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.
Portland Family Wants To Enrich Kids With Rain Festival
Event: Tillamook ForestInterviewer: Grace
Whom did you interview?
I interacted with a family that was from Portland. There was a mom and dad, along with two young children. While talking to them we learned that they had moved to Oregon about 8 years ago. We talked with them as they were exploring the Tillamook forest center. The parents said that they had never gone to the rain festival before, but had visited the forest other times with their children. They said that one of the biggest reasons they were there was to enrich their kids.
How did your EcoTypes and SDG priorities compare?The Ecotypes that most strongly connected with our conversation was Time and Aesthetics. The parents said that they primarily took their children to places like the Tillamook state forest because they wanted to enrich their children, through learning about the past, and instilling a love of nature in them. To me, this seemed to lean towards an old knowledge Ecotype, as they wanted to teach their children about the past of the forest. I also thought that this family leaned more towards a wild ecotype, because they wanted to get out of the city (a human built environment), and enjoy nature that was more separate from human built things. I feel that a lot of the things that this family found important were things I find important as well.
What larger MCJD lessons did you learn?There were many families at this event, and from what I heard they felt very similarly. This makes sense to me because I know when I was a kid my parents tried to take me out to forested areas to try to instill a love for nature. I think that especially in this age of technology, parents fear that their children will become outside adverse, and stay indoors with their technology. This is why I think that their ecotypes lean towards a Wild Aesthetic Ecotype. The separation of human made things like cell phones, and natural areas like the state forest are inherent to their viewpoints when it comes to raising their children. I also think that many of these families live in Portland, making it a bit harder to go to places that are more aesthetically wild, so they cherish the times that they can take their kids to a more “natural” space.