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Landscape Preferences andContinuous Cover Forestry

The Robinwood Altman report:

by Colin PriceSchool of the Environment and

Natural Resource

This report has been produced as a result of the Robinwood Project, a 45 month European Interreg 111c Regional Framework Operationproject – a first for Wales and delivered by Forestry Commission Wales on behalf of the Welsh Assembly Government. It looked at how weshould manage our trees and forests to provide solutions to hydrological issues, increase the amount of wood used in heat and energy andthe key role they play in helping to regenerate rural communities across Europe.

The Italian project leaders named the project after Robin Hood – a deliberate play on the UK folk hero best known for taking from the richand giving to the poor. Research carried out by the project now provides valuable new information on how forests can provide all kinds ofopportunities for the future.

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Previous results Variety is generally believed to be a desirable visual characteristic of forests (Lee, 2001). It has been a recurring theme of works on landscape design in forestry (Crowe, 1979; Lucas, 1991). Hanley and Ruffell (1993) found that the stated willingness to pay for a visit to a forest was highest for forests exhibiting maximum diversity, though the evidence that people were in practice prepared to travel further to achieve this was, in their words “disappointing”.

On the other hand, an aversion seems to be recorded – or if not recorded, assumed – to the visual impacts of clear felling. Work on forest landscape preferences in North America has focused on these effects, almost, it sometimes seems, to the exclusion of all other aspects of landscape design (Sheppard and Harshaw, 2001). There is also European work recording aversion to clear felling and approval of thinning, and suggesting that natural regeneration involving progressive removal of canopy might be a means of lessening the problem (Silvennoinen et al., 2002).

Pairwise choice Some time ago a paper was sent to me for review which investigated landscape preferences through pair-wise choices. A number of characteristics were varied within the depictions of forest conditions, including species, age, and amount of dead wood.

Perhaps not surprisingly, preferences favoured variety in every dimension. If only one form of forest is offered, then the best way to achieve variety is to opt for that form which offers most variety within it. However, no policy implication should be taken, that maximum richness of characteristics should, all else being equal, be provided within all forest landscapes. Doing so reduces variety between landscape experiences, and perhaps a dark, uniformly tall conifer forest does offer an experience that some people want sometimes. To express a preference for variety within a scene, if it is the only form of forest to be provided, shows only a wish to secure what variety is on offer: it gives no indication of whether variety on a larger spatial scale might be preferred. And, even if only a minority of people prefer other kinds of forest, these kinds might still be provided, as a less frequent component of a forest landscape portfolio. There is no requirement that a national standard forest type should be defined and imposed everywhere, for consumption by everyone.

Moreover, an all-aged forest type in which the canopy is never fully opened up does not afford any view outwards from the forest.

The experimental idea The main aim of this component was to establish whether the preference for variety rather than uniformity of age class exhibited within one forest scene would be found also through a succession of scenes. It was hypothesised that the variety typical of continuous cover forestry might be less preferred, if it was repeated with similar constituents through a sequence of scenes representing a walk. The comparison would be with a succession of scenes representing the stages of rotational forestry, within each of which the trees were predominantly of one age class, but between which there was great variety, including clear felled areas and recently planted areas which offered views out of the forest.

Possibilities were explored, with colleagues in Bangor, with partners in Brandenburg, and with non-partner colleagues in Finland, of representing alternative management regimes within a given landscape, using computer visualisation techniques. But, despite the high degree of realism of representations now available, it was decided that actual photographs offered the best use of limited time resources. This meant that comparisons would be made

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between different landscapes as well as different management regimes. However, this was not deemed a problem, as the concern was not with • whether respondents preferred continuous cover forestry to rotational forestry, but with • whether respondents would react differently to two sets of photographs, according to the

format of their presentation and of the accompanying questions. Any longer-running follow-up project might well consider visualisation, and presentation

of the visual effects of alternative management regimes as a walk-through experience, rather than as a series of static images.

