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| Social & Cultural
Benefits & Effects of not planning |
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Gathering of non-timber special
forest products is a valued forest use, particularly in Native
American traditions. Wisconsin forests provide abundant special
forest products including: |
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plants
for medicinal and decorative uses such as Slippery elm, birch
bark, pine boughs, mosses, and vines, |
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edible materials such as morels and
other mushrooms, berries, maple syrup, and |
| special wood products for baskets, furniture,
carvings, bowls, firewood, musical instruments, walking sticks, pine
cones, maple syrup, bird and bat houses, crafts etc.� |
Photo courtesy
Wisconsin Maple Syrup Producer�s Association
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 These
special products are used personally, bartered, or sold. See
the
Non-Timber Forest Products website for more on special
forest products. |
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Wisconsin's special non-timber
forest product: Maple
syrup |
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Maple
syruping is both a family tradition and a
source of income
in Wisconsin. Commercial syrup producers in Wisconsin made 79,000
gallons of maple syrup in 2003.1
Families across Wisconsin made countless more gallons for their
personal use. |
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Some find solace in the peacefulness
and fresh pine smell of the woods. Others are comforted just to know
that these forests exist and that they could visit them if they ever
want to. |
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Wisconsin forests also hold historical
value; burial sites, archaeological sites and more |
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Forests provide many recreational opportunities that often become deep
traditions for residents and visitors alike. These include hunting,
fishing, camping, backpacking, cross country skiing, all-terrain-vehicle use,
snowmobiling, hiking, biking, snowshoeing, canoeing wild rivers, wildlife viewing, and more.
Although it is difficult to measure how much forests are valued for
these activities,
expenditures related to recreation are one indicator. |
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On a scale of 1 to 10, with 1 being least
important and 10 being most important, Wisconsinites rank the
importance of conservation of natural resources and recreation a 9.2
The trend of
people increasingly moving to the urban-wildland interface
illustrates the desirability of living in a forested environment.
Yet urban forests also create livable communities and neighborhoods.
See
http://www.designcenter.umn.edu/dcaul.html for details. |
| Lack of a forest plan that identifies social and cultural values
can easily lead to these forestlands becoming
parcelized and
fragmented. Once this happens, the quality of many forest based
activities suffers and these activities may be displaced altogether. |
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It
becomes difficult to establish snowmobile, ATV trails, ski and bike
trails because a larger number of landowners must agree to
cooperate. (ex. Green Circle trail ) Furthermore trail
conflicts may arise as conflicting uses compete for trails that are
not well marked for specific uses. A well planned forest would
decrease these type of conflicts. Northern Wisconsin exemplifies
this with a recent debate on banning ATVs from some trails.
USDA Forest Service ATV policy
News article on ATV policy
News article on ATV policy interpretation conflict |
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Boundary
conflicts
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Gatherers and recreational users may be unsure of
where they may and may not go |
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Conflicts may arise as more people compete to use
forestland for different uses |
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It becomes difficult to find suitable hunting
areas because of smaller acreages and more users on less public
land. |
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The Izaak Walton League�s Outdoor
Ethics Program Director Joshua Winchell says sprawl is not only a
hunting issue; it is the fundamental issue facing hunters
today. |
One Wisconsin landowner survey found that the
more timberland owned, the more likely the owner is to permit public
use of the land. Only 11 percent of owners who hold between one and
19 acres allow public access. Conversely, 53 percent of owners
holding 500 or more acres permit public use.3 |
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Part
of the reason for dwindling hunting lands is the increase in the
number of new homes in rural areas and how widely spread out they
are across the landscape. As development takes lands traditionally
available for hunting, it also creates added pressures on those
lands that remain. More hunters are forced to compete for
opportunities on fewer and fewer remaining lands.4 |
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Planning for forest production can
assure an adequate array of social and cultural needs are met. When
all stakeholders are involved in the planning process, their social
and cultural needs can be identified in the plan. Hiking and biking
trails can be expanded or maintained, hunting areas can be
protected, ATV and snowmobile areas can be identified, and the
extent of gathering forest materials can be defined. Having a plan
and using it to make land use decisions that affect forest-based
activities that residents have identified as being important, can
help ensure continued access to these activities. Countless
Wisconsinites, both forest owners and not, value the forests for a
variety of social and cultural reasons. Above were just a few
examples of some of these reasons. |
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