only some types of insects have this
favored status (such as butterflies).
Several topics absent from our interview guide were mentioned in multiple
interviews. Animals, although not directly addressed in the interview questions, were
frequently mentioned as an important part of forest ecosystems. Wandersee (1986)
found that middle school students prefer to study animals over plants. He suggests that
strong media coverage in books, toys, and television encourage this inclination. These
outlets have made it possible for the American public to see and learn about interesting
animals from all over the world. As a fellow member of the animal kingdom, humans’
ability to relate to animal movement, feeding, and communication may encourage a
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deeper interest in and give greater importance to animals. Further investigation would
be useful to determine if the importance place on animals in forest health is a product of
exposure or preference.
The majority of students also discussed invasive species which were not directly
addressed through questions in the interview guide. The participants were familiar with
the concept of invasive species and demonstrated basic understanding of their potential
roles in ecosystems. Due to its mild climate, Florida has become the site of a large
number of invasive species. Parks, nature centers, and schools have made efforts to
educate learners about the effects of invasive species and how to decrease their
spread. This educational effort might be the source of this apparently common
knowledge. Further study would be useful to determine where participants learned
about invasive species and if this knowledge is a result of Florida-specific information.
One important forest health issue was ignored by nearly every participant—
fungus. Fungi were notably absent in discussions of decomposition, with insects
incorrectly reaping all the credit. In addition, the role of disease was discussed in each
interview, but the majority participants did not specify which kinds of organisms cause
disease. Although disease roles were determined, it would be helpful to understand
which organisms pre-service educators think diseases are caused by. Considering what
educators believe disease to be is an important subject for further study.
The respondents in this study named a wide variety of important topics to teach
students about forest health. The most referenced concepts were the interconnections
in forests and human influence. This reflection on connections suggests that educators
may feel very comfortable thinking about ecosystem and passing their knowledge to
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share with students. In curriculum development, this may be an important springboard
to introduce teachers to this issue and facilitate efficacy.
Furthermore, several participants also identified human impacts on forests as an
important topic for students to learn. All of these respondents learned about general
ecology through experiences in forests. This may suggest learning about ecology
challenged these respondents to think about their greater impact on the environment.
The participants in this study appeared to be influenced by their place of childhood
residence and experiences in forests. Many demonstrated a proficient understanding of
ecosystem function and the role of invasive species. These are excellent starting points
for teaching about forest health. Educators need to feel comfortable and competent with
a new topic to effectively teach others. Ecosystems and invasive species can be a
foundation on which forest health knowledge can be built upon.
Many educators, however, did not know about fungi, disease, and factors in
forests that contribute to health. Information must be provided about these topics to
better educate teachers and ultimately students about forest health. Furthermore, this
information must be conveyed in a manner to overcome misconceptions educators may
have about decomposers and the role of insects in a healthy forest.
Finally, many of these pre-service educators appeared to misunderstand the
relationship between human health and forest health. If they used their existing
knowledge to teach youth about forest health, students may believe that trees should
never die. This confusion may suggest misconceptions. Educators need extensive
information about and training in these subjects to teach students about these forest
health concepts.
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This study provided a glimpse into how pre-service educators think about forest
health, how their experiences influence mental models, and the ways in which they
would convey the information to students. Further exploration of the topic is necessary
to develop a greater understanding of how forest health is perceived by more pre-
service educators. In addition, expanding the study population to include practicing
teachers would further enrich our understanding of how forest health is perceived and
conveyed to others.
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CHAPTER 3 IMPLICATIONS FOR FOREST HEALTH AND OTHER ENVIRONMENTAL
EDUCATION
Since the 1970s environmental education has aimed to inform citizens about
environmental issues and prepare them with skills to develop solutions to those
problems (Stapp et al., 1969). Forest health is one environmental issue of growing
concern. Threats to forests come from many sectors and could affect Florida’s
economy, ecosystem services, landscape, and recreation potential. Educators should
teach students about forest health. The perspectives of educators and their experiences
with forests are useful in developing successful educational materials. The findings in
this exploratory study with pre-service teachers can help environmental educators more
effectively prepare materials for teachers to deliver messages to audiences in several
key ways.
First, our results suggest that forest health brings to mind forest ecosystems,
which are comfortable and familiar to many educators. If they are expected to present
new topics like forest health, it is important to integrate familiar knowledge, such as
ecosystems (Davis & Krajcik, 2005). This allows teachers to begin teaching by using
recognizable information, applying this information to new situations, and integrating this
information with new concepts. Therefore, new curriculum on forest health could
incorporate aspects of ecosystem function to introduce new topics. Even for teachers
who are less familiar with ecosystems, this study suggests the concept of systems could
be a foundational structure on which relevant concepts could be built. This would make
it possible for teachers to effectively and comfortably relay important information about
forest health. This would also allow teachers to guide students from learning about a
familiar idea to applying that knowledge to a specific issue. There are two additional
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advantages to this progression of ideas: (1) Because the idea of how systems work is a
general principle, it is rather simple for this knowledge to be applied to many more
environmental issues that just forest health. (2) Field trips can introduce learners to a
forest ecosystem and help them gain this information in concrete, hands-on
experiences.
In addition, the participants in this study were familiar with invasive species,
animals, and the beneficial role of insects in forests. All of these topics are related to
and contribute to forest health. So each of these topics could also help introduce
learners to forest systems.
Many environmental issues, however, involve abstract concepts that are difficult
for learners to grasp. This study identified disease and fungus, which may be unfamiliar
or difficult to visualize for many of the teachers, as two such topics. Students who do not
grow up in working landscapes would find these topics similarly challenging. Brown et
al. (1989) suggest when studying about abstract concepts, learners must not only learn
the concept but also understand the context; therefore, information about disease is not
enough for students or even educators to grasp an understanding. The majority of
participants who demonstrated a thorough understanding of diseases in forests likely
had frequent encounters with diseases on their property. This allowed these
respondents to situate this information and apply it. Even so, a learner’s prior
experiences and interactions can affect their ability to process information successfully.
Some experience with concrete examples of abstract concepts, such as Athlete’s foot
as an example of fungus, do not provide the appropriate encounter to situate the
information properly.
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Constructivists suggest that because learning is a cumulative process in which
knowledge is built upon existing understanding, prior experience plays an important role
in education. These respondents could identify their own prior experiences that affected
their conceptions of forests and forest health (Roschelle, 1995). Some of the
participants’ experiences in forests and at home appeared to be related to specific ideas
of forest health. Educators must think about the conceptions and implications students’
prior experiences can have on the knowledge they wish to convey. By creating an
environment in which students interact with one another to learn from each others’
experiences, students discover a range of understanding that helps increase the
assimilation of new information with prior knowledge.
Participants in this study stressed the importance of making subjects relevant and
relatable for students. This should help convey information about forest health.
However, it is also imperative that the analogies used to make forest health relevant are
accurate and meaningful. The parallel between human and tree health may actually
encourage misunderstandings of forest health. Trees do not grow like people do. Tree
mortality across age classes is quite different from people. While trees actively resist
disease and detrimental organisms, it could be difficult for learners to believe that!
Curriculum which addresses concepts that necessitate the use of analogies or
other relevance tools should provide examples and thoroughly explain ways in which
students may find the information more relatable. In forest health curriculum, the
analogy between forest health and human health should be deconstructed and
explained so that educators using the material can understand the reasonable
messages and the limits to the analogy.
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In summation, forest health educational material should begin with concepts that
are or can become familiar, such as ecosystems and animals, to create a level of
comfort. In addressing unfamiliar, abstract concepts, these topics should be given
context so that students can situate the new information in their cognitive structure.
Learning is influenced by the knowledge and experiences a person carries with them.
Education about new topics is best accomplished in a setting where learners can share
their experiences to discover an array of understandings that can help to assimilate the
new information. Finally, forest health educational material should carefully explain the
relevance of comparisons and analogies which educators are likely to use to help
learners understand a topic. The analogy between human health and forest health
should be explicitly conveyed to illustrate the ways in which tree health and human
health are similar (e.g., both organisms heal from unfortunate accidents; both contract
diseases which can weaken them; stronger individuals are able to recover more quickly)
and the context in which they are incomparable (e.g., healthy forests include thriving
and dying trees).
These conclusions and recommendations are not limited to forest health, however.
The findings in this study to improve material that helps youth understand a complex
topic may also be applied to other multi-faceted environmental problems. Like forest
health, many environmental issues involve complex dynamics between economic,
environmental, and social systems. Many also involve misconceptions, abstract
concepts, and little-known facts. By taking into account the recommendations outlined
here, curriculum developers can present complex environmental issues in an informed,
comfortable, and applicable manner. With more effective environmental education
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curriculum, learners will become better informed about and prepared to solve
environmental issues. A better informed and educated generation of youth will hopefully
translate to more capable lawmakers, managers, and citizens of the future.
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APPENDIX: INTERVIEW CODING WORKSHEETS
Characteristic of childhood home Suburban and urban 5/4 I am from south Florida, St. Lucie County. So I pretty much spent my life on
the beach. 1/1 Well I grew up in Palm Beach County.
where you grew up. Was it rural, suburban, urban? I would say it was kind of more suburban. You know. The acreage. There's a ton of stuff right around it.
9/5 I grew up in Seminole Florida which is kind of near St. Pete, Tampa. That area. I lived there my whole life… It's kind of a suburb of St. Pete. Pinellas county is kind of a densely populated county but Seminole is kind of a little bit away from more of the... it's a suburb more than rural I guess.
11/8 I grew up most of my life in Tallahassee. When I was 16 or 17, I moved here to Gainesville. So always in Florida… Definitely suburban. We actually loved well outside of the city limits, kind of in the country.
7/5 I've grown up in Miami so it's very suburban. I didn't have very much agriculture background until I got into my high school course… Essentially I had a choice in what high school I'd go to. My home school was, I considered it to be a prison. And there was a magnet school and agriculture was offered as one of the programs and it also happened to be the easiest one to get into. So I took the program on and I really enjoyed it. Then it essentially changed my life and I figured to continue.
4/1/3 I am originally from Atlanta, Georgia. Working Landscapes 6/7 I grew up in the middle of Green Swamp in Withlacoochee State Forest. I
grew up on a little sustenance farm, I'd say, because it's really small. It's like 90 acres and as land to live on goes, it's big. But as farms, it's small. It had a few citrus trees and tons of forests that I played around in. Great Barbors. My grandfather grew everything in sand which was crazy. Cattle, long-horns. Florida scrub cow, not Texas long-horns crossed with a beef cattle or something.