Gathering images The requirement for the images was that they should be representative of the visual effect, preferably in a particular type of landscape, of the alternative management regimes. This study confined itself to internal views – those seen by people passing through the forest. The predominant impression given was of a journey on foot, on a forest road or track, though sometimes looking sideways into the forest. For rotational forestry, the different stages of the rotation – regeneration, thicket, pole-stage, thinning stage, maturity and clear felling – needed to be represented. For continuous cover forestry, a wide variety of age/size classes should be simultaneously present in small compass. This latter was not altogether easy to represent, as this type of forestry has not been extensively practised in the UK in recent times.

A search was made of the investigator’s own photographic collection, then several journeys were made to areas where continuous cover forestry has been practised, to acquire further suitable images1. Selection of images to represent the two contrasting forms of forestry was made subjectively, but so as to meet the requirements given above. Eventually, all the images used were from mountainous or upland national parks in England and Wales, plus one from the Scottish Highlands. Most of them were from the Snowdonia National Park, particularly from Coed-y-brenin Forest, where continuous cover forestry has been practised for many years. Images from Gwydyr Forest (Snowdonia), Kielder Forest (Northumberland) and from forests on the North York Moors were also included. It would not be evident to viewers that they were not all from the same locality. The predominant impression of continuous cover forestry was of single-tree or very small group fellings. The images of rotational forestry displayed, as intended, all the main stages of the rotation.

Both landscape and portrait images were selected and acquired, as seemed to suit the subject.

The images used in the study are presented in the appendix.

Structure of questionnaires The questionnaire did not seek any personal data from the respondent. Though in due course the influence of socio-economic and psychological profile on preferences would be of interest to research, at this stage the influence of the context in which photographs are presented is of dominant importance.

Photographs were displayed in a controlled fashion by means of four separate PowerPoint presentations. Landscape and portrait images were presented alternately – individually or in pairs according to format. 1 In conjunction with visits to discuss this component with researchers and practitioners, along with the cost–benefit analysis component of the Robinwood Altman Project.

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The two basic formats were: • classical pairwise comparisons between photographs representing on the one hand

continuous cover forestry, and on the other, rotational forestry • two successive sequences representing a walk through a forest, each of which

consisted entirely of either continuous cover forestry images, or rotational forestry images. When continuous cover forestry and rotation forestry images were compared

alongside, landscape images were paired with landscape, and portrait with portrait, in case there should be a preference for one or the other. Position of continuous cover forestry images might be on the left or right of the presented screen, both in case a bias towards one side existed, and to reduce any sense of two consistent sequences.

The rotational forestry images were not arranged in sequence of the stages of the rotation, but randomly, as the stages would be likely to appear in a real walk through a forest managed under such a regime. There were no cues within the continuous cover forestry images to suggest any kind of age-wise sequence.

Respondents to the pair-wise comparison were first asked to express a preference between the members of the pairs, then to give a score on a scale from 0 (awful) to 10 (excellent) for each. Finally, they were asked to express preference between walks represented by a simultaneously presented collection of pictures: one representing all the images of continuous cover forestry; the other, all the images of rotational forestry.

Respondents to the walks comparison were asked to express a preference between the two walks, shown one after the other. The presentation gave them the opportunity to compare the sequences side-by-side, with each sequence appearing consistently on its own side of the screen. They were then asked to score each photograph individually, running through one sequence, then the other.

Other than by the verbal descriptions of the ends of the scale, the scale for quality of view was not specified. This contrasts with descriptive definers for ranges of the scale as proposed by Fines (1968), for example, and extensively used in studies in Bangor (Price, 2003).

To test for ordering effects, each basic format was presented in two orders, the second exactly reversing the first. Two ordering hypotheses were explored: that the position in the sequence did not significantly affect the score; and that any decline due to habituation did not differ between continuous cover forestry and rotational forestry.

Application The questionnaires were distributed for completion as part of a key skills class exercise to approximately 300 first-year students in the College of Natural Sciences, Bangor University. The class was already divided into eight sub-groups, in such a way that their random allocation to “treatments” was unlikely to create important biases. Two sub-groups were assigned to each “treatment”: PAIRFORWARDS: photographs were presented pair-wise in a given sequence PAIRBACKWARDS: the same screens of photographs were presented in reversed sequence WALKFORWARDS: photographs were presented as two sequences, as in two walks WALKBACKWARDS: the same screens of photographs were presented in reversed

sequence. The responses were supplemented with some from a taught MSc class in the School of

the Environment and Natural Resources, who were assigned to “treatments” randomly.

