Angelique Damitz and George Wittren

Experimental Forest Design Narrative:

Cranberry Lake offers a unique opportunity for research and education into silvicultural practices and their effects on the environment. Experimental Forest at Shelton is a demonstration and research area for scientists and professions dealing with environmental management, such as forestry. Uses of forest land range from timber production to habitat preservation. Regardless of the function, forest management should consider more than just trees, but also soil, vegetation, habitat, hydrology and wildlife. The forest stands on this site will be managed in different ways for different goals.

The road and trail system will allow access to research stands and acts as a tool for educating people about the research projects, management practices and environmental issues of the forest. The trail system will take visitors to different stands where signage highlights the research, management or environmental issues related to the topic. We chose four topics, thinning, regeneration, biosolids and wildlife habitat as examples which trail systems could be designed around. There is one main spine that each topic trail branches off of independently or intersect with other trails at different points. There are many benefits to combining trails whenever possible but the research projects and management practices will have some effect on trail locations.

We have also proposed a gateway structure through which researchers, foresters and visitors would enter the Experimental Forest. This gateway acts as an entrance to the trail system and as an introduction to the work being done in the forest, featuring signs that gave an overview of pertinent issues for each topic. The gateway also has posting boards for information updates such as results of experiments and on-going research, timber yields or wildlife sightings. The gateway is a gathering space where researchers and visitors can meet, coordinate and orient themselves to the forest.

Our goal is to provide a forum for research and education that is open to many different fields of study and recognizes the forest as a complex system. This project is also a way to link students, professionals and the community to the issues related to forests and how we use them.