3/4 I grew up in Indiantown which is about 30 miles from Okeechobee. Then I moved to here in Archer, the town of Archer, and I have a small, family farm that we now work on. We're kind of expanding… So it sounds like you grew up in more of a rural setting. Is that right? Yeah.
10/6 I grew up in Eustis which is central Florida. I grew up, sort of, in this really small town. The whole county is a bunch of small towns. So I had that small town atmosphere. Everybody knew everybody. I think my graduating class was 160 students. That was kind of nice because you felt safe and everybody knew who you were… Growing up, I grew up in Umatilla. That's where I went to high school at. We are literally in the forest. It's Umatilla, a really small town, then Altoona. I don't even think we have a traffic light in Altoona. Then you're in the Ocala National Forest. So for me, it was really nice having the forest right there.
12/3 I'm from Blountstown Florida in the panhandle, about 50 west of Tallahassee. I’ve grown up on my family's timber farm so I have a connection to the forestry
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industry… It's a very rural setting. There are maybe between 3000-4000 people in Blountstown.
2/4 I was born and raised in Charleston, WV…Charleston, WV is the state capital of WV so it's highly cities with a few parks here and there. My family's house was in the suburbs of Charleston in a little town called Elkview. I grew up on a farm. It was a 600 acre farm. Non-working but country road. So my family's house is in a very rural setting but I went to school in the state capital, so very urban.
8/12 Well, I was born in Osteen which is pretty rural and then I lived most of my life in Deltona which is, I guess, suburban. It's a suburb of Orlando. But I spend most of my time now in New Smyrna which is like a retirement community. The younger crowd is all coupled up and married but mainly its snow birds…I grew up hunting a lot so I was out on my family's land. We owned a bunch of property out in Osteen. So I grew up on that, walking it, knowing the land. We bought a business in 2000 which is a nursery and landscape center. That business was on 4 acres of a larger 70 acre parcel in New Smyrna.
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Forest experiences Recreational 2/24 As a child I grew up camping on my parents’ farm. We always went camping.
During the summer, there was several times where we would go up to the lakes and camp along the lakes. So you said when you were younger you did a lot of camping and hiking, were those activities you did with family or friends? Family, it was always family. I camped just a few times with my friends during college out by a river.
2/26 I went mountain biking, hiking, backpacking when I was a freshman at WVU at my freshman orientation class over the summer. It was called adventure West Virginia. We backpacked in some of the parks throughout West Virginia for an entire week.
5/20 Pretty much my only experience with forests is camping and then playing in them. So you camped when you were younger or older? Probably, like, up until high school. I haven't in a while. Is that something you usually did with family or friends? Both.
6/43 We had the front 10 and the back 80 and it's separated by a strip of land which we essentially were borrowing from the state because it was a conservation area right next to us. Then we had squatter’s rights on... What kinds of things did you do in the forest when you were younger? I was very much, kind of an observant child. I obviously climbed all over the giant oak that we called the climbing tree. So I definitely climbed trees and after a while you kind of stop becoming afraid of heights. I'm not afraid of heights at all.
7/18 I was actually a girl scout so I've done several camping trips in the wilderness and I did hike the Appalachian Trail for a couple of days so I have not been completely isolated from forest. I have managed to do hiking trips and played around in them before. That's about the extent of it. I took a 3 minute course on controlled burning in my college career but essentially haven't studied forestry. So did you get involved in girl scouts at a young age? Since I was 5. And actually one of the camps I went to was on a rock Pineland. So I consider that forest there. Definitely, and you hiked the AT as well. How old were you when you did that? I was about 15 years old. Did you do that with family or friends? I did that at a girl scout camp. It was a program. There were about 6 of us. We had a great time until our counselor twisted her leg or her ankle. They had to cut the program short.
1/12 Basically just visiting forests. The only stuff I really know is from that camp that we went to [Everglades Youth Conservation Camp]. Whatever they taught us about, the different ecosystems is pretty much my knowledge base.
8/18 I grew up hunting a lot so I was out on my family's land. We owned a bunch of property out in Osteen. So I grew up on that, walking it, knowing the land.
3/148 You could have overgrown plants like air potato and we’d have to go pluck those in 4H.
10/37 So for me, it was really nice having the [Ocala National] forest right there. My
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dad's a fire fighter so having that sort of background. We went out there when you could still ride 4-wheelers out there. We would ride 4-wheelers on the trails.
10/43 I always camped. I loved camping. We normally camped in North Carolina. We would go hiking through the woods and the forest and everything. I am very fortunate to have parents who liked stuff like that. They really educated us on stuff like forest fires and stuff like that. Because, 1-we lived right near the forest and 2-it was something my parents felt was important, to conserve forest resources and don't leave litter everywhere.
11/16 Camping with my family. I've done some camping...actually we didn't have a forest in our backyard growing up but we had a large wooded area that us kids would play in… More as I was older. I don't remember it when I was really young but as I was older. So maybe as a teenager.
11/24 I did take a trip when I was 15. I took a trip around the United States and we did some camping at the KOAs. Then some other camp ground areas throughout the Midwest and South Dakota.
11/29 My son is in cub scouts as well. He's a bear scout this year. So we do learn a little bit at that young of an age.
12/59 Yes ma'am. Going along the lines of wildlife there, the planning and the clearing, the places to plant the supplemental food sources, I consider that recreation. Then, my family enjoys hunting and seeing the wildlife. That's something that we enjoy doing as a group. I have two brothers. One is 19 and the other is 14. They and I and my father really enjoy spending time on the farm in the woods at this time of the year hunting.
Academic 4/1/10 I didn’t experience forests much until the age of 30 because I was a city girl
and lived in an urban setting my entire life. Even the science teaching that I did was about urban gardening in Shanghai. So that’s how we formed our environmental education curriculum.
4/1/13 I didn’t really have any experiences with forests until I can back to get my master’s degree. So I would say at the age of 30 I started spending time in forests for the first time in my life. And as part of the master’s degree we had to have an ecosystem that we studied all year long. So once a week I would sit in a forest for an hour and make observations…Then I had to compile the study at the end of the year as part of my portfolio. Where was that? That was in Indiana, northern Indiana, in a nature preserve that’s surrounded by giant corn and soy fields. It’s like a giant haven for deer.
6/101 It was a really difficult class. And I got a C in it but I feel like I learned the most from my plant ecology class. Even learning about Hadley cells and all that...that was just...that class was just full. It filled my brain... The TA I had, he was very...he was full of knowledge and very helpful. I learned a lot from him and I really enjoyed his lab class because that's what I think he pretty much had control over. Great. In that lab class did you guys actually go outdoors or was it more of an indoor lab setting? I would say it was 90% outdoors, 10% indoors. We had our lab practicals indoor and we learned a few concepts indoors but I think we were outside and were in the vans a lot.
8/48 I took environmental science so...Well, we went out to NATL so I guess we
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looked at the burning there and succession and the 5, 10, 50 year plots there. Then we did that again in Ecology. We went back out to NATL. Mainly that's my college experience.
3/18 I did do something with my soils class where we went out and we looked at the soils and stuff. We were out in a forest if that helps. I think in my biology class...yeah, actually my, my, intro level bio class, We went out on a trail scavenger hunt. We had to distinguish between the leaves and the different types of trees and stuff.
3/34 I did actually, in my early observance for ag ed, I observed them doing their forestry CDE, which is a career development event.
9/21 Growing up, I remember in elementary school we did a field trip to a nature area near us. So there was some forest type stuff then. Then not much after that until college.
9/23 So last year I took general ecology which did a really good job of the lab for that. We did a lot of forest stuff. We went out to Devil’s Milhopper. We looked at the Sandhill Forest. So that’s a lot of my forest exposure, at UF… We went out there and we spent time at the Natural Area Teaching Lab and so we went out there a little bit. We went out to Devil's Milhopper the once and then we went out to that. The class had an individual or...either with a partner or group research project where you were supposed to be choosing your own ecological [community]. My partner and I did some...we surveyed tree species near Lake Alice and then versus the Natural Area Teaching Lab. So...A little bit of forest related.
10/62 we were taking intro to soils we walked through McCarty woods and looked at the soil profiles.
Farm 6/64 Were most of your experiences in forests by yourself, with friends, with family?
Probably mostly with family because...oh, one thing I left out...we put up fence. So we've had to put up fence around roots a lot of times…Anyways, so we did that a lot and just riding around checking things out. We even have a heart to take care of the Withlacooochee State Forest so sometimes we go back in there in our area and try to make sure it's still nice. Call someone to clean up if there's bad stuff going on. That and then my grandfather used to...as we were there he would be like, "you can eat this wild huckleberry but you can't eat this wild sparkleberry." That kind of thing. He'd show you which plants are harmful. Which plants are poisonous just because we lived on property that had forests on it. He was just like that. He liked to share and he wanted us to be safe and feel safe. He wanted us to avoid rattle snakes. If you hear it you do this and you don't do this and so forth.
8/27 We bought a business in 2000 which is a nursery and landscape center. That business was on 4 acres of a larger 70 acre parcel in New Smyrna. The business...we owned but we did not own our property. So it was leased to our landlord and our landlord sold to a developer. Then the developer was a developer for super Walmart. So, we were fighting that not only to save our location for our business but to also save the land and the forest that was on it because it was one of the last intact parcels of New Smyrna. That was also suspected to be where New Smyrna was founded because of the the Turmville. Andrew Turmville who came to New Smyrna. They are actually finding fossils on that land and in that forest older than the fossils in St. Augustine. They're suspecting that St. Augustine is not the oldest country in
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North America and that New Smyrna is actually...and that's where they landed first and then they went up to St. Augustine and made a bigger colony there. But there's actually a colony within the intact land that we have got to save. It had citrus trees and cabbage palm. Everything was so mixed and it was a really diverse...I spent a lot of time searching through that and finding...We found a cistern and a whole bunch of stuff that would save the property.
3/15 Well, other than family when I'm just out on our farm...We currently moving things over to another place in Chiefland. We're kind of rediscovering all of the forests and all of the things that are growing around there.