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It does not matter, for the purposes of demonstrating whether the effects of interest exist, that this not a typical cross-section of the population. The aim is not to give a representative set of preferences for the UK population, but to test whether preferences are affected by context. From this point of view, it is actually rather desirable to run this test with an homogeneous test population, to reduce other sources of response variation. If the results and the importance of the subject seem to warrant it, further and fuller studies can be launched with a more representative cross-section of the population.

Results By the time of the draft report, 83 responses had been received, of which 8 were not usable in the analysis because of incomplete data. Each new reminder has produced a few more responses, and it is expected that the final total could be considerably greater. There is no obvious reason to expect a non-response bias which has significance for this study: non-respondents probably have on average less interest in landscape than respondents, but it would not be expected that preference for types of forest landscape would be asymmetrically distributed, much less difference of response according to context of comparison. Preferences in pairwise comparisons There were a few cases of inconsistency between scores given to pairs of landscapes and the preferences expressed between them in the pair-wise comparisons. No respondent was consistently inconsistent, and it was not possible to judge whether the preference had been incorrectly stated, or whether the scores had been placed in reverse order (or whether indeed a subtle distinction was being observed between “preference” and “value”). Because it allowed readiest comparison with walk-wise comparisons, scores were used as indicators of preference, where preferences were inconsistent with scores. Distribution of scores for each picture was unimodal and reasonably symmetrical. Although the scoring scale was intended as discrete, it was open to respondents to offer fractional scores, and one indeed did so. On these grounds, the scores were treated as pseudo-cardinal variables, and it was deemed permissible to apply analysis of variance to these scores. Taking all formats together, there was no one pair of pictures for which a unanimous preference existed for continuous cover forestry over rotational forestry, or vice versa. Continuous cover forestry was significantly preferred to rotational forestry, at least at the 1% confidence level, in eight cases, and preferred but not significantly so in one case. Rotational forestry was preferred in two cases significantly, and not significantly in one case. Chi-squared tests on preferences, against the hypothesis that there was no preference, would give similar results. Preferences between walks In the choice between collections of pictures representing the two different forest types, 16 respondents expressed a preference for the rotational forestry walk, and 59 for the continuous cover forestry walk. Two of those who selected the continuous cover forestry walk stated that “it had been close”.

Eight of the 16 respondents who preferred the rotational forestry walk nonetheless had a higher sum of scores to the individual pictures constituting the continuous cover forestry walk. This hints that the variety evident when the pictures were presented together might favour rotational forestry, in comparison with the judged quality seen in individual pictures.

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Three of the 59 who preferred the continuous cover forestry walk – a much smaller percentage – had a higher sum of scores for the individual pictures of the rotational forestry walk. A chi-squared test suggested that this represented a highly significant difference of changed choices; but, since one of the expected values was less than 3, the test is not reliable.

The scales are not necessarily interpreted as linear in value, and there is some indication that scales of value may rise exponentially (Fines, 1968), particularly in the context of visited landscape (Price 2003). Hence a comparison was also made of the sum of exponents of scores. Here only four of the 16 who preferred B had a higher summed score for A, while 10 of the 59 who preferred A had a higher summed score for B. For purposes of comparison, a sum of logarithms of score was also compiled. Seven of the 16 who preferred B had a higher sum for A, and four of the 59 who preferred A had a higher sum for B. Taken together, these further results present no clear evidence about the nature of the scale, nor do they allow any richer interpretation of preference to be made.

