Here are student summaries of survey observations with visitors to the Tillamook Forest Center, adapted for the public Rain Festival event. Click on any title for details, then return to see all titles.
Multigenerational Appreciation for Environment
Event: Tillamook ForestInterviewer: Iris
Whom did you interview?
The main people I interacted with was Barbara who was one of the Tillamook Forest volunteers. She had lived in Oregon for 35 years. I also briefly heard from a family from Oregon with a couple of young kids who had come for the event. Barbara talked about how she admires the diverse range of ecosystems in Oregon and is passionate about her job as a volunteer for the Tillamook Forest. She mentioned that the forest has always been a large part of her life because her husband is a fishery biologist so it’s been a part of their regular family activities. An interesting thing she mentioned was how she enjoys experiencing the “natural environments” of new places she travels to. She cares a lot about the forest remaining multi purpose which means limiting clear cutting and the building of resorts. She was concerned about the upcoming administration change making new national forest policies. The family that I interacted with emphasized how it was important for them to enrich their children with information and experiences in the Tillamook Forest.
How did your EcoTypes and SDG priorities compare?The most prominent Ecotypes axes I heard was the Aesthetics of nature. People tended to lean towards that beauty if found in wild nature which aligns with my Ecotype of valueing nonhuman place. For the change axis, I leaned towards radical change over small incremental steps which Barbara seemed to identify with through the way she talked about changing government administration. This also ties into the Social Scale axis on institutional change. The family also seemed to value non human place and enriching their children with past knowledge so they can influence the future.
What larger MCJD lessons did you learn?I noticed I heard mostly similarities from the people surveyed to how I care about forests. I realized we were surrounded by a lot of people who has similar views of forests because of how the event was catered towards them. I realized I had similar concerns to Barbara about the future of our forest management. A possible difference I could say was there was more of an emphasis on past knowledge such as how the wildfires happened and were dealt with. My Ecotype leans more towards new knowledge.