12/19 I've actually taken a semester off from May-January to start here at the University of Florida and work for my father on our timber farm. Before that I had worked after school, afternoons, and during the summers. My responsibilities and what I participated in ranged from a lot of different things... one of my tasks was to maintain the roads so that we could haul wood in and out. That included moving dirt, filling in bad places and rocks, things like that, draining water out of the roads, keeping the road from growing together, keeping the trees out of the roads. Actually working in the forest, this time of year in the winter, we always conduct...we usually burn a couple of hundred acres doing prescribed burns. When we harvest timber, I've been with my father lots of times making sure that the crew that's cutting the wood is in the right place. As I've gotten older, I've had more responsibility in that area as far as making sure that the crew that's cutting the wood is doing what we want him to do, taking out the trees that we want him to take out, making sure that the wood is being separated into its appropriate categories - pulpwood, small logs, chip and saw, and grade logs. My favorite part of anything I've done would have to be marking the timber to take out. Usually when we thin, we'll take out every third row and then that's on the first thinning. Then mark the trees that are left in the rows that we want to take out. There are a lot of different things that we look for...disease, suppressed trees, we want to remove as many of them as we can and still have a stand there. When you go back a second or third time for thinning, it's looking to take out those diseased and suppressed trees as well. So that you wind up with your biggest and your best trees at the end when you clear-cut and you have great tall, pretty logs. Some other things that I've been able to do would be to help manage for wildlife on our farm and different practices within forestry that help manage that. One would be prescribed burns. Another would be thinning back to a certain basal area or trees per acre. Our goal is to wind up after two or three thinning with around 100 trees per acre… But 100 trees per acre leaves enough to be profitable and still at the same time allow plenty of habitat for wildlife. Another thing that I really enjoy would be taking the ramps where we log and helping to clear them and burn them and turn that into food plots where we can plant supplemental food sources for the turkey, quail, and deer.
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Lessons from forest experiences General ecology 2/31 We did freshman orientation stuff during then. We did learn about some of the
forests we were around, the elevation, the climate, the trees, the plants, and everything, the animals in that area.
6/85 Probably, the biggest thing I learned in college is about the different types of forests and the different roles they play. Their different locations and purposes and how their ecosystem is so. They have forests...when you think forest you think of one thing. It's a forest. Or it's a building or it's a plane or a person. You know, it's a forest. Well it's not like that really. There are all different forests with all different types of animals.
1/12 Basically just visiting forests. The only stuff I really know is from that camp that we went to [Everglades Youth Conservation Camp]. Whatever they taught us about, the different ecosystems is pretty much my knowledge base.
4/2/12 I think one of the main things was that I didn't realize how many dynamics were involved in the life of a forest. You know, I thought of it as kind of a still, quiet place with just trees. I thought of forests as trees. I didn't realize how little the trees change in comparison to everything else. As I sat there throughout the year, there were flowers. They would come and go and all throughout the year. The snow changed things and the animals that were around. I ended up finding THAT more interesting than the trees.
6/55 I'm not afraid of the bugs in the forest and occupy the trees. Or...you know, the gopher tortoises that are a wonderful species as you know. So I just...the forest is very comforting and I've obviously...the value of the canopy versus our pine trees obviously don't offer that much. We'll have this field of pine trees and we sometimes if it got so hot, we'd have grass growing right around the pine tree where there was a little bit of shade. And that's it. The rest of it would be dead because we hadn't had rain in a month anyways.
6/76 That and then my grandfather used to...as we were there he would be like, "you can eat this wild huckleberry but you can't eat this wild sparkleberry." That kind of thing. He'd show you which plants are harmful. Which plants are poisonous just because we lived on property that had forests on it. He was just like that. He liked to share and he wanted us to be safe and feel safe. He wanted us to avoid rattle snakes. If you hear it you do this and you don't do this and so forth.
6/91 My favorite thing I think I learned about was edge. Like edge habitat because I found that the most intriguing I guess. My grandfather kind of introduced me to that but I didn't really realize he had. He was talking about, well, this type of plant usually grows in our area. He's like, you won't find...I was like, is that a this type of tree in class? And he'd be like, those don't grow here. I was like, it's a forest though. He's like see, that's not the case. So I learned some things without knowing it.
8/57 I learned a lot about the ways of the land from my dad. He never went to any schooling but he was a big naturalist. He could tell you what time of day it was even if we were standing under complete canopy just by the shadows and everything. So, I learned a lot of non-book stuff in that sense.
8/61 Then, coming...going into the horticulture part with the business I learned more about the layers of a forest and the actual types of trees you'll find in a forest and more of the scientific stuff. Then I never really took any real coursework on it.
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3/20 yeah, actually my, my, intro level bio class, We went out on a trail scavenger hunt. We had to distinguish between the leaves and the different types of trees and stuff.
3/32 I did actually, in my early observance for ag ed, I observed them doing their forestry CDE, which is a career development event. They were learning how to measure the length of trees with a certain kind of stick. They would identify different things, bugs and stuff. That's another thing we learned…the different bugs that will be around this tree or different processes of a tree and stuff.
9/70 That was something else that I hadn't realized much until the ecology course. When you hear forest, a lot of times you think Snow White lived in the forest with all the little woodland creatures but especially in Florida there are a lot of different types. I know I was surprised at that.
11/28 We just learned what kinds of life there is. The different kinds of ecosystems...that sort of thing.
11/33 They just talk about fire safety in the forests. They talk about invasive species. They actually collect some of the invasive species every January. They learn about all kinds of ways to preserve what's there like cleaning up their trash and not messing with animals. If you see a snake, you don't kill it you just avoid it. That kind of thing.
Stewardship and appreciation 2/42 I think you have a greater appreciation for nature when you spend time out in
it. So, that's kind of what has me in this conservation and environmental education is because I grew up with an appreciation for forests. I think it's something worth saving.
5/27 I definitely learned about protecting them, I guess. My parents would make sure we took all of our trash before we leave. If we put the fire out and all that, so...we have a bunch of pine forests back home and they catch on fire every year. It's kind of like...From growing up with that you learn to put things out and not throw cigarettes out the window and stuff like that.
7/36 I definitely learned that they're beautiful places. 12/67 responsibility for one and an idea and a feeling of stewardship. The idea that
what I do and how I manage the land today affects the animals that live on it and the opportunities that the resource can provide for my family and through the generations to come.
11/33 They learn about all kinds of ways to preserve what's there like cleaning up their trash and not messing with animals. If you see a snake, you don't kill it you just avoid it. That kind of thing.
Management 7/36 After studying a little bit more, they're definitely under attack from invasive
insects. I did take an entomology course. I learned about the bark beetles and such
7/37 I did...I have very skewed views about the cutting of forests. I know that some are responsibly, environmentally responsible and others are slash and burn. Well not slash and burn but clear cutting. But I haven't taken any...much away from it.
8/20 Then being in Florida I realized we do a lot of the pine plantations for paper milling. That was always kind of puzzling growing up, wondering why the trees were growing in rows. When did you learn about that? Probably I would say about high school. My mom explained to me when I
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finally asked why are trees in perfect rows and that when she explained that to me. Because most of the land I had always grown up on wasn't organized that way.
3/30 I've learned, well, I don't know really how to explain all of it. I guess all of the different uses for the different types of trees. How you would deal with the removal of a certain type of tree or how certain types of trees grow, if it would take over the pasture. If it would just keep growing and growing.
9/29 Definitely more in college and we talked a lot about...actually I look wildlife of Florida and there was a lot in there about burns for the health of forests and stuff. I really remember that whole area… We talked about how there's a lot of ecosystems in Florida that relied on wildfires. There was a long period of time where that wasn't happening before we realized it was an issue. So now there are a lot of the prescribed burns.
9/37 I went on a field trip with Lincoln Middle last semester where we went out to Morningside and they were telling the kids all about prescribed burns and they showed them all the gear and we went out and they showed the part of the forest that had been burned. ―This was burned a couple of months ago and this one was burned two years ago.‖ So, I thought that was good because when I was younger I didn't learn much about that. I think we kind of went out. ―Here's trees and this bird over here.‖ And not much deeper than that. I was glad to see that at a younger age they were getting a little bit deeper experience than I did.
1/20 I mean, recently we learned about prescribed burns as preparation for the internship but...
10/53 My dad, being a fire fighter, he was just saying stuff like "if there was a band burning right there, we're not going to do that." Or if we're out in the woods he was always really careful of how to contain fires and how to keep things so they don't spread. What's the best way to do it. Just safety things, you know? Don't start lighting matches everywhere, stuff like that.
11/33 They just talk about fire safety in the forests. They talk about invasive species. They actually collect some of the invasive species every January.
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Meaning of forest health General ecology 4/1/27 how well the ecosystem is doing. Like the soil, the trees, the plants, and
animals that live in it. What do you mean by ‘how well’? Is that something that's measureable? Well, yeah. I'm think that if scientists have data about that kind of forest and the history of that kind of forest and that area and how it's done over time. If it's continuing to thrive in the way the same way that they would expect it to thrive in the past, I would say that's well. But if it's...suddenly there are big changes. Whole species are wiped out or there's some weird imbalance going on, then that's what would signal to me that something odd is happening. Ok, so are you saying that changes in the number in a population? Mmm Hmmm
6/123 I would say how...making sure the ecosystem as a whole, plants, animals, and everything else, is thriving. The forest isn't, I want to use the term, endangered or threatened. As in the forest type is disappearing or… What do you mean by thriving and how do you measure that? I feel like that's a very difficult thing to measure because thriving would just mean...as opposed to thriving in the sense of being overpopulated...thriving in the sense of its not any day now it's going to die off. More like, there's a healthy level of everything and you're not having to monitor it so much that it's...Hopefully, it's so healthy that it blends in the rest of the forest and you're not focusing on it because it's that healthy. And as far as measuring that I would... The trees, the pine trees with the pests that have been eating them, and the animals, and the gophers, the keystone species that if you don't have them, a bunch of other species are going to be messed up. So you have to keep track of those. I don't even know how you'd measure that. Just, you'd have to have so many people measuring so many different aspects.
8/66 To me, when you're diagnosing a forest as healthy, you're looking at different indicators of health, like number of tree species, the age of tree species, the amount of brush, the amount of species of animals living in the trees. So it's different indicators that would determine the forest's health.
9/59 Forest health. I guess when I hear that I take that to mean the health of the forest ecosystem in general. So that would include how both animal and plant species in that area are doing. I guess I get this picture in my brain of a healthy forest. What does it look like? It's got the trees that are kind of…they are thriving. There's wildlife thriving. Birds and also ground mammals species I guess. Maybe there's deer or something. So that would be, I guess, a healthy forest in my mind.
