Cathy's Adventures: Hanging out in the Forests of Holland and Germany

Last week (Sept 9-14) I travelled with my classmates and professors to Holland for 3 days and Germany for 2 days to check out how some of the forest management theories we have been studying play out in reality. By and large many of the discussions in Denmark are about a concept called "close to nature" or "near nature" forestry. This means (from what I can gather) that rather than a system of managing the forest for production (i.e. harvesting trees to put money in the bank) through clearcutting that the management does selective cutting of target diameter trees of high quality and some thinning of lesser quality trees as needed. This prevents the area from suffering the negative impact of clearcutting (erosion, soil compaction from harvesting machines, etc) and promotes the conservation of biodiversity better. This seems to be a positive development in my opinion as it is an attempt to balance working with natural processes and meeting economic imperatives.

What I also learned is that restoring forest and other areas (at least in Europe and probably elsewhere too) is very much about restoring cultural understandings of "nature". Given that much of this region was nearly 100% deforested over the last few hundred years there are very few examples of wilderness areas (like we have in the US). Therefore, restoration involves dumping a lot of euros into restoring landscapes that while having some biodiversity aims are primarily done for cultural reasons. One prime example is restoring "heath lands", fields that were over grazed and due to the incredible stripping of nutrients became like wastelands (in my opinion) where only heather can grow. As part of an EU initiative restoring heath lands (that are the result of unsustainable farming practices) can get a lot of funding. So for example the Dutch government got 1 million euros in order to turn this area

into one that will, ideally, look similar to this.

Now while the second photo is a nice view, is it worth one million euros? The American in me does not have the cultural appreciation that these Dutch, Danes, and Germans do for such a landscape but to them it is worth the money. This has been an interesting revelation to me.

What else did I learn on the trip?
1. Denmark is far more expensive (for everything) than the areas we went to in Germany and Holland
2. Never say the country's name is Holland in the north or you may get at the very least a bad reaction, at the very worst punched in the face. In this area it is the Netherlands, which means lower lands
3. The Netherlands would not exist today with out expansive dike systems (you all probably knew that one)
4. Many places in the Netherlands serve Hoegaarden beer (from Belgium) which made me VERY happy
5. The best way to get to know Danes is to party with them
6. What I am doing here is not crazy and may actually end up with me getting a decent job (according to one of my profs who has been very encouraging).

So there you have it. Here are a few people pics to give you an idea of my classmates for the next year.

Anne-Mette and I