Keeping the Trees We Have: Teaching Citizens to Learn from, Love, And Preserve street Trees in Rural Communities.

The village where we are based in western New York has seen a decline in the forest canopy. I have personally seen the removal of more than 50 trees on a .5 km street in the decade that I have lived here.

Working with street trees is a major undertaking and presents the multi-faceted type of projects we are interested in investigating and designing for. To celebrate this, we are opening a formal project centered around street trees in rural communities. We invite those interested in finding innovative solutions to join us in the process.

With this project, we will continue our efforts that seek to define, question, and celebrate the human relationship with forests and trees. Taking what we have learned from past projects, and specifically Megan’s doctoral work in Transition Design addressing the anthrosylvan interface. This includes her 2020 project “Urban Forestry Interventions” at Carnegie Mellon in conjunction with Tree Pittsburgh, and our 2015 Project Hidden Frontiers Project, along with many others.

As the project develops further calls to collaborate will be open. In the meantime interested collaborators, co-creators, interested citizens are invited to sign back in and follow us on Instagram as I dust off the old account.

Designers & Forests thoughts on the Recombinant Flora Workshop for Research Through Design 2019 

The Delft Botanical Garden shouldn’t exist.

The plants within its walls are not natural neighbors. They are there through the intervention of man. They are there through the circumnavigation of the globe undertaken by Dutch traders, linking the country’s far-flung colonies to Europe and bringing together species that never should have come into contact.

Now, a journey that once took months, if not years, has sped up with the Great Acceleration and within days great distances are spanned. Such speed has lead to unintended passengers, specimens that have hitchhiked across the globe. An Asian beetle finds its way into packing material, the journey is so swift that it survives to lay eggs, and soon the Ash trees in North America are facing extinction. Our mobility and international trade become parts of a grand experiment, allowing the recombination of species from different ecologies, creating new systems, even new species. So perhaps the fruit of this experiment is what will survive our uncertain future. These hybrids will grow and prosper as they find new niches.

Through our proposed workshop, we are going to take the old species, thrown together from across the globe in the Botanical Garden, and study them. Participants will engage in a detailed examination of garden specimens to capture their essence, reproducing their findings in the limited vocabulary of silhouettes and cut paper. Then we shall experiment, echoing the actions of pollinators as they flit from one flower to another, using the code to hybridize the studies, the forms, into new species. Some will fail, structurally unsound, others will create things of new beauty, randomly combining into a stronger form.

Then, as horticulturalists do, the participants will pick and choose, presenting the combinations they deem the most interesting, the most exotic, and the most beautiful. The process of nature will be reflected in the process of the workshop, a mimicry of the genetic combinations that will become increasingly dynamic as species travel beyond their traditional boundaries and the Earth’s climate becomes more wildly unpredictable. We have, intentionally or unintentionally, become the means of their passage, even their pollinators, and the method of adaptation and survival in the coming climate. The participants in the Recombinant Flora will condense and control the process within the workshop, acting as observers and facilitators, gardeners of an (im)probable garden of the future that they will grow, tend, and present to the conference.

 


Research Through Design 2019; Method and Critique will take place in Delft and Rotterdam, NL, between the 19th and 22nd of March 2019.

The Recombinant Flora Workshop will take place on the 19th. You can register for just the workshop, the entire conference, or both at this website.

Recombinant Flora Workshop

We are pleased to announce a workshop that we will be running at this year’s Research Through Design Conference.

This workshop invites participants to explore wellbeing –  generating new knowledge, interpretations and definitions of Field research and design practice combine in the Recombinant Flora Workshop. The collaborative Designers and Forests will lead an exploration of the Botanical Gardens of TU Delft. Participants will observe the plants, generating formal stylizations that will be combined through guided experiments in Processing. Through randomization, the program will mimic the genetic recombination of the hybridization process and provide a unique method of collaboration for participants. The “species” that result from the workshop will be shared with the conference through static images and animations.

This workshop uses a practical methodology to explore how designers can spur environmental research and posit possible ecological futures through their observations and unique skill sets. Recombinant Flora is an investigation of the relationship between humanity and ecology, and ideas of conservation, climate change, and botanical refugees.

Lawn of the Dead! A public workshop

We have long admired the work of Roger Tory Peterson and will look at how he used design, as well as art, to advocate for conservation.