2/49 I guess it's a very...I don't think I could put an exact definition on it but...I guess it is mainly that the forest is sustainable. That it's not threatened by encroachment from civilization, disease, extreme weather conditions. That the soils are nutrient enough so the forest can survive off of that without the robbing it completely. There's a cycling of nutrients and adequate rainfall.
3/41 I guess just the general area that the forest is in affects its health. Just if the forest is healthy, big trees are growing and there's a certain type of algae. I know if there's a certain type of algae it means the air is clean. It's not a dead forest. One that's not going to come back next year. So...
11/39 Forest health would mean a forest that is able to, I guess, sustain life of not
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only the plants but the animals it houses as well. So, it's a hard...I'm not very good with words.
10/65 Forest health. Well, that's pretty broad to say that. But the ecosystem as a whole, the forest itself, the beneficial health. Not only the human impact but environmental impact. Things like that. Then the trees themselves. Whatever kind of forest it is. Because if it's a scrub or... Just the general health. Making sure we don't have wild fires. Making sure it's controlled prescribed burns.
Management 1/23 Just maintaining healthy forests would mean making sure ...using prescribed
burns as management, stuff like that. 2/54 I guess for proper forest health you do have to have some destruction. Like
they have controlled burns here to have the overall forest maintained healthy. 12/76 Forest health to me, coming from a background in the wood business would
mean a forest that was healthy as far as being able to provide wood for the industry to be able to produce a crop of trees. But more so than that a forest that's healthy is a forest that can provide lots of different things. By that I mean that it can provide a resource for paper, for logs to be turned into boards to build houses. But more so than just what it can produce along those lines, a healthy forest is a forest that's managed in such a way that it not only provides a resource for humans but it also is managed in such a way that it provides a habitat and a place for animals. A healthy forest also is a forest that helps to produce oxygen and to prevent runoff and erosion.
12/112 Going back 10, 15, 20 years, the common idea was that you plant as many trees as you can to ensure that you have a stand. That isn't necessarily the best idea. A healthy stand of trees, a healthy forest, is properly spaced. That involves a first thinning as well. You can plant trees at the right width, have the rows the right width, have the proper spacing between them when you plant them, but if you don't ever thin then eventually the trees become too crowded.
Invasive and disease 7/44 I'm looking at it from an entomologist's point of view, is that you have a lot of
these invasive species that are killing off the forest and you have a lot of, not just insects, but invasive plant species as well which are essentially killing the forests.
12/109 If you have a lot of diseased and suppressed trees you don't have a healthy forest.
Different forests 2/58 So when you explain forest health do you think this idea of forest health is the
same across all forests? No, I think each forest, because of all different zones there are around the different climates. The rainforest has different requirements than temperate forests. Maybe a forest in the tundra even. It's different and they require different things.
1/26 Like you said, we learned about all the different ecosystems. Do you think the picture of forest health looks the same for each different type of forest? No, they should all look different.
4/1/31 Because forests vary so much in the kinds of plants that live there, and the soil types and the hydrology and everything, I’d imagine it would be completely different in every forest.
5/36 Keeping the forest healthy....or the health of the forest, I guess… I guess forest health would be different for all of them because they all have different
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trees and stuff in them. When I hear the word forest I think of the pine flatwoods we have back home. That's what the forest was. We have lots of Palmettos and all that stuff. So I guess...
8/74 I wouldn't say forest health is the same for all because a rain forest would be much more dense and that would be a greater indicator of a tropical forest versus when I typically think of the Florida oaks which are more spread out. There's no ground vegetation or little ground vegetation. Typically I think of the forest I grew up in. Or like...or pine wood forest with the palmettos and everything you have to go through.
3/54 It definitely looks different for different types of forests. You have the ones that you have to go in and burn all of the brush and stuff every year or you have to extract certain things so that they can grow. So you don't want to go into one forest and start burning where there's no pine needles or something. So, it definitely is different for each type of forest, for each different type of tree you have, or whatever you have that's there.
9/70 That was something else that I hadn't realized much until the ecology course. When you hear forest, a lot of times you think Snow White lived in the forest with all the little woodland creatures but especially in Florida there are a lot of different types. I know I was surprised at that. So, I'm sure it [forest health] is very different based on the type of forest
12/86 A healthy forest is a lot of different things. A healthy forest doesn't just come in just one size, shape, and form. A healthy forest may be a stand of trees that's been clear-cut and replanted. I know always...I kind of hate to see it when we clear-cut a place in one way because the forest is changed and it doesn't look the same. But I'm always amazed at how much habitat and new life that a clear-cut can provide. So a healthy forest comes in many sizes, shapes, and forms and it isn't just healthy in one particular way. A healthy forest provides for its human occupants as well as its animal occupants.
2/56 So, it's very dynamic. It's hard to put an exact definition on it for me. Animals 4/1/27 how well the ecosystem is doing. Like the soil, the trees, the plants, and
animals that live in it. 6/123 I would say how...making sure the ecosystem as a whole, plants, animals, and
everything else, is thriving. The forest isn't, I want to use the term, endangered or threatened. As in the forest type is disappearing or…
3/99 If you walk into a forest and there are low animal populations, it may be telling you that the forest isn't healthy? That depends on the forest I would think, but yeah. So depending on the forest, do you mean that some forests may require a lower number of animals? No, I mean some forests may attract a lower number of animals. If you have a forest that's really leafy and green, you might get more herbivore animals or more insects that might eat the leaves. But if you have a forest that's dead, there's not many places for, say a raccoon to live in a tree. That's not really going to support it. There's not place, no leaves or anything for him to hide in. The insects can't eat it. So there's just...Then not even just dead forests, but forests that are one type of tree like a pine forest. Certain things don't require or desire those types of environments, I guess? Does that make it unhealthy because it doesn't attract those animals? No.
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9/59 Forest health. I guess when I hear that I take that to mean the health of the forest ecosystem in general. So that would include how both animal and plant species in that area are doing. I guess I get this picture in my brain of a healthy forest. What does it look like? It's got the trees that are kind of…they are thriving. There's wildlife thriving. Birds and also ground mammals species I guess. Maybe there's deer or something. So that would be, I guess, a healthy forest in my mind.
12/76 But more so than just what it can produce along those lines, a healthy forest is a forest that's managed in such a way that it not only provides a resource for humans but it also is managed in such a way that it provides a habitat and a place for animals.
11/39 Forest health would mean a forest that is able to, I guess, sustain life of not only the plants but the animals it houses as well. So, it's a hard...I'm not very good with words.
how forest health changes 8/96 So is there one certain level that we want forests to be at to...
I think there is an ideal level. But it's not necessarily one that's attainable to most aesthetics or purposes. If a forest does reach that ideal sort of state, is that something that is static or is it something that's changing? Is it a short term thing? A long term thing? Well, if you think about in Florida, I guess my ideal because I grew up with it is the hard oak...hardwood hammock. And so there, while that might be my idea, it is only the end stage of a succession of forests. So, if it was to ever reach that, yes, it would be static. But in different stages, it's changing. So when you find a younger, like at the pinewood stage, before the oaks have moved in, you would be at a transitionary stage. And we need to maintain some pine wood so we burn them to keep them static at that stage. Same with scrub.
11/45 As long as it stays healthy. As long as it remains healthy I would think as long as it maintains its health it would be indefinite.
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Death 3/45 So is death something that's ok in any sort amount in a forest for it to still be
considered healthy or do you not want death at all? That all depends. If you mean just some things are dying out, some things have to die out for new things to come in. Over time, certain times of the year, certain things do kind of...they don't necessarily die, but they come back like a rose bush.
12/332 Another thing is that trees are just like people. They don't live forever. The idea that, and this is once again speaking from a person that has a background in the wood business, my own little soapbox here, is cutting down a tree isn't necessarily a bad thing. Trees don't live forever and at a certain point a tree has done all that it's going to do. It's produced all that it's going to produce. To take that tree out of the forest and turn it into a resource that can be used is a good thing. So yes, that analogy does have merit.
2/54 I guess for proper forest health you do have to have some destruction. Like they have controlled burns here to have the overall forest maintained healthy.
12/86 A healthy forest is a lot of different things. A healthy forest doesn't just come in just one size, shape, and form. A healthy forest may be a stand of trees that's been clear-cut and replanted. I know always...I kind of hate to see it when we clear-cut a place in one way because the forest is changed and it doesn't look the same. But I'm always amazed at how much habitat and new life that a clear-cut can provide. So a healthy forest comes in many sizes, shapes, and forms and it isn't just healthy in one particular way. A healthy forest provides for its human occupants as well as its animal occupants.
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Indicators of forest health Moderate understanding of indicators 2/67 Sparceness, like hardly that many trees. A lot of gaps in between. Not a lot of
undergrowth because there's not a lot of nutrients supporting that. I guess it also depends on the type of trees- whether they're wilted or not, if there's a lot of dead trees, their leaves. If they were the proper color and size. Things like that. Then the animals that live in the forest would also be another indicator. If there's a high animal population that means there's enough to support them living there compared to forests that don't have animals at all would be a problem.
6/126 lack of pollution obviously, the introduction of certain species that don't belong there. The loss of species that do belong there. Keeping track of those things and so forth and monitoring those things. Making sure that all the resources are there for the forest. Making sure the water that's supposed to be in a swamp is not just disappearing randomly.
7/52 I guess overall they kind of have the same problems, it's just what sort of invasive species is it. What sort of human interference is it. So it's just more specific but the same problems. you want to look at if there's any tree die off or any new growth. Look to see if there's any species in the forest that shouldn't be there, but I'm not...yeah.
9/79 I guess if a forest, a healthier forest, might have higher growth rates of species that are native to that area. So if you were looking at plants to see if they had been growing maybe, what would be...that they were growing at least what an average, yearly average. If that was good or if they were behind what that plant should typically be growing. If there's...If the animals in the area seem to stay constant over time as opposed to if you have a lot of species moving out. That might indicate there's a problem in the forest.