Comparison between contexts When mean scores for the same picture were compared between pair-wise and walk-wise contexts, no single instance out of the 24 cases showed a significant difference, even at the 5% level. The mean score in pair-wise comparison was higher than that in the walk-wise comparison in more than two-thirds of cases. Ordering effects Regressions of score on position number in the sequence do not show any significant trends. There are not significantly different trends according to the direction in which walks were done or order in which pairs of pictures were shown. There were no significant differences between the trends displayed for continuous cover forestry and those for rotational forestry. It was concluded that, in the context of the display, there was no tendency to reduce scores because of boredom with similarity, for the rather-similar continuous cover forestry pictures, any more than for the rather-diverse rotational forestry pictures. These results also legitimise the aggregation of scores for each individual picture, irrespective of the order in which pictures were displayed.

Verbal comments While the comments that were volunteered by some respondents were not subjected to formal semantic analysis, they offered an informal insight into some of the mental predispositions and processes which were brought to bear on the pictures and scenes evaluated. The continuous cover forestry pictures were widely liked as being “more natural”. But it is apparent that some respondents explicitly appreciated the conflict between maintaining a natural-feeling enclosed sense, and offering open views. In two of the cases where rotational forestry gave the generally preferred picture, the good view afforded was explicitly mentioned. On the other hand, two pictures offering views also had foregrounds of recent clear felling which were identified as a reason for disliking the pictures. There is evidently some misperception of processes (or misunderstanding of terms), as these views were sometimes referred to as “deforested”, although in both cases the intention is to replant. One in-the-field observer of one the views depicted, had previously commented that the public was still not accustomed to the idea of forest harvesting as part of the normal cycle of rural land use.

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The other picture in which continuous cover forestry was less preferred showed a cut tree in the foreground which several respondents disliked. There is a perception that near-to-nature forestry does not entail cutting trees down; and, the nearer to nature, the fewer is the number cut. But continuous cover forestry is not the same as near-to-nature forestry. Equally many trees may be felled in a given time, and, unlike with rotational forestry, there may be no periods when felling has not recently occurred within the near vicinity. Combining open views, with an absence of apparent felling, without revealing any intent to deceive, is the management trick required to achieve the best of both worlds. One respondent reportedly went to a forest for a walk when what was wanted was a sense of naturalness and enclosure. If views were wanted, a walk in an open hill area would be selected. This is indeed an argument for differentiating between recreational environments, so that individuals can choose the type of experience that matches personality and mood. This differentiation of experience can, of course, be taken a stage further, to distinguish forests which are “known” for their sense of enclosure and continuity, and others where a sense of dynamic land use and opening out of broad views might be regarded as compensation for the admittedly devastated appearance of areas recently clear felled.

Interpretation The expressed preferences suggest that the senses of naturalness, continuity and enclosure afforded by continuous cover forestry are generally preferred, whether offered as single images, or as sequences. There is also, however, a liking for views, and a disliking of the signs of forest harvesting, which is viewed as “exploitation” or “deforestation” by many observers irrespective of the type of forestry within which it occurs. The investigation sought a distinction in responses according to whether views were seen as single images, whose inner diversity might favour continuous cover forestry; or whether they were part of a sequence, between whose members the variety might favour rotational forestry. The only evidence at all suggestive that this might be the case came in a more marked preference for the rotational forestry set than would be implied by the sum of scores for individual pictures. Alternatively, it might be that the compiled presentations did not properly emulate the sense of walking through a forest, perhaps for several hours, and that observers evaluated the photographs individually, irrespective of the context of presentation.

The suggestion that forests would be visited for their forestness, rather than for afforded views, is persuasive. The line of argument works well when the options genuinely exist, and are known to exist, between availed walks. It is less germane when forest is a predominant cover, nationally or regionally, or when the line of a walk is defined as through forest extensively, as on national trails such as the Pennine Way, the Great Glen Way, or parts of Offa’s Dyke in the Wye Valley. Here, and on walks through forests in the Vosges and Dolomites, I have personally felt great frustration, that the high quality views which I know could have been seen from above the forest canopy, are infrequently revealed, and never fully so. Similarly, a premium value of the forestness of forest environment does not apply to landscapes traversed by way of a non-recreational journey. In steep topography like that of Snowdonia, it is possible to create or retain views by managing small areas as low vegetation at the edge of cliffs or bluffs (see plate II), although this never gives the prolonged open prospects that arise from large clear felled areas and that might enhance the visual experience for those engaged on long walks.