It has been said that if you compared the average American lawn to a desert, the desert would win easily with much greater life and species diversity. Keeping up a lawn is both a chore for you and harmful to all flora and fauna in the area. So join us to learn how to make your yard a haven for native and migrating wildlife.

During the workshop, you learn how design has helped further conservation. You will also discover how your landscape choices as a homeowner can improve the health of our communities and provide essential pollinator pathways. You will leave the workshop with the tools needed to plan for next spring and the knowledge to help rewild your backyard and bring it back to life!

We encourage participation from Western New York homeowners, but all are welcome.

Announcing Gathering Forest and Community

At the turn of the twentieth century, a commitment was made to replant and preserve Iceland’s forests. Now, after more than a hundred years of growth, some of this lumber is ready to be transformed. Into what? That is what we will explore. From May 15th through May 22nd, twenty individuals from Iceland and the United States will meet in East Iceland on the edge of Hallormsstaðaskógur. They will come to better understand the region through exploration of its rich geology, ecology, and history. They will be designers, foresters, craftspeople, professors and students sharing their experiences and different perspectives. The results of this workshop are open, dictated by the interaction with the potential materials and the history and needs of the region. The forests are filled with possibilities.

Gathering Forest and Community will focus on experience and interaction with the local natural and built environment. Lectures conducted by experts will be paired with exploratory field trips. Information will be gathered and observations made by the members of the group who will bring their own distinct perspectives and sets of skills. Through informal conversations and formal workshops, we will reflect on our experiences to better understand the region and it’s resources, allowing for the formulation of possible directions for design solutions. The focus will then shift to experimentation with the diverse materials the forest affords and to prototyping as the members of the group will propose products, publications, events or other interventions that will utilize the possibilities of the forest and the community.


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The Story Behind the Hidden Frontiers Call For Entries Illustration

As Designers & Forests begins each project, we define a conceptual framework to study the region in which we are working. With Hidden Frontiers, the history of Central and Western New York is our inspiration. This is an area that has been called the American frontier, the Steel Belt, the Rust Belt, and the Burned Over District.

The Burned Over District is a term used by historians, sociologists, and sundry others, to describe the area of Central and Western New York scorched with the fire of social reform and millennial fear from the late 18th to the mid 19th centuries. It was the birthplace of an unusually high number of secular and religious utopian movements—movements that sought to redefine the ways humans interact with each other and with their environments. Of course, such interactions are also the focus of Designers & Forests.

We spend months researching in preparation for our workshops. During this process, we were captivated by a 1876 Currier and Ives print, Friendship Love and Truth,  found in the United States Library of Congress. This print inspired the Hidden Frontiers call for entries poster. Certainly, the inspiration is formal, but it also influenced the use of symbolism hidden in the illustration. The final piece is a mix of stories, experiences, history, and ecology. It is a statement of our inspiration and beliefs.


 

The Hand and Compass.

hf_call_lizziskyWhile the compass is commonly associated with the Masonic Order, the position of this hand and compass is a direct reference to the 1924 photomontage The Constuctor  by El Lissitzky. He was one of the leading members of the Russian avant-garde movement, Constructivism, and his work influenced designers and artists throughout Europe. His graphic design had such a great impact that it laid the foundation for a substantial portion of the Modernist design movement and it is not hyperbole to call Lissitzky one of the most important figures in the history of the discipline.

 


The Hand and Heart

hf_call_hand+heartThe hand and heart is a symbol associated with the United Society of Believers in Christ’s Second Appearing, commonly known as The Shakers. It is the embodiment of a key teaching of the faith’s founder, Mother Ann Lee—“hands to work, hearts to God” —the creation of goods to the best of the makers ability, without waste and without flourish. Shakers even viewed particularly inspired works or buildings as “gifts” from god. While such an idea is not unfamiliar, the Shakers saw divine inspiration in a barn that allowed for efficient feeding and housing of cattle, rather than in a cathedral or a sculpture. Designers & Forests also finds inspiration in the axiom in that it represents acting to create change rather than merely discussing what is wrong in the world.


Sugar Maple Leaves and Hemlock Branches with Woolly Adelgid

hf_call_hemlock+mapleNew York State produced 17% of the United States’ maple syrup with a value of $21,676,00 in 2014 according to the US Department of Agriculture. Yet this number represents only 5% of the state’s sugar maple (Acer saccharum) trees tapped. Maple trees are found throughout the Eastern Deciduous Forests and sugaring is a tradition dating to the First Peoples.