10/76 if you have heavy, heavy overgrowth and you can tell that when you see it, this isn't healthy. This is too much dead stuff on the ground, then that's not healthy, especially in Florida. It's so easy for fires to start especially with the lightning and everything else. So when you see something that's really overgrown you're like, ―That’s not healthy." 1-they're competing for space as far as the vegetation. Then you've got the animals that can't get through there. Maybe there's a bunch of animals because there's so much vegetation. That would be the unhealthy side. Then the healthy side would be something that has been prescribed burned and you can tell that it's new growth coming in. You can tell that there are animals around. That's always a good thing. That's what I think of. Especially coming through Ocala Forest. When I take 19 coming home, there's a lot of trees all the way down and they do prescribed burns in that area. I can see the difference when they haven't done one in a while and when they've recently done one.
11/50 Well, the plant and animal diversity. The health of the individual organisms living within that forest. Diversity, you were saying you could measure the diversity, are you saying that you want more diversity or less diversity in a healthy forest? More diversity. I guess the amount of animals or other life that you see. Health is even harder to describe in humans but if you see animals that are clearly not meeting their needs for survival as far as food goes. If you see some birds that appear sick. I'm sure you could do more extensive stuff like collecting samples and testing
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them but...just walking into a forest I imagine there are some signs you can look for.
Little understanding of indicators 1/31 That one I'm not sure about. It depends on what forest because recently they
showed us the pictures of what a forest looks like and what it would look like without a prescribed burn. They all start to look the same and overgrown so I guess you just look for what native species are supposed to be there and their health. I'm not really sure.
5/48 simple stuff with plants is looking at if they're growing and look healthy, if they're all wilted and falling over, it's probably not healthy. You can look for animals. If there are lots of animals it's usually healthy.
3/63 Algae that grows on the tree. It may be a fungus, I'm not sure. I would probably say bugs. You would have termites as a bad indicator in my opinion because they're just breaking it down. But they're going to be there. Dryness of the soil or you could look at the soil too - the breakdown of the different elements in the forest. I guess there's numerous things. You could look for different diseases on the leaves or on the bark. There are numerous things you could look at.
Good understanding of indicators 4/1/36 I guess you could look at the diversity of species and see if there’s one
dominant species that’s taking over. You know, invasive species-see if they’re there. And native species are there and if they’re able to be healthy. I guess if you wanted to look at indicators you study health over time. Maybe just looking at it once wouldn’t tell you much if you didn’t know the history of the forest but look at how the species are doing and see what changes happen over a few years. So are changes an indicator of good health or poor health? So I guess it depends on what the changes are. If there’s a species there that’s not doing so well. If they’re getting closer to…struggling more as time goes on, that would be a sign of poor health.
4/2/37 So what happens if some sort of animal has a very high population and drops? Is that an indicator of poor health? No, but I think if the drop were unexpected and something they had never seen before that might be an indicator of poor health. And it might take a lot more research, obviously, to figure out or to try to figure out what was happening. But if they were population fluctuations over time that scientists could predict, that's not a problem, obviously, because that happens naturally in forests. I think if it's something that has been not seen before or is unexplained-and even if it’s unexplained, it doesn't necessarily mean it's unhealthy but it could be a sign of an unhealthy...
4/2/51 So are there certain things that you can measure that would be the same in each forest to look at the health of the forest? Oh, yes, yes it does...That's a good question. When I think about it, I always think of measuring forest health as compared to data about that particular forest in the past but throughout forests...I guess you couldn't be specific about the things in that forest that make it particular. But overall, biodiversity. But that's necessarily true because some forests are more biodiverse and that doesn't mean that they're healthier than another one. Maybe you could quantify somehow how well it's maintaining what you had expected it to and compare that to other forests.
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4/2/64 If you were to go out and observe that forest in Indiana again, what are the major things you could look at to say, "That’s telling me this forest is doing well. Or this forest is doing poorly." Are there things you can look for? Well, me personally, as one individual, might have trouble… I would need information about what I would expect the forest to look like because I wouldn't really know as one person. And is that a measure of just the trees and the plants? Or does that incorporate animals? Yeah, everything. All of the animals and plants, microorganisms. Anything that's alive in the forest. Or even abiotic factors too. Like the amount of soil. The amount of soil goes down over time. I think it would be hard to do just in one visit to a forest unless they knew a lot about forests and what that forest is supposed to look like. It would be hard for me to just say, "Oh this forest looks healthy."
4/2/90 How do you think you can measure if one dominant species is taking over? How do you measure "taking over"? I guess when I said dominant species I was thinking invasive species that are becoming dominant in the forest. Not like the forest dominant species. But...well, you could over time just count individuals or do a sampling of individuals, and the area and just see how many there are.
8/66 To me, when you're diagnosing a forest as healthy, you're looking at different indicators of health, like number of tree species, the age of tree species, the amount of brush, the amount of species of animals living in the trees. So it's different indicators that would determine the forest's health.
12/100 the trees will not look suppressed or diseases. Now I'm talking from a pine perspective here. A healthy forest will...it won't have a whole pile of diseases and suppressed trees. It will have enough space between the trees. One part of having a healthy forest, an uplands pine forest, is fire. The undergrowth won't be built up to the point that it's shaded out all of the groundcover underneath it and you won't have a buildup of hazardous fuel materials. There will be new growth underneath your forest trees. And that will provide for the wildlife.
12/119 A healthy forest, another indicator is that there won't be tons of young hardwoods mixed in. If you have fire, you'll keep a buildup. You'll keep those young hardwoods from building up inside the forest.
12/123 Another indicator or an unhealthy forest would be a build-up of fuel materials on the forest floor. This is harmful in two ways. One obvious thing is that the buildup of fuel can lead to a devastating wild fire and that's definitely not good for a forest. Prescribed fire is one thing but a wild fire is something altogether different. The other thing is that when you have a build-up of fuel on the forest floor like that it shades out and prevents beneficial grasses like wiregrass. It prevents little trees like dogwoods and different things that you might want to grow underneath your forest from growing and producing food and cover for your wildlife.
12/146 Whereas coming from a wood business perspective, having a lot of dead trees and snaps in your forest wouldn't be a good idea. If you're managing for recreational use, then yes, that's a good thing because it provides habitat for different birds and other animals.
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Invasive Species 4/1/37 You know, invasive species-see if they’re there. And native species are there
and if they’re able to be healthy. 4/2/96 When you say invasive species what are you referring to?
I mean non-native species that are coming in to take over. When you say non-native does that mean not from the same country? I guess I'm thinking of...well, not necessarily to that country. Maybe it's native now to this country because it's been in the country for so long. I was thinking of something that land managers declared a threat to native ecosystems. So something we know we don't want to be there.
4/2/103 Are there any native plants or animals that managers may declare as a threat or are those only invasive species that are...would ever really be a threat to a particular area? No, I would imagine there's some native species that might just get out of balance because of something else and become a problem and have to be controlled. I don't hear about that as often as I do invasive species because that's the big thing that everybody talks about. I don't see why not. I don't want to discriminate between native and invasive species. They have just as much potential for evil...ha ha ha
6/151 I know that some of them [insects] can be used for biological control of introduced insects that are there that don't belong there.
6/126 The introduction of certain species that don't belong there. The loss of species that do belong there. Keeping track of those things and so forth and monitoring those things. Making sure that all the resources are there for the forest. Making sure the water that's supposed to be in a swamp is not just disappearing randomly.
7/52 I guess overall they kind of have the same problems, it's just what sort of invasive species is it. What sort of human interference is it. So it's just more specific but the same problems.
7/43 So what does the term forest health mean to you? Essentially to me, it's…I'm looking at it from an entomologist's point of view, is that you have a lot of these invasive species that are killing off the forest and you have a lot of, not just insects, but invasive plant species as well which are essentially killing the forests.
8/83 Insects, they play a role in everything from decomposition in keeping everything flowing like energy systems flowing throughout the forest but then you get issues where maybe there's an invasive species or something is out of balance in the system. A species overpopulates then can be detrimental to a forest so I think they can definitely work in both ways.
9/93 Then there can also be...if an insect comes in that can either indicate disease in the plants or if an insect invades the area. Because I know now that the kind of economy that we have now, the way species move back and forth place there can be insects that come in that aren't native.
9/97 What do you mean by invade? Ok, you mean non-native? Non-native species, yeah. So you're saying that a non-native would be an indication of poor forest health? Yeah, probably I would guess over time because if something comes in and it doesn't have its natural predators and stuff, it can take over and really mess with the insects that are already there which might be needed for the forest to
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stay healthy. 10/105 If there's an area of forest that an insect that's not native comes in and
overpopulates an area, that's something that management tools would be able to regulate and be able to get down. But if it's a natural setting and it's a natural insect that's already there, as long as...it really depends because it can be part management and part can be a natural process. I think it depends on the species, what kind of area it is, and what kind of condition the forest is in.
10/115 If it's a disease that came in and killed off an invasive species in the forest that's a good thing. We don't want invasive species.
12/254 Especially here in Florida on our farm, there's more and more of a problem with invasive species. On our farm the number one culprit would have to be the Chinaberry. They are easily spread and not very easily removed. There are a number of other invasive species- the popcorn tree, I think that would be the Chinese tallow, cogon grass. That's just three there, but there are many others. especially here in Florida where at least part of the state is in a subtropical climate. So unless we intensively manage for the removal and suppression of these invasive species, in 100 years, our forests will look different because these invasive species will choke out natural vegetation… When you clear-cut and replant and clear an area, you will remove those. So they will be there in some quantity, but not like they will be in a forest that is not intensively managed either for timber production or for the removal of these invasive species
12/281 The Division of Forestry manages public land intensively for the removal of invasive species now. It is harder in sense because on the public lands the mechanical methods that are used are usually more labor intensive. Heavy machinery isn't exactly something that's brought onto national parks and state parks very often. Then the use of chemicals to remove invasive species is one of our most effective things to remove invasive species. The state division of forestry, they use chemicals but the use of chemicals on public land and in part is somewhat frowned upon. So unless the invasive species continue to be managed intensively, then, yes there will be changes.
11/108 Invasive species can be a very bad thing. A lot of times they have no known predators in that area. They can tend to take over. Sometimes they're fast spreading. Sometimes they take up more resources than some of other plants in the area that they can kill off. Invasive species can be very detrimental. Some species I know are introduced on purpose for a reason. Let's say you have too many mice, so they might introduce some predatory birds. Sometimes people do that to promote forest health. Often times it's a species that's not supposed to be there. For instance the snakes in the Everglades are taking over.
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Role of insects Positive roles 2/79 They're responsible for nutrient cycling, with breaking down and decomposing.
Along with other bacteria, so... I'd say they do their...they help the nutrient cycling and breaking down or to enrich the soil or the trees to uptake.
