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.
Thoughts of Tillamook’s Tourists
Event: Tillamook ForestInterviewer: Emilie
Whom did you interview?
During our surveys, we interviewed 5 different people. We did not catch any of the names of the people we were interviewing, so I will describe them by their articles of clothing. The man with the brown cap had never been to Tillamook and was there for the rain festival. He grew up in California and was born in Idaho and loved the forest. The second was a man in a red sweater who had been to Tillamook once before. He was there for the nature and salmon release and mushroom foraging that were taking place on Saturday. The next woman in a rain coat had been to Tillamook before, and came to hike with her family. Our fourth participant was a woman in a brown jacket who had never been to Tillamook Forest Center before, and had come for the rain festival. Finally, our last person was a woman with a sweater on and a septum piercing. She was there with the non-profit People of Color Outdoors.
How did your EcoTypes and SDG priorities compare?During the interviews, I found out that the tourists at the Tillamook Forest Center were focused on the wild aesthetic side of things, which I also fell on the side of as opposed to the crafted. Many of the participants talked about how they liked how peaceful and calming the forest is, and how beautiful the trees are in their natural state. This indicated that they enjoyed spending time in more wild areas, as opposed to those manipulated by humans. An axis that I found was really fascinating to look at, however, was the ethics axis. It would be hard to classify all of the visitors under one portion of the axis, since they all fell at different ranges from anthropocentric to biocentric. Many of them discussed the benefits that nature had for themselves, such as being able to participate in “family time” or have a place to exercise. Others spoke about the benefits of forests such as Tillamook to the greater ecosystem and environment as a whole, saying that everything would “spiral downward” if forests like this were to collapse. This indicates a more biocentric view since it revolves around the forest instead of people. I also leaned more towards the biocentric side of the axis, however, I do see the importance of forests in connection to humans. Finally, unsurprisingly, a lot of the discussions centered around the nature axis. I would say that again most of the responses were hard to place in one spot on this axis. Some people talked about the resilience of the forest, perhaps pointing more toward a pure nature that supports itself, while others discussed our impact on the forests, suggesting a more hybrid reality. My own EcoType was more toward pure nature, yet for this one I found myself agreeing with a lot of what the surveyed said. Overall, I would say their SDG priorities focused a lot around life on land and some climate action in the sense that the tourists understand how important it is to protect Tillamook Forest.
What larger MCJD lessons did you learn?From this interaction, I learned that although reasons for loving Tillamook Forest varied, everyone found that the environment there was definitely worth protecting. In a way, although not all of the surveyed people directly pointed to protecting the environment as one of their main priorities, by spending time there and discussing what they liked to do in nature and their awe for it, they made it clear that helping our forests was a main priority for them. For many of the students on the field trip, including myself, we may have a more concise idea of what we want the forest management to look like at Tillamook, yet it was very clear that we had the same goal in mind as those who were surveyed: preserving the Tillamook Forest so it can thrive to the best of its ability. This exemplified to me that although our actions may be different, there are many people who think just like me and care just as deeply, just in a different way.