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Plate II: Betws-y-coed from Gwydyr Forest Scenic Drive

Extensive clear felling is however necessary in order to reveal the topography of

sweeping plateau areas such as are found in Kielder Forest (see plate III).

Plate III: Plateau landscape north of the North Tyne Valley

A mix with open landscape may also be achieved by mixed farm/forest use. This is visually pleasant, but not necessarily desirable in terms of financially profitable land use.

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Extension It would be desirable to extend research to a more representative cross-section of population. But before doing so it would also be desirable to investigate the extent to which a sequence of pictures, simply by being so announced, really recreates the experience of a prolonged forest walk, in which variety between succeeding scenes would be a more palpably desirable feature. Visualisations with a walk-through facility might offer a better emulation.

A further desirable extension, is to represent possible living milieus, in which different portfolios of landscape experience are the targets for choice. For example, a portfolio consisting exclusively of either intensively cultivated agricultural land or richly diverse forest might be less preferred than one in which both, together with some rather uniform, rotational forests are part of the mix. To create such portfolios of milieus – in which diversity of choices for different days and in different moods has to be represented – is a much more problematic task than merely stringing together views representing a walk. At this level the “I choose a forest for forestness” argument has less force, than it has when the choice is between two walks (in a context where a full range of other options is deemed to exist for days when the choice might be different).

The discussion above has referred entirely to forests viewed from within. From the perspective only of external views, the negative visual impression created by clear felling on steep slopes is not balanced by the increased scope for “views out”. Felling and age-class structure does, however, provide variety of texture and colour within a landscape. This might be positively regarded in an extensive forest area with little topographical interest, viewed from its margins, as Thetford Forest (plate IV).

Plate IV: Multiple discrete age-classes in Thetford Forest

It is less relevant on scarp slopes such as Wenlock Edge (see plate V) or in river

valleys like that of the Wye (see plate VI), where a strong and constant association between land use and land form creates integrity of landscape.

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Plate V: Continuity of cover is important on scarp features like Wenlock Edge …

Plate VI: … or the outside bends of rivers as in the Wye Valley

Conclusions The results reported do not support the hypothesis that rotational forestry is viewed more favourably when seen in the context of a progression through the variety of stages implicit in rotational forestry. However, it might be that sequences of pictures representing the “walks” gave an unconvincing representation of the prolonged experience of passing through a forest on foot, or slowly by car as on a scenic drive.

There was no case of universal preference for continuous cover forestry, and some cases of general preference for the visual experience offered by rotational forestry in individual comparisons. Better modes of representing visual progressions through forests should be sought, before studies of this kind are conducted with a wider cross-section of the public.

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Literature references Crowe, S. (1979). The landscape of forests and woods. Forestry Commission Booklet 44. Fines, K.D. (1968). Landscape evaluation: a research project in East Sussex. Regional

Studies, 2, 41-55. Hanley, N. and Ruffell, R. (1993). The contingent valuation of forest characteristics. Journal

of Agricultural Economics, 44, 218-29. Lee, T.R. (2001). Perceptions, Attitudes and Preferences in Forests and Woodlands.

Forestry Commission Technical Paper 18. Lucas, O.W.R. (1991). The Design of Forest Landscapes. Oxford University Press. Price, C. (2003). Quantifying the aesthetic benefits of urban forestry. Urban Forestry and

Urban Greening, 1, 123-33. Sheppard, S.R.J. and Harshaw, H.W. (eds) (2001). Forest and Landscapes: Linking Ecology,

Sustainability and Aesthetics. CAB International, Wallingford. Silvennoinen, H., Pukkala, T. and Tahvanainen, L. (2002). Effect of cuttings on the scenic

beauty of a tree stand. Scandinavian Journal of Forest Research, 17, 263-73.

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Appendix: the photographic sequences The following two spreads are the photographs representing continuous cover forestry.

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These are the photographs representing rotational forestry.

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