1/39 My guess would be decomposing and recycling the nutrients for the forest to grow.
5/53 I know that they eat decomposing matter and stuff. So any animals that die, they help process that. They eat tree bark and stuff so it would be like eating off all the dead stuff so the new stuff can grow, kind of.
6/151 I would say that obviously they decompose things. They...I know that some of them can be used for biological control of introduced insects that are there that don't belong there. Then, if you have an area that for some reason, like those things that harm the pine trees, I'm sure that's bad in some area, in other areas where they weren't quite so...such a big effect, they might have been good for the health by keeping pine trees from overrunning it. So, you know, they're good at monitoring species levels and being predators just like a lot of animals are.
7/72 I know some of them decompose and add nutrients back into the soil so in that sense, insects are very good but then you do have invasive insects that bore into the soil and kill off the trees. I think there was the chestnuts or something. The chestnut blight? yeah. So, depending on what the insect does, it can be either good or bad.
8/83 Insects, they play a role in everything from decomposition in keeping everything flowing like energy systems flowing throughout the forest but then you get issues where maybe there's an invasive species or something is out of balance in the system. A species overpopulates then can be detrimental to a forest so I think they can definitely work in both ways.
3/76 I'm not really the insect guru but they probably play a role in a positive and a negative way. In my opinion, probably more negative. I guess in the good way, they do break down some things that are dead, so when they break down that organic material, it leaves more room for other things to grow or they might be adding more nutrients to the soil. So you're in a sense getting away all of the dead aspects out for new one to come in. I think...That's my opinion.
12/200 From a timber management perspective, once again it’s looking at it in two totally different ways. From a timber management perspective, a pest is almost always a pest because they're biting into your bottom line. Now, from a recreational standpoint, certain pests can be beneficial. They can provide a source of food for...I know one big thing that the department of forestry pushes is the management for and the protection of red-cockaded woodpeckers and pests provide a food source, their food source. So pests do play a role in the environment, absolutely. But certain pests, especially the southern pine beetle, can be a devastating force in either timber production managed forest or a recreational managed forest because they can wipe out the entire forest.
10/93 Insects are really important. Insects can pollinate things. They can...Shoot I took entomology and I don't remember. Stuff like when they eat stuff and digest things, that helps insects being there.
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4/1/50 They definitely play a role in healthy forests because they’re a huge part of the ecosystem. Some insects rely specifically on one plant or some species to survive.
9/91 I know there are a lot of ecosystems that have insects that naturally need their help pollinating or they're food for certain animals in the area.
6/162 I don't know about certain diseases. I know insects, like we were talking about, have a symbiotic relationship to it [disease] but I don't know a lot about plant diseases
4/1/52 If they’re there, it implies there are enough species there to support them which means other things are healthy and that’s good.
4/1/61 As long as the other species are maintaining their population in a healthy way I think that’s fine, but if an insect comes in and suddenly things start to die all over the forest, then that would be…
12/66 It depends on the insect. But you have pollinators, you have decomposers. You have all kinds of... They serve as a food source for other organisms.
Negative roles 10/93 Usually, when...they can be good and bad. If you have too much of one insect
and you don't have a natural predator that's able to keep that population down, it can take over and maybe kill a particular plant that was native to that particular area and it [the insect] shouldn't be there. You have to regulate insect populations to make sure they're not going crazy but they definitely play a huge role in being able to keep up with a healthy forest.
8/83 Insects, they play a role in everything from decomposition in keeping everything flowing like energy systems flowing throughout the forest but then you get issues where maybe there's an invasive species or something is out of balance in the system. A species overpopulates then can be detrimental to a forest so I think they can definitely work in both ways.
2/85 I know with invasive species that would be a negative role of insects because they could overtake and destroy and be very detrimental to the forest health.
1/40 Then of course pests that get out of control or pests that aren't native can harm forests.
7/72 I know some of them decompose and add nutrients back into the soil so in that sense, insects are very good but then you do have invasive insects that bore into the soil and kill off the trees. I think there was the chestnuts or something. The chestnut blight? yeah. So, depending on what the insect does, it can be either good or bad.
9/93 Then there can also be...if an insect comes in that can either indicate disease in the plants or if an insect invades the area. Because I know now that the kind of economy that we have now, the way species move back and forth place there can be insects that come in that aren't native.
4/1/54 I guess if they’re doing harm it would be a time when the insects are way more abundant than they should be, and there’s not enough to support them and there are no predators and they’re taking over they’re harming other species ability to live.
5/58 if it gets overrun with insects, they could just keep eating the forest and kind of making it not exist.
10/105 If there's an area of forest that an insect that's not native comes in and overpopulates an area, that's something that management tools would be able to regulate and be able to get down. But if it's a natural setting and it's a
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natural insect that's already there, as long as...it really depends because it can be part management and part can be a natural process. I think it depends on the species, what kind of area it is, and what kind of condition the forest is in.
3/66 I would probably say bugs. You would have termites as a bad indicator in my opinion because they're just breaking it down. But they're going to be there.
12/190 Now to talk about pests for just a second, pest are different in the fact that they can wipe out an entire forest. Disease, from the timber management aspect, unless you get a real bad load of seedlings, bad shipment of seedlings, disease isn't going to wipe out your whole stand. The same with recreational use. But, pests such as the southern pine beetle can wipe out an entire forest and weather you are managing for timber or for recreational use; you have to guard against pests.
3/83 Great. So you said an insect's role is probably one of more negative impact... Depending on the insect I would say...yeah So some may be more positive and some may be more negative? Yeah.
11/72 Do they have any negative roles in a forest as well? I am sure some would...
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Role of diseases Good understanding 8/141 I think definitely they do. I think they play a natural role as long as we're not
contributing to them. But also in some senses maybe they just are weaker species that are just weaker individuals that need to be sorted out. Less resistant strains of species might succumb to a fungus versus other stronger individuals within the species. But when we reduce the amount of land there is left to forests, we sometimes have to artificially protect against some of those funguses necessarily. So that way we don't lose all of our forests.
8/160 Do you think it's mostly older individuals impacted my disease? Are younger trees impacted my disease? I think it could be both. Older trees definitely are easier impacted by invasive vines. I think younger ones can be blocked from the shade easier too because they don't have a lot of surface area. So I think it could go both ways.
3/116 There are diseases that can wipe out whole forests. There's diseases that...I don't really know any of the diseases but just like a rose garden or any type of flower garden. Disease attacks one leaf and it just spreads or it can just attack or destroy the leaves. It can destroy the thrivingness?....I'm making up words here...of the plant and them maybe possibly spread. So it depends on how it attacks or how it affects and if it can spread and how spreadable it is.
9/108 I know that in certain plants and trees that plant disease spread pretty rapidly in an area especially if they're close together. So, I guess naturally those things cycle through nature but humans have played a role so much now. So we either help spread things or stop things that are supposed to spread that could lead to unhealthy ecosystems. I mean disease is part of any sort of natural population. So does, that doesn't necessarily indicate poor health? No, not necessarily.
10/115 That can be good or bad. If it's a disease that came in and killed off an invasive species in the forest that's a good thing. We don't want invasive species. But disease can also be very bad for the environment. If they come in and the particular tree or whatever else isn't prepared to handle that disease and it's an outside disease that the tree doesn't have natural defenses against, it can wipe out the trees. That's not a good thing. So I think it depends on the situation again.
10/122 So you're saying if a foreign disease comes in and wipes trees out that can be a really bad thing. What about if it's a naturally occurring disease? One that's native I should say. If it's native, I think that if the tree or whatever species it is that it's dealing with has a natural defense against it, it will weed out trees that aren't going to be able to handle it. So it would produce stronger trees that have natural defenses against that. So it can be a good thing because it's kind of evolutionary.
12/174 Disease is just a part of trees growing. If a certain number of trees grow, there's going to be a certain number of them that have disease. On a timber farm that reduces the chance of ever getting any money out of that particular tree…In a recreational setting, if you're managing for recreation, a tree with a disease is just part of nature.
12/182 In a recreational setting, if you're managing for recreation, a tree with a disease is just part of nature. And note that I'm talking about diseases and not
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pest infestation. There's a big difference there. With disease, the diseases can help to provide habitat for wildlife. If you have a tree that has a top that breaks out of it because it has a Cronartium spot. That breaks out and falls on the floor. That can provide groundcover and habitat for a time. The tree trunk that's left standing can provide nesting places and dens for a number of animals and birds.
Incomplete understanding 2/90 With modern society, we're getting diseases everywhere because of all the
transportation and people coming in and out of these forests. So yeah, diseases can take an impact on it. It would depend on if the forest was continuous or segmented or how the disease could spread. If it could be contained or if humans could interfere and take out the diseased trees so it doesn't spread. But it seems like something that's more a problem now with a lot of people going in and out of the forest carrying things that are detrimental. So are all diseases signs of unhealthy forests? As far as I know yes because diseases in general, you always associate with something negative.
1/43 Diseases I'm guessing can spread very quickly and pretty much ruin some forests.
5/62 Well, if the forest doesn't have a disease it would be healthy. Depending on the disease and how it affects the forest. So, I know greening with citrus is terrible. They pretty much burn off citrus fields with greening and you have to start all over again. So is any level of disease permissible in a healthy forest or is disease always an indicator of poor health in a forest? I would think that it's always an indicator of poor health.
6/168 I would say some of them are pretty harmful and may not have been the forest's fault but I'm sure there have been diseases that have been around for a while and serve a purpose so I would say yes they're important. Ok, so diseases, can they be present in healthy forests? Right, yes. I would say yes.
7/79 Do you think diseases play a role in the health of a forest? I'm not sure about that one.
11/77 Well, I know that plants can get diseases as well as people. You can tell by if the leaves aren't growing properly. Maybe you'll see black spots on something. But there are ways that diseases affect plants.
11/85 Reasonably, I would think that a little bit of disease might be acceptable just because there's always going to be some percentage that are not healthy for the forest to still be considered healthy.
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Management 2/105 It seems like with all of our advances in scientific research that we should be
able to control forest health. I haven't read any studies in particular but it seems like it could be managed.
6/190 So do you think management is a bad thing in forests? No. I mean, if you manage to manage it in terms of keeping it how it's supposed to be then no. I don't think so, as long as you're trying to manage it for its benefit and not for your own.