The eastern hemlock (Tsuga canadensis) is a key species for the health of eastern decidous forests, providing habitat for many animals. It is a late succession species that takes 250 to 300 years to mature. With such slow growth and a history of heavy foresting, there are few mature trees left in the United States. Now, the hemlock is being devastated by the woolly adelgid (Adelges tsugae). This insect appears as small cotton-like balls nestled between the tree’s needles where it feeds on food storage cells killing the hemlock in as little as four years and wiping out stands throughout the Eastern United States.


Dutchmen’s Britches, White Ash Leaves, and the Emerald Ash Borer

hf_call_ash+britchesDutchman’s britches are native spring ephemerals that have adapted to live on the forest floor and sprout, flower, pollinate, and seed in the short period after the winter snows melt and before the trees’ spring foliage develops. Having evolved to rely on the bumblebee for pollination, these plants could be adversely effected if their populations are not stabilized.

The white ash (Fraxinus americana), green ash (Fraxinus pennsylvanica), and black ash (Fraxinus nigra), are all commonly found in the eastern deciduous forests. They are important to forest ecosystems, providing shelter and food for many native animals, and have long been used for their wood. The white ash is traditionally prized for furniture and tool making, in building, and to make baseball bats. The green ash is used for similar purposes, although it is not as desired. The black ash is usually found in swamps and, although its wood is not as resilient as the other members of the genus, it is prized for traditional basketmaking.

hf_call_ashborerAppearing in the United States in 2002, the emerald ash borer (Agrilus planipennis) is an invasive species that attacks ash trees. With no natural defense, it is predicted as many as 99% of all ash trees in the country will be killed, with green and blue ash the most heavily affected. The potential impact is so great that foresters often speak of these trees in the past tense, canopy holes in the making. While the future of the eastern deciduous forest is uncertain, between the emerald ash borer and the woolly adelgid, there will be a massive change in the ecosystem.


Red and White Trillium

The red trillium, or Stinking Benjamin (Trillium erectum), hf_call_trilliumand white, or giant, trillium (trillium grandiflorum),  are found in the rich soil of the deciduous forest of New York State and Pennsylvania. They create dense patches in the early spring forests as spring ephemerals. To those who grew up in rural New York, these blooming of the trillium is the sign that spring has arrived. However, as they are slow to mature and the whole plant is killed if their leaves are removed they are also listed as endangered, or exploitedly vulnerable, in several states.


Apple Blossoms, Empire Apples, Concord Grapes and Chanterelle Mushrooms.

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hf_call_grapes_etcApples are a pillar of New York State agriculture. The state ranks second in the United States for production with 29,500,000 bushels of the fruit grown. In the spring, the white and pink blossoms are everywhere and in the fall the fruit are ubiquitous. The Empire variety was developed in 1945 at the New York Agricultural Research Station in Geneva, New York as a cross between a Macintosh and a Delicious. As part of Cornell University, this institution is responsible for documenting and preserving some 6,883 distinct varieties as part of the National Apple Collection. This staggering number is in stark contrast to estimates of the RAFT (Renewing America’s Food Traditions) Alliance “that 86 percent of the thousands of different apples that existed before 1900 have been lost, only 11 varieties account for 90 percent of the apples sold in supermarkets, and 41 percent of those are Red Delicious”.

The fall nights in Chautauqua County are full of the scent of ripe concord grapes, and a large portion of the region’s economy is based on this crop—It is the largest producer of grapes in the state and ranks 13th in the country. In fact, the National Grape Cooperative Association, Inc., which owns Welches, was started here in Brocton, NY 1945, and Welches itself was located in nearby Westfield, N.Y. beginning in 1893. Welches was a pillar of the local economy until it moved its offices out of the area in 2002, although there are still a number of processing plants in the region.

Chanterelle mushrooms can be found in forests throughout Europe and the United States. When Designers & Forests was in Utah during Beetle Kill and Aspen Die-Off, our Swedish collaborators fixed a memorable meal from pounds of these foraged mushrooms. Although Chanterelle are not particularly common in Western New York, an increasing number of farmers are experimenting with cultivating mushrooms on forested sections of their land.


Missing Honey Bees

hf_call_beehiveHoney bees around the world are disappearing. Colony Collapse Disorder has left one-third of the beehives in the United States empty and many plants and farmers without their main source of pollination. Without these pollinators, many of the foods we eat, and trees we rely on, simply cannot grow. What is causing honey bees to disappear? Recently several studies have shown conclusively that neonicotinoid insecticides, which are widely used, contribute significantly to Colony Collapse Disorder. However, it is a mystery that is only now starting to be unravelled


Draft Horse Logging

hf_callf_horseBefore the gigantic machines of modern mechanized logging, timber was cut by axe and saw, moved by draft animals, and floated down rivers to mills. While hand saws and river transport are no longer used, smaller animal-towed skids are making a comeback in American silviculture. When properly rigged, draft animals have a much lower impact on the forest ecosystem, and allow for “worst first” selective logging.

Groups like the Healing Harvest Forest Foundation and the Foundation for Sustainable Forests are working to shift the practice of forestry from clear-cut industrial logging to an approach that addresses the whole health of a stand with individual trees. Forests are logged to improve conditions for a more robust, diverse ecosystem and a long term revenue stream rather than one large cut every few decades that results in both diminishing returns for the land owner and diminishing health of the ecosystem.

Efferention Publication Receives National Recognition

Students from the State University of New York at Fredonia, participated in the Beatle Kill & Aspen Die-Off through creation of a non-traditional publication, titled Efferention. Designers & Forests co-founder Megan Urban presented a small group of her students with the findings of the projects expedition to Utah. With her guidance, the students researched the factors affecting resource use in that state, using their findings to create a tabloid publication that unfolds to create a mobile exhibition.

Efferention premiered at Design March 2014 in Reykjavik, Iceland. It has since won recognition from the American Advertising Federation with an American Advertising Awards Gold Medal in the Buffalo area competition, a Gold Medal and Best of Show in the District 2 region, and a Silver Medal at the national level.

Read Efferention here.

 

Trio Stool

Daniel Byström’s TRIO stool is inspired by the heritage of Utah, which is historically connected to Scandinavia through many of the immigrants who settled in the region in the nineteenth century. TRIO draws from a simple, yet sophisticated, and sustainable form of craftsmanship. The legs are tapered and octagon shaped. They are fitted with the seat using a traditional technique of wedged joints, which are very strong and durable and requires no additional fasteners or adhesives meaning that TRIO is truly a forest product.

The “three-legged stool” is commonly used as a model to explain sustainability. Sustainability centers on a balance between the three legs – society, economy and environment. TRIO aims to remind us about the intersection of people, planet and profit while also being an attractive, useful, and well-made piece of furniture.

Download the plans here: TRIO_STOOL.

If you make a trio stool, we ask you to send us a picture and, if on Instagram, upload your image with the #designersandforests.

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Call for Participants for Hidden Frontiers!

Designers and Forests looks to the deciduous forest of the eastern United States for its second major project. Here we will explore the problems and opportunities with in rural New York and northern Pennsylvania forests—a frontier that once defined America and that is now hidden in history. Through a two week workshop, a diverse team will explore a variety of interconnected questions—How has the environment shaped the people who settled there? What can be done to increase ecological diversity? How can communities reverse two hundred year old traditions of abuse that have depleted forest ecosystems? Is a resurgence of creative art and design possible in these economically challenged communities? How can creativity and opportunity retain local talent? We will reflect on our experiences and be guided to informed, appropriate responses.

We invite designers, architects, foresters, ecologists, biologists, historians, artists, anthropologists, sociologists, builders, woodworkers—professionals and students who are interested in exploring the interface of the natural and human community and how each may effect the other—to apply to participate in a workshop on-sight in Western and Central New York, and Northern Pennsylvania in the summer of 2015.

From 19 July 2015 through 1 August 2015.
If applicant is accepted and paid in full before 1 June 2015, the total coast will be $995 After 1 June 2015, the cost of participation increases to $1250. Transportation is not included (We will pick participants up from Buffalo or Albany NY). Fee includes housing, materials, speakers and workshops, entry into parks and historic sites, and some meals.

To apply, please send:
1) A statement of interest—the format may be written or visual.
2) Three examples of your work—this should reflect your personal area of interest or research. Links to websites or published papers are acceptable.
3) Two references that may be contacted.
Send applications to: apply@designersandforests.us.

Applications for this session are accepted until 3 July 2015.

Collaborators Wanted!

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