8/187 So do you think management today sees human intervention as a good thing, a bad thing? I think we've come to accept that it's necessary. Because we decided that we were going to live around these forests. We must manage them so that we...they don't get catastrophic fires and what not. So, I think it's become necessary that we have to manage them. We can't just have hands off and leave them unprotected.
10/105 If there's an area of forest that an insect that's not native comes in and overpopulates an area, that's something that management tools would be able to regulate and be able to get down. But if it's a natural setting and it's a natural insect that's already there, as long as...it really depends because it can be part management and part can be a natural process. I think it depends on the species, what kind of area it is, and what kind of condition the forest is in.
10/133 But other than that, as long as we keep up the proper management tools [in 100 years], which I feel like doing stuff like this, people are becoming more and more educated. So they're more and more likely to want to help with natural resources. We have people in there who are making sure everyone is doing what they're supposed to be doing and making sure that the land is the way it should be and everything else. So I think 100 years from now as long as we're headed in the same positive direction we are now, I think it will look just as healthy as it does now.
12/138 If you're managing for timber production, there is a certain way that you manage your forest. If you're talking about recreational or...and I guess managing for wildlife would fall under that category, there's a lot of difference there. With timber production, you're going to have a much higher basal area and much higher ratio of trees per acre. With recreational management you're going to have a whole different mindset. You're not managing to grow your forest for timber production. You're managing for recreational purposes and a big part of that is wildlife.
12/155 And another thing, and this goes back to the difference between managing for timber and managing for recreational use, are that the very types of forests that we have, and that goes to the trees, if we're managing for timber, honestly, most people are not going to plant long leaf pines. They just grow too slow and there's not enough reward now to plant longleaf because grade log prices are so low… Now on the other hand, if you're managing for recreational use, to me the longleaf makes a much prettier forest and it’s much more beneficial for wildlife so the very types of trees that you plant will be different.
12/254 Especially here in Florida on our farm, there's more and more of a problem with invasive species. On our farm the number one culprit would have to be the Chinaberry. They are easily spread and not very easily removed. There are a number of other invasive species- the popcorn tree, I think that would be
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the Chinese tallow, cogon grass. That's just three there, but there are many others. especially here in Florida where at least part of the state is in a subtropical climate. So unless we intensively manage for the removal and suppression of these invasive species, in 100 years, our forests will look different because these invasive species will choke out natural vegetation. Now that will be the case in some places and in others it won't be the case. The more intensively a place is managed for either the removal of invasive species or for timber production, the less of these invasive you will see… When you clear-cut and replant and clear an area, you will remove those. So they will be there in some quantity, but not like they will be in a forest that is not intensively managed either for timber production or for the removal of these invasive species
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Things to teach students about forest health 2/157 the first thing that always pops into mind is how their impact affects...the
importance of when you go into the forest, let's say camping or hiking, that you stay on the maintained trails. You don't wander off into the woods because you could be crushing some very important plant or insect and then other animals may have your scent and not want to go around in that area.
2/165 " Something that's always great is real life experiences. Maybe take a field trip to a park, especially if you have an area that's affected negatively compared to one that's positively. It's always great if students can see it in real life.
2/169 I would just do a lot of visual or hands-on things that I could because I believe that would keep...would stay with them longer than if I just read them something or they watched a video. It's just seeing...That's just something they can do and not really have to concentrate or think about. So I'd always try to do something that's hands-on or they could physically see or do.
2/180 an important thing is general forest things like the role of photosynthesis and nutrient cycling.
2/182 Conservation with animals because the animals help spread...insects help spread seeds, help pollinate. So their role...I would go through the multiple roles that each element of the forest would have to see how everything is so interconnected. You can't just have a forest with one tree.
1/63 First of all how a forest, I would show them how a forest functions - the natural processes involved with forests growing and being systems.
1/65 Then I would probably talk about ways people manage forests and why that's important and what would happen if we didn't manage the forests.
1/67 And people build up around forests and how that affects them with pollution. How I would convey that, I would probably have to do some research. I would use some knowledge I have but I would probably have to do some research. I'm obviously not an expert.
4/1/90 I think it would be good for them to know what factors the certain forest needs to be healthy first of all. So, what does a healthy forest look like.
4/1/92 How the plants and animals and tiny organisms are interacting with one another. I think I would present it more like a web of life, how things connected to one another rather than ―forests have trees‖ which, I think, is what students get when they’re younger. They think of forests and they think of big trees when in fact there are so many other things involved. So, I think it would be good for them to see that a healthy forest maintains lots of different relationships between all different kinds of organisms.
4/1/99 Then if I were going to teach about what an unhealthy forest looks like, I wouldn’t necessarily only focus on problems within the forest but outside factors that contribute to a forest having trouble. So what humans do that contribute to a forest being unhealthy and then the effects of that. You can talk about invasive species or diseases brought from other countries, or land management because there’s so much more that contributes to forest health. It’s not just ―an insect comes in and kills everything.
5/102 Well, the definition of forest health to begin with. Then maybe either take them to forests to show them a healthy forest and an unhealthy forest. Look at pictures of...I would probably have someone come in, like a wildlife person, because I don't know much about forests and have them talk to them about it.
6/228 I don't have the vocabulary necessary to know the specific aspects of forest health that I could say I want to teach them about this concept. But I would
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say in general thinking about forest health I would probably talk about their...because...this is just from my ag ed because you talk about when you're talking to kids you've got to talk about something that applies to them. So I would say, when I'm talking about forest health, I would say, "what can you do to help forests? To contribute to forest health?" and so forth. Or "When you grow up, you could be a game warden or something to that effect. You know. How it applies to them.
6/237 I would think that I would probably tell them to not light fires just out of boredom and to ...when you're sitting there and you're bored, don't have a stick and beat the bark off of the tree with it. You know, as far as kids go, they...it depends on their age level. Like the high school kids, I might explain about all the different types of forests that there are and the types of ecosystems and say that these ecosystems have specific plants and animal species that are in them and they have specific levels of resources that they need to have in them all the time. If they lose those resources or if they're polluted, it affects everything around them and in turn will affect you.
6/247 At an elementary/middle school level I might say things like, " Don't light the forests on fire." and "Here's some things you might want to know about trees and animals". I would probably also tell them about keystone species. They would probably get that. That's a good one. Don't kill the Gopher Tortoises. They're pretty on your wall but they're not good on your wall. So...
7/119 One, I would convey to them the importance of forests in the world that they play in their lives and then society's lives. Because if they don't feel like they have an ownership of forests, they're going to really care.
7/122 Then the second approach I would take them is highlight a couple of issues that forest health revolves around. Explore them a little deeper and explain to them "alright. So we're having an invasive species here. Some of the problems with this....Here's some of the solutions or things you could do." So have them identify these threats to forest health and what's needed to maintain healthy forests and have them come up with solutions. Or talk about the problems to raise awareness.
8/170 Well, in Florida it's important for Florida health to look back at the history of forest management and look at how we first decided that a healthy forest is untouched and humans are removed from the system. Then we realized that was increasing fuel loads and succession was moving in areas where necessarily maybe we didn't aesthetically want it to be. Then we had the approach where some management is good so we were doing some clearing and cutting. Then, we realized that we kind of exacerbated the problem because fuel loads had built up for so long that they're making greater and more intense fires. So I think when you look at the history of forest management to the students, that's probably the most important perspective. We know that we've had multiple different perspectives. Maybe even our most current perspective isn't the right one but that we can see and make decisions based on the whole picture versus just this space in time. And look at how forest management has changed. You know the two ideas between conservation and preservation. Are humans a part of the system or not part of the system. I think those aspects of teaching are important.
3/215 You have to know the different types of forest to know if it's healthy. A certain forest you would see that algae or you would see different types of things on their bark. In others, you may see that it's dead and dying off but that's just its
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year-round thing. 3/219 They also need to know different things like the different insects and stuff that
would happen or occur within. Because we can't say, " if you go into a forest, you need to look and see if you see this and that means this is a healthy forest." What about when it comes to a different type of forest?
3/224 They need to know all the different forests and they need to know that maybe too much of one thing can be bad. So don't always look for that because if you see that first, it may be because there's just too much of it and it's actually negatively affecting the forest. There's all kinds of aspects you could look at but I definitely think that they definitely need to know that there's a limit to certain things
9/151 I know if I was going to be teaching a unit about forests, because of the way I am, I would spend a lot of time looking up background information and things. I like to do that before I get in front of any students. I mean, I guess that, well I think the idea is important first of all that, which again I didn't learn until college, that a forest isn't just one thing. No matter where you are, but in Florida, there are a lot of different types of forests, so a lot of kids do get that image of what they think of in movies as the big forest or what they see in books and stuff. So, dispelling that myth.
9/159 A forest can be a lot of things and talking about in general, I think it's important to look at the way the humans have impacted forests versus how if we leave them alone naturally. The idea that even if we do leave them alone naturally, that doesn't guarantee that a forest will always be healthy because there are natural things that will come through. So there are natural things that can affect the health and then there are also human impacts.
9/165 I guess as far as conveying that, I think it would be really good to bring in, either, depending on where I was, if I had access or resources to be able to take students out into a natural area to show them some of those things and if now being able to get a really good pictures, videos, maybe even finding some information from somebody who works in forestry- either getting them to come in a talk or finding a video who works in forestry to talk about that.
10/164 Well, being from the agriculture education background, you always want to make it relevant to the students. So by word or by teaching near a forest which is a lot in Florida. I would definitely want them to understand the health factors in general. I would definitely do an overview of the insects, the animals, the actual vegetation itself. Say, "This is a healthy forest. This is an unhealthy forest because of these factors." Then kind of make it relevant to them. Be like, "I want you to understand this because this is something we should preserve. This something that's important to the earth's well-being altogether." Really get them to grasp that concept. With different people you really have to get in there and make it relevant to them. If they don't think it's relevant they're not going to want to save it. They're not going to want to do anything with it. But you want to use the right tactics to get them to understand how great it really is. Why it's so important. The health of a forest is really important so I would definitely be able to break it down and say, "This is healthy. This is unhealthy. This is what we can do to preserve it. This is what we are doing to help. This is what you can do. Go out and enjoy it. Hike through the forest. Make sure you're doing everything you should be doing."
10/182 So I would definitely educate them and make them understand the rules, the safety and all that other stuff so that way they're better people in general.
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That's something we've always learned. For us to be good teachers, we should make sure they're good consumers. We should make sure they're more educated as far as the environment and everything else. That would be something very important for me to teach to students.
12/259 The number one thing that I would want to convey would be a message of stewardship that we as human beings have a responsibility to manage and to care for the land around us. Not to take advantage of it. The land and the forests that are here now can provide a resource and a living for us as for my family as well as to provide a habitat for wildlife and to provide for the recreation of individuals. It can also fulfill its natural designation as a place of regeneration in the environment. A place where...I'm having a little bit of a brain collapse here. Is it carbon dioxide that we let out when we breathe? It's carbon dioxide isn't it? It's a place for regeneration when carbon dioxide can be turned into oxygen. It's a place where erosion can be controlled. It's a place where water is purified as it moved through the ground.
12/306 I would want them to have an idea of all of the many things that connect to forests, from the resource that it provides to the habitat a forested place provides in the environment. Then for them to understand that they have a responsibility as well. That's the idea of stewardship-not to take more from the land than you can give. To leave it better than you found it. One of my favorite television shows of all time was Centennial. There was a quote on Centennial right at the beginning. There was a Native American chief that said, "Only the rocks live forever. None of us will live forever. So it matters not how long we live but how." The message there is that the land will and the forests will last longer than any of us and it’s up to us to manage and to take care of the forests and the land in such a way that it is better than we found it and it's valuable for future generations.
11/138 First of all, what is considered health and what it takes to maintain that. Then I think it's important for them to know how they as an individual can make a difference. A lot of people think that, especially students at a middle or high school level, that they as one person can't have an impact, so...
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Differences between human health and forest health 2/192 I guess what comes to mind first is when I think of human health I think of the
individual. You are by yourself. 2/194 You can go to the doctor and with a forest they don't have that availability. 2/195 They can't vocally say what's wrong with them. But you can have disease
spread among them. 4/2/152 a human is just one individual and a forest encompasses a lot more than that. 5/116 They're different because it's a plant versus a human. 8/200 I think then you're passing on some of the personifications of humans onto the
forest. It can...depending on the age group, it can really muddy up the waters for children and their learning. One of the most eye-opening analogies for me was looking at the earth as one whole and then humans as a cancer on the earth and seeing cancer in human cells and seeing cancer or seeing human development on the earth. That was one of the biggest awakenings for me to see that. So, maybe if we could make it into terms of that way and do more visuals then I can see it. But just a spoken analogy of a human versus…The human body and health, forest health, would be hard to grasp as a child because a child might not even know how a cold is passed. Then you're just saying that's how disease spreads.
3/259 Well they do get energy from the sun so that would be one thing. We don't want them to think that trees are eating the soil or something. Maybe you need know that opposed to us we don't get energy from the sun. We get it from the food we eat. We also breathe in oxygen whereas trees breathe in carbon dioxide and turn it into oxygen for us. So they need to know things like that. Photosynthesis and all that good stuff.
9/177 I think part of the problem is when you try to make a comparison to human health we tend to think of human health as a very individualist thing even though it's not so much. You are affected by the rest of the population around you. I think as a kid a lot of them don't think about that. So that might lead to the idea of just focusing on one species or one plant I think is kind of a bigger...
12/357 If I have a bad mole or a cancer spot on my skin, I'm going to want to have that looked at by a dermatologist then removed. So there may be a few grey areas there where it might not necessarily match up. That would be in the minute details.
11/161 Humans are mobile. So they have the ability to get things, change things, and do things. The trees are kind of more prone to what's around it. They're more limited in what they can do to better themselves. Or better their health.
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Similarities between human health and forest health misunderstandings 3/234 certain insects are good for forest health so just like we all know...we have
millions of little bugs and stuff that are on our skin. Yes, it's kind of gross. At first you might think that it's bad for you but without those, we wouldn't be able to survive and the same with the forest. We need those certain insects on us just the same as a tree would.
12/325 Trees are just like people. There are things that make them sick. There are things that make them grow. They need nutrients just like we need nutrients. There are certain things that make trees healthy and certain things that make trees unhealthy. There are certain choices you make in managing a forest just like in managing your own health that manage the health of that forest just like they affect the health of your own body. So yes. In some...Another thing is that trees are just like people. They don't live forever. The idea that, and this is once again speaking from a person that has a background in the wood business, my own little soapbox here, is cutting down a tree isn't necessarily a bad thing. Trees don't live forever and at a certain point a tree has done all that it's going to do. It's produced all that it's going to produce. To take that tree out of the forest and turn it into a resource that can be used is a good thing. So yes, that analogy does have merit.
12/359 From a broad overview, it would give an excellent picture of forest health and it would give the students an opportunity to tie what they're learning about forest health and forest management to prior knowledge that they already have. They may not all be on a pre-med track and know everything there is to know about the human body, but all of at some level have prior knowledge in human health because that's something we deal with everyday-our health. So it would give the students a good, solid foundation to work from as they connect that prior knowledge to what they were learning about forest health and forest management.
7/133 Possibly you could do the human itself and that you need to have...you need to be healthy but if you drink bad water of breathe bad air, or you get a rash that’s invasive for you, you're not going to be healthy. So you need to take care of yourself in order to stay healthy. So...which might link it to them better. I think it may look different but ultimately humans need some of the same stuff that forests need to stay healthy and we do face other stress and threats. Viruses are invasive to our body and if we don't take care of a virus it could potentially kill you.
Thinking about systems 1/75 I mean, our bodies are systems and forests are systems so I think there can
be appropriate ways to use that analogy. I would have to really think about how to use that but since they're both systems I think that could work.
4/2/154 You would have to think more for common processes that you might be able to draw comparisons to. It would be nice to do human as in a population of human health compared to a forest. Like one person and one tree. One community and one forest.
6/257 Well, I kind of feel like a forest is like...in a way, it's a whole person because you have different skeletal system, and the epidermis of the forest could be the biggest part of the forest. Like when you think of forest you think of trees. When you say body, you think on the outside of skin essentially. They don't necessarily play similar roles but I'm sure you could find a connection in there.
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But then there are different levels to it so you have levels of skin. You have your epidermis. You have tissues and without one of these things, the whole body can't function. It's the same with the forest. Without one of those things, another species would die without it, without one species. So it all affects each other. So it's very much like a body system. You have organs, vital organs, the soil, the rain. Stuff like that.
10/195 if you talk about human health as something they can relate to right away, like immediately because that's something they deal with every day. So if you related that and explained it in that way and then said the forest is very similar to this because it still goes through the same kind of processes. I would definitely try to think about that and utilizing that for teaching methods
other 5/09 The only thing I can think of is it's sort of the same with human health. If you
have any sort of disease, you're not as healthy as you could be without it. Then depending on what type of microbe or virus or whatever it is depends on the symptoms.
5/116 They’re the same would be that it depends on what the disease is as to which symptoms show.
12/351 It would depend on what you were trying to give the students. If you wanted them to have a broad overview of the forest and forest health, then yes it would be more than adequate as an analogy. That's really what an analogy is. You want the broad picture. Once you delve more into the minute details, then there would be a few places where that didn’t necessarily line up. It would be hard to make that analogy fit when you're talking about managing a recreational forest and leaving trees that aren't healthy.
11/143 Do you think there are any appropriate analogies for forest health? Ummm, you could probably compare it to even the health of the human body. I'm sure I could come up with something. Because the body has to work in congruence with all the organs. They all have to work in congruence with each other. Probably compared to the body would be a little hard. But anything else that has to maintain health and homeostasis. Maybe even make an analogy like a cell. How all the parts have to work with each other.
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Human health and tree health Inadequate analogy or intuitive similarities 4/2/136 I think some of it could be appropriate because on very simplistic terms, what
we put into our bodies affects the way that we grow and the same thing with trees. The nutrients and mineral that they need from the soil and the air also affect how they grow. But that's...then maybe you could talk about more than just physical health, like for people - emotional health. You need a community around you to support your growing. And you need lots of things and the same thing with a tree. It needs the right kind of community with other things to help it grow. But that's kind of where the analogy gets a little tricky because it gets a little different. An ecosystem in a forest is different than a human community... Because kids have a good understanding of human health so it would be a good way to compare it.
6/272 we have things that exchange nutrients like xylem and phloem. We have our skin kind of...it changes over time just like bark and it's the life of a tree and tree circles of the year. We grow much like a tree, more during one time than another. We have the softwood, hardwood idea. We have...we collect water and need nutrients via our mouths and we take in food. The roots are kind of the mouth of the tree in a way. We breathe like the leaves like the...the...not spiracles, that's in bugs...the pores in the leaves which have a name. So, yeah. And instead of like photosynthesis collecting light we have respiration and stuff like that. Yeah, so I'd say very much.
8/213 I mean you could talk about basic nutrients and requirements and relate those things. Like we both, we all need water. We all need shelter. Well I guess trees don't really need shelter but they need protection from certain elements. We all need nutrients and you could break all those down into similarities.
3/246 You can look at the aging process of the tree and look at the bark like the skin. Here comes more analogies I guess. We'll get more wrinkled as time goes on. Our hair will get kind of nasty looking and you can look at the leaves and stuff. But they do need nutrients and we need different nutrients. They need phosphates at certain levels just like we need vitamins and minerals only at certain levels. If not, they're harmful to us. It's the same with them. If too much is given or not enough, it's harmful to them. So when it comes to things like that, yes. Pine fertilizers and stuff, it's the same thing. I guess you can really think about it...We do require the same types of minerals. They need...we need phosphates in our foods.
9/182 I think that tree health, I guess that is something that I feel like would be easy
if a kid sees a tree that looks sick, that makes them think unhealthy, so that's kind of an easy analogy. Not even knowing much about it, I'm sure it's probably more complicated than that. So trying to take more of a systems approach. Finding ways to have kids think of how each part of the system affects another part.
11/155 In the sense that they can both become diseased. They can both become malnourished. They can be affected by external factors.
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BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH
Sarah is a native Floridian from Miami, Florida. She graduated from Saint Thomas-
Aquinas High School in Fort Lauderdale during 2004. After completing two years of
higher education at Spring Hill College in Mobile, Alabama, Sarah decided to move
back to her home state and pursue college education at the University of Florida. In
2008, Sarah earned a Bachelor of Science in wildlife ecology and conservation. She
continued to follow her passion of nature and outreach as a conservation educator at
Disney’s Animal Kingdom. In this time, Sarah made the decision to return to the
University of Florida to earn a Master of Science in forest resources and ecology. Sarah
has also received a certificate in environmental education and looks forward to her
career